[x] self titled "singles"

I have been running into this issue a lot lately. Many smaller bands issue 2 song 7" records that are not "singles" in the traditional sense. They are basically 2 song EPs. The front cover will usually not have the song titles, but the back cover will list both songs.

I have generally been submitting these as "s/t", even though they are often referred to by the name of the first song (this even happens with 3 or 4 song 7"s).

Should i continue to consider these as "s/t" or change them to the (sometimes more commonly known as) first song for the title?

I'm trying to figure out how one decides that such a thing is not a single. Does it just seem that way because there's no title on the front cover?

If this is one of those things where you "just know," since you know these bands pretty well, I'd say use your best judgement. I personally would probably use the first song in most cases, unless there was something compelling that led me to believe that it wasn't supposed to be that way. But that would be me "just knowing" and using my best judgement. :-)

I was trying to make the distinction between a traditional "single" which is usually a cut from an album with a non-LP "B side."

The situation i am talking about is two (or sometimes more) tracks that don't appear anywhere else. the release is meant to be self contained, and not a promo from an album.

Would you draw the line between a 2 song 7" and a 6 song 7"? If they are untitled on the front cover, would you call them both by the name of the first song?

There are plenty of non-album singles that would definitely be considered "singles" in the traditional sense. However, as you point out, they often use the name of the A-side song as the name of the single (either on the sleeve, spine, or inner label).

As for your hypothetical, it would depend. I'm going to guess that I would be far more likely to treat a six-song release more like a "s/t EP" and a two-song release like an "A-side" single, but I wouldn't etch that in stone.

How does the band refer to it? How do its fans refer to it? I'd probably take those things into account, too.

I don't have a cut-and-dried answer on this one. If one of the site's fearless leaders wants to take a cut at it, I wouldn't complain either way. If not, I'd say do whatever you're most comfortable with.

For "traditional" singles we do usually list the A-side as the title, but those often have the A-side title on the front cover. For the "2 song EP" situation Scott described, it's hard to come up with a hard rule. The A-side title or "s/t" seem like reasonable choices to me. The best choice would be whatever the band members themselves call the single, but that's not always possible to find. The one thing we don't do is list both titles (example: "A-Side" / "B-Side") unless the release is actually a double-A sider.

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