People might know that I'm something of an CD single freak--probably more now than ever, being that the format has pretty much been dead for well over a decade, making the discovery of a "new" disc that much more special. (To me, at least.)

As obscure as CD singles has become, however, vintage cassette singles appear to have become next-level obscure. I recently bought one, however, because it not only appears to have different b-sides than the CD equivalent, those b-sides still have to pop up on a CD--or even on vinyl, for that matter.

1994's "Return to the Valley of the Go-Go's" anthology was released in single-disc and 2-disc editions, compiled greatest hits, previously unreleased live tracks, and three new studio songs by the Go-Go's. Two of the new studio songs, "Good Girl" and "The Whole World Lost Its Head" were released as CD singles in the US, each single containing four songs not on the RTTVOTGG anthology (seven live tracks plus the original UK single version of "We Got The Beat."). However, both singles were also released in the US as cassingles containing completely different b-sides: the "Good Girl" cassingle featured a live/acoustic 1994 version of "The Whole World Lost Its Head", while the "WWLIH" cassingle featured a live 1981 version of "Skidmarks On My Heart" and a live 1984 version of "Forget That Day."

*deep breath*

From what I can figure out, a video version of the full 1981 concert featuring "Skidmarks On My Heart" was released in 1982 on Betamax, VHS and Selectavision as "Totally Go-Go's!" A video version of the full 1984 concert featuring "Forget That Day." was released in 1985 on VHS and laserdisc as "Wild at the Greek"; Japan released a DVD version in 2003. Both concerts can be found on Youtube; the official Go-Go's channel has posted the 53-minute "Wild At The Greek" video with the original laserdisc opening logos, while a fan channel has posted the 72-minute "Totally Go-Go's!" video.

Which leaves the live/acoustic version of "The Whole World Lost Its Head" from the "Good Girl" cassingle: according to a photo of the sleeve seen on Discogs, it was recorded on Howard Stern's radio show on 10/27/94, which seems to correspond with a clip posted on Stern's Youtube channel.

For me, all of this begs the question: while I'm sure that there have been many instances of tracks being released exclusively on cassette (especially in recent years), I am not aware of any other band or label (in this case, I.R.S. Records) releasing singles where the CD and cassette versions have completely different b-sides, resulting in songs on the cassingle never being released on CD.

That said, it makes a certain amount of sense that the Go-Go's might embrace the cassingle format; as noted above, they've released music on obsolete video formats, none of them seem to be vinyl snobs, and according to Wikipedia, in 1982, they released the very cassingle in the United States: "Vacation" b/w "Beatnik Beach."

What nags me is that, as obsessive-compulsive as I can get over vintage EP's and b-sides, I never stopped to consider the possibility of a vintage cassingle containing music not on the CD version. What other examples have I missed?