OMEN
08-12-2008, 11:37 AM
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Seventies disco band Boney M have been accused of selling their fans the same single twice in a year.
The exotically dressed group, who were created by a German music producer, had two hits in 1978 with the "Rivers of Babylon" and "Brown Girl in the Ring".
But according to a documentary the songs, released as singles within months of each other, were on both seven inch records - the music company simply switched the A and B sides.
Millions of fans who bought the first record could have saved themselves the cost of the second by simply flipping over their original record, reports the Daily Telegraph.
The sleight of hand has been revealed by a BBC Radio 4 broadcast, chronicling the lost art of the B-side.
The presenter of the programme, Anthony Barnes, said: "It was probably the greatest rock'n'roll swindle of the 1970s. "Thousands of people bought the single, little realising they already had the track.
"If only more people had taken a little more time and effort to listen to the B-side, they could have saved themselves the 79p they paid at the record counter."
Fans of the group may already be aware of the controversy - the issue has been discussed on online forums dedicated to the band - but few mainstream music buyers are thought to realise their mistake.
The re-working of the traditional spiritual "Rivers of Babylon" had already topped the charts for five weeks in the UK, when it slipped down to No 20.
DJs were then persuaded to start playing the flip side, featuring the traditional Caribbean nursery rhyme "Brown Girl in the Ring" which helped power the group back into the top 10 and made the single the then second highest-selling of all time, with just short of two million copies.
Nova
Seventies disco band Boney M have been accused of selling their fans the same single twice in a year.
The exotically dressed group, who were created by a German music producer, had two hits in 1978 with the "Rivers of Babylon" and "Brown Girl in the Ring".
But according to a documentary the songs, released as singles within months of each other, were on both seven inch records - the music company simply switched the A and B sides.
Millions of fans who bought the first record could have saved themselves the cost of the second by simply flipping over their original record, reports the Daily Telegraph.
The sleight of hand has been revealed by a BBC Radio 4 broadcast, chronicling the lost art of the B-side.
The presenter of the programme, Anthony Barnes, said: "It was probably the greatest rock'n'roll swindle of the 1970s. "Thousands of people bought the single, little realising they already had the track.
"If only more people had taken a little more time and effort to listen to the B-side, they could have saved themselves the 79p they paid at the record counter."
Fans of the group may already be aware of the controversy - the issue has been discussed on online forums dedicated to the band - but few mainstream music buyers are thought to realise their mistake.
The re-working of the traditional spiritual "Rivers of Babylon" had already topped the charts for five weeks in the UK, when it slipped down to No 20.
DJs were then persuaded to start playing the flip side, featuring the traditional Caribbean nursery rhyme "Brown Girl in the Ring" which helped power the group back into the top 10 and made the single the then second highest-selling of all time, with just short of two million copies.
Nova