Got Stay With Me to complete my Erasure (1995) set and was wondering which song came first the B Side or the first track off the album? Just wondering if anyone had any info.

Well, 'Stay With Me' was released before the album, so in that sense 'True Love Wars' came first.

But I'm sure you know that already and you're asking which was composed first.

Probably only Erasure can answer that (although if you ask Vince he's probably forgot), but I suspect some version of 'Guess I'm Into Feeling' came
first, although both are probably two developments of the same idea. I do however think 'True Love Wars' does have style to it that suggest to me
that lyrics were written later.

But that's all guess-work on my part.

I think the Erasure album had some shuffling happening prior to the album. I don't know how much influence Daniel Miller had on what finally got dropped but he was instrumental on picking Stay With Me as the first single

Thanks.

An Australian band did a cover version of 'True Love Wars' if you're interested in that sort of thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl6EaJNqVSE

Cheers, I'll check it out.

Like Mike said above, I think there was some obvious shuffling before the Erasure album release.  After all, it was (and I suppose it still is) a big departure from other albums as far as production and song structure goes.

I disagree with kwerty though about the timeline, though I am just totally guessing as well.  I feel like True Love Wars was written first and when putting the album together, the band and/or producers decided to use the melody for the intro to the album.

The reason I think this is because we know that Erasure had released Cold Summer's Day for the Wigstock soundtrack, and someone (Daniel Miller probably) decided it needed to be reworked and touched up a bit so that the Erasure album would have at least one single-friendly song.  Cold Summer's Day was just too good of a song to be forgotten on a movie soundtrack that no one bought, so it was given a facelift and we got Fingers & Thumbs.

Something similar may have happened with TLW becoming Intro - Guess I'm Into Feeling, which always felt like a last-minute appendage, to me.  (Not a bad one though!)  At the time, I just assumed it was a nod to all the fans who had bought the Stay With Me single.  They were obviously looking to make the Erasure album a long play, in the truest sense of the word, and fill a whole CD with music.

I would of preferred TLW over SWM on the final album. I look at SWM more as a b side. Poor choice by Daniel Miller in my opinion. I still dont like it to this day.

I think Intro:guess I'm into Feeling" should have been united in one whole song  (Intro:True Love Wars), starting with the first 2 minutes' long magical and futuristic intro and then melting into the song True Love Wars !

Quoted from Mikedepaz

I would of preferred TLW over SWM on the final album. I look at SWM more as a b side. Poor choice by Daniel Miller in my opinion. I still dont like it to this day.

I'll never forget buying Stay With Me at Record Runner without having known much about it beforehand (still pretty much pre-internet era yet somehow I knew moreabout earlier releases; maybe thanks to Private Ear). I rushed home, played the single and was a bit depressed and actually had a tear in my eye from how sad it sounded.  

I remember too that day and knew that this was a radical departure from the previous singles and the album was going to be in this nature.

I remember getting a few of the radio promo CDs in the mail, and giving one to my neighbor. He thought it was weird compared to the stuff I was playing through the walls usually.  

Quoted from Mikedepaz

I would of preferred TLW over SWM on the final album. I look at SWM more as a b side. Poor choice by Daniel Miller in my opinion. I still dont like it to this day.

I respect your view, but Stay With Me to me is pure Erasure magic, I also loved the video. The Guardian newspaper said something about this song along the lines of: too beautiful for this world.

Since the "Erasure" album tended to longer, more elaborate songs, even if "True Love Wars" existed first, it would not have been a good fit for the album.  It is superb as a b-side, though.  And the "Intro" to "Erasure" is probably my favorite album opener by the band--it really gets you in the mood for what follows.  

I don't think it would better instead of the Intro - the intro is important to the concept of the album I think. It says something about what to expect.

The way I see it, the Erasure album is about our preconceived ideas of Erasure and the 3.30 minute pop song.

'Guess I'm Into Feeling' lasts almost exactly 3.30 minutes, and it's only the album intro!

But it's also important that half of it is instrumental and the last half vocal, as a kind of summary, or a clue, of how the album will progress.

It then goes on to subvert all our expectations of an Erasure album.

So yeah, needs to be there at the start I think.