"Absolute Beginners" was a single released by The Jam

The Jam

The Jam were an English punk rock/New Wave/mod revival band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were formed in Woking, Surrey. While they shared the "angry young men" outlook and fast tempos of their punk rock contemporaries, The Jam wore smartly tailored suits rather than ripped...

 on 24 October 1981. Although it did not appear on any of the band's studio albums, it reached number 4 in the UK Singles chart. The song was named after the Colin MacInnes

Colin MacInnes

Colin MacInnes was an English novelist and journalist.-Early life:MacInnes was born in London, the son of singer James Campbell McInnes and novelist Angela Thirkell, who was also related to Rudyard Kipling and Stanley Baldwin. His family moved to Australia in 1920, MacInness returning in 1930...

 novel of the same name.

This book was one of songwriter Paul Weller

Paul Weller

Paul Weller is an English singer-songwriter. Starting with the band The Jam , Weller then went on to branch out musically to a more soulful style with The Style Council...

's favourites, being chosen by him when he appeared on Desert Island Discs

Desert Island Discs

Desert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It is the second longest-running radio programme , and is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio...

.
"Tales From The Riverbank" appeared as the B-side

A-side and B-side

A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...

. The band's record company Polydor later admitted that "Tales From The Riverbank" should have been released as the A-side.