The Searchers Play the System – Rarities, Oddities & Flipsides, commonly abbreviated to Play the System, is the compilation album featuring a selection of songs by English band the Searchers.

It is also the only album gathering together mostly self-penned tunes by the Searchers.

[2] When all of the Searchers' UK sixties albums were being reissued in 1987 (on LPs, CDs and cassette tapes[3]), PRT Records decided to make two-disc compilation album set originally released as two separate volumes.

[4] The set compiles every song released commercially by the band that was not available on their original UK albums.

On the other hand, Play the System was conceived to include lesser-known songs, 18 tracks, including mainly B-sides of their singles, three non-LP A-sides, and the odd 1964 EP-only cut "The System", which was used in a 1964 film of the same name.