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I always hated the Easy Listening tag. Carpenters' audience was actually closer to "pop" or "soft pop." Easy listening equates to elevator music -- Ray Conniff and the like. I once tried to sell a Herb Alpert CD to a venue that wanted background music...the buyer had asked for easy listening music. He said, "Herb Alpert isn't easy listening...the trumpet stands out too much." That was when it hit me that "easy listening" is music that has no major standout qualities. Background music. The Carpenters records certainly don't fit THAT description.Their audience was easy listening.
I always hated the Easy Listening tag. Carpenters' audience was actually closer to "pop" or "soft pop." Easy listening equates to elevator music -- Ray Conniff and the like. I once tried to sell a Herb Alpert CD to a venue that wanted background music...the buyer had asked for easy listening music. He said, "Herb Alpert isn't easy listening...the trumpet stands out too much." That was when it hit me that "easy listening" is music that has no major standout qualities. Background music. The Carpenters records certainly don't fit THAT description.
I know that Billboard had an "Easy Listening" chart that pigeonholed everything that wasn't hard rock ... but that doesn't make it right. Sergio Mendes wasn't "easy listening" either but he kept getting shoved into that category too.
Carpenters belong in the same category as Jackson Browne, Carole King, James Taylor, and other soft rockers of that era. Linda Ronstadt too, although she got more rock-ish as the decade went on.
Captain and Tennille were another act that I always thought were mis-advised. They hit #1 with "Love Will Keep Us Together" and then what did they follow up with? A bunch of sappy ballads. Their next album had more great uptempo stuff like "Shop Around" and "Angel Face" but for the rest of their career, they gave the most attention to the ballads. They could have had a lot more big hits with the type of fizzy pop hits like the three I mentioned but they chose to focus on her voice instead of his production. (Which is basically the same thing that happened with Carpenters in their last few albums.)
Absolutely. Whilst 'Sing', 'Solitaire' and 'There's a Kind of Hush' may in hindsight seem like poor choices of singles despite their reasonable commercial success, the fact that 'Goofus' should never have been a single was made abundantly clear at the time of its release by its highly disappointing chart performance - their first single in over six years, let's not forget, not to make the Top 40 (and it didn't even come close to making it either).
I am of an opposing viewpoint, MadeInAmerica.
" We ", Fans of Carpenters---and, their music--are precisely the folks who should be allowed to criticize.
Folks who have never delved into their extensive catalog, who have never taken the time to
really listen to all of the songs---those are the ones to be disappointed in.
I am not 'asking' for change. I am asking for honesty, integrity.
Most --at least, here--have spent a lifetime enjoying all of their music.
We (or, at least I) lived through the days when "we" were ridiculed for walking in to a "record store" and purchasing their product....
We (or, at least I) lived through phoning radio stations, trying to get " I Believe You" played on the stations....
Attending school, in 1978, saying, "yes, I watched the TV Special--Space Encounters-- last night", and then, getting laughed at....
We, having to hide the fact that we collected every LP by placing more "hip" Rock groups in front of our cherished Carpenters' albums....
We have spent a lifetime defending our passion for their music--if not, defending their souls,
that is, their very existence...
Thus, if, on this platform--this forum--we are dissuaded from complete honesty in our assessment,
then, we do a profound disservice to Carpenters and their legacy.
Let's 'hear' from Richard Carpenter:
"......So you did certain things that you think will be a hit, but wished you’d never done,
like “Please Mr. Postman.” It’s really an extremely well-performed and produced pop record.
But we shouldn’t have been doing any of those things (oldies) by that time.
With side two of Now And Then, that should have been it.
And beyond that, the very few times that I chose to use a synthesizer, I have regretted it.
Every last time....."
And,
" ....Of course, if I had it to do over again,
I’m like most artists who wouldn’t have done over 50% of what they did.
I really believe that. So, there are certain recordings like
“There’s A Kind Of Hush” that are very well made, but pop fluff.
Love the song, but we never should have made it."
Source:
HuffPost Exclusive: The 40th Anniversary of Carpenters / Interview with Richard Carpenter »
it doesn't explain why the single release of that song, as opposed to almost anything else.
I think you had the answer to this earlier in your post -- the fact that "I Need to Be in Love", the type of ballad that used to soar into the Top Ten for them, didn't do well. Plenty of interviews at this point and shortly after show them to be confused, a little scared, even desperate. You don't want another ballad? What about this? ("Muskrat Love" was a big hit at the same time "Goofus" was a single. Stupid song, but it has some of the same novelty charm as "Goofus".) Honestly, I just think the Carpenters had hit the end of their ride as a radio favorite. Five years as a playlist constant is pretty exceptional.
I think JBee is right to an extent that the remakes of oldies following 'Please Mr Postman' were attempts to re-create its success as a single,
There's a beautiful re-recording of Don't Stop Believing on a more recent Olivia album. Very lovely. You should give it a listen!This top 50 brought back a lot of memories of my teens, I loved that song Muscrat Love and remember it being played on the radio of course I'd never admit to my friends liking that one.
I even loved John Denver Like a Sad Song and Fernando and If You Leave Me Know....man those were some great songs and I still love hearing them now.
Oh and how could I forget there is Miss Livvy again at #13 with Don't Stop Believin.....please someone get me out of this madness of 2015 and send me back to 1976. I wanna go back!!!
They may well have started naturally coming to the end of their 'hot' period at radio in 1976, but it did coincide with a certain drop in quality of their output (just as 'There's a Kind of Hush' was an ersatz attempt at an oldie in comparison to 'Please Mr Postman', 'I Need to Be in Love' has a more MOR arrangement than most of their earlier ballads), so I suspect it was the two factors combined that did for them.
In the thread "Goofus Re-Evaluated" about three years ago, I outlined just how sketchy the Billboard Hot 100 numbers were:I'm not sure if you saw this post but Goofus did hit the top 50 Billboard Easy Listening chart, in fact it went to #4 so someone liked it, I guess it was me calling 50 times each day into the radio station for a month straight!!
Goofus vs BEechwood 4-5789/Worst single release »
Carps management and A&M execs clearly dropped the ball after Horizon- arguably at the Carps were at the height of their career no less.
It has always surprised me that at their highest point the material suffered. Their concerts were still sellouts so the desire for them was still strong.
These are all almost better arguments for why "There's a Kind of Hush" shouldn't have been a single...certainly that was a better-known "oldie" and, by peaking at #12, got enough attention for some folks to realize that a pattern was forming. "Goofus" was definitely less familiar and, as you've noted, made no impression at radio to cause any damage.