Did the Carpenters ever license their recordings for era or genre compilations?

[Buried Alien]

We all know that record industry standard: the era ("Greatest Hits of the 70s!") or genre ("Classic Love Songs!") compilations that put together a dozen or so hits by a variety of artists who played similar material at a certain period of time, even though those artists might have all been on different record labels. When I was a kid during the 1980s, I became familiar with many oldies from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s through such compilations. Time-Life Music had an entire line of such products, in fact, which they marketed during the late 1980s and 1990s through late night TV infomercials.

Some artists, however, are too commercially "big" to find their recordings on such compilations. For example, 60s collections don't feature recordings by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, or Bob Dylan because these artists were too valuable as commodities to license for compilations (surprisingly, though, some acts, such as Elvis Presley and the Beach Boys, whom you'd THINK would be too big to get compiled with other artists, often were).

What about the Carpenters? Are their own recordings for A&M Records/UMG the only legally available place where people can buy their music, or have the Carpenters ever been licensed for those myriad random hit collections?

 

[ars nova]

I've been around since their beginning, and I've never seen it happen. as you said, the major hitters rarely did it; now Richard has control of what is released. aside from MAYBE the Christmas songs, I doubt that anything will appear on a multi-artist compilation. he surely doesn't need the money and he is quite grisly about protecting the integrity of their music.

 

[Buried Alien]

Yeah...the Carpenters' Christmas classic occasionally surface on collections such as NOW THIS IS CHRISTMAS, but I don't think I've heard their mainstream pop hits on any "Various Artists" collections over the years.

 

[Simon KC1950]

There's only one I've ever seen... On an A&M Records anniversary CD. It has a song from each A&M artist. Carpenters Close To You is on it .

 

[Graeme]

Their version of Close To You appears on 'The Look of Love, the Burt Bacharach Collection'.

I can understand the decision not to allow the inclusion of their material on compilations. However, I sometimes wonder whether it might be a missed opportunity to reach a potential wider audience. I remember seeing an album claiming to be a compilation of tracks sung by the greatest female singers of all time and thinking Karen should be there.

 

[Buried Alien]

There's only one I've ever seen... On an A&M Records anniversary CD. It has a song from each A&M artist. Carpenters Close To You is on it .

Indeed. Carpenters recordings would definitely belong on an A&M compilation because they have long been one of the most important artists on A&M, but I was thinking more of those K-Tel, Billboard, Art Laboe's Oldies But Goodies type general collections. I don't think any original Carpenters recordings ended up on those compilations, or the various Time-Life collections sold during the 1980s and 1990s.

 

[Harry]

A&M, over the years, has released a few compilations with Carpenters' tracks on them. The most recent was probably the A&M 50: ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION. Back in the LP era, there were a number of compilations on various A&M division labels with a Carpenters track or two, like HERB ALPERT & FRIENDS, BURT BACHARACH & FRIENDS, the promotional A&M FORGET ME NOTS, etc.

It seems that Burt Bacharach compilations are good targets for finding a Carpenters track, like on the big LOOK OF LOVE collection, Also BURT BACHARACH AND FRIENDS/GOLD, and the Japanese A&M SONGS OF BURT BACHARACH, and A&M JOURNEY OF BURT BACHARACH. A Roger Nichols compilation (A&M COMPOSERS SERIES) from Japan also featured five Carpenters tracks.

The only time I've run across a Carpenters track on a non-A&M label is on Christmas compilations. The Henry Mancini GREAT SONGS OF CHRISTMAS on RCA Special Products/Goodyear and on a few other Christmas CD compilations over the years.

 

[Tony]

My memory is hazy on this one, but I do recall a non-A&M compilation, something along the lines of those K-Tel records back in the day, on which "Hurting Each Other" appeared. I'm scratching my head trying to figure out how to even begin to do a search for it.

 

[GaryAlan]

Here is an LP, K-Tel, with Carpenters Goodbye To Love:
22 Dynamic Hits Vol. II 2 Two (5254) K-Tel (1972) TE 291 - 12" LP

 

[Tony]

Here is an LP, K-Tel, with Carpenters Goodbye To Love:
22 Dynamic Hits Vol. II 2 Two (5254) K-Tel (1972) TE 291 - 12" LP

Maybe that's the one I'm thinking of. I also found another K-Tel LP, Twenty Power Hits, that includes "Yesterday Once More".

 

[Jamesj75]

What is also gratifying/refreshing about the compilations presented by @GaryAlan and @Tony is that a photo of our beloved duo is featured on the album covers!

 

[Harry]

...as they are on BACHARACH GOLD:

 

[tomswift2002]

Some artists, however, are too commercially "big" to find their recordings on such compilations. For example, 60s collections don't feature recordings by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, or Bob Dylan because these artists were too valuable as commodities to license for compilations (surprisingly, though, some acts, such as Elvis Presley and the Beach Boys, whom you'd THINK would be too big to get compiled with other artists, often were).

With the Beach Boys, you also have to remember that most of the songs that appear on the "Various Artists" collections are tracks from their early years that are owned and controlled by Capitol. I've seen one collection of 80's various artists that featured the Beach Boys 1988 hit "Kokomo", but the majority of other collections feature their early-60's hits that are not controlled by Brother Records.

And for Elvis, a lot of his tracks that I've heard on compilation albums seem to be "Live" recordings that either sound good or really should not have been used, but are used because they are maybe the only recordings that are controlled by Presley's estate, and thus the estate can ask for more money, whereas the record companies tend to stick to their old contracts that might only offer one or one-and-one-half-cents per copy of compilation sales. Just take a look at any number of the "Greatest Hits" CD's in department stores nowadays. The majority of them, while they do feature the original artists, and occasionally, possible due to the artist having died years earlier, their original hit under license, a number of those CD's feature new stereo recordings or "Live" recordings that the artists is able to ask higher royalties for.

As for the Carpenters, it seems that since Universal bought out Polygram in the late-90's, Carpenters haven't been on compilations. I've got The Time-Life Treasury Of Christmas on LP, Cassette and CD (the first place that the Carpenters single-version of The Christmas Song appeared in digital that I'm aware of) that was out from 1987 to 1998. Starting in 1999 the Carpenters were removed and replaced with Mel Torme's version of The Christmas Song, but other high profile artists like the Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Alabama and Bing Crosby were still on the album. I've also got an LP from a Hardware store (ACE I think) that features the Carpenters along with Bing Crosby and Roger Whittaker.

 

[Another Son]

The biggest surprise I got in this area was sitting in a movie theatre when the Aussie movie, "Muriel's Wedding" was in cinemas and 'We've Only Just Begun' came on. Carpenters are on the soundtrack but I don't remember what label that's on. I'm fairly sure I've seen 'We've Only Just Begun' on a wedding collection CD, as well. Carpenters were on a big seventies collection with just about every artist from a range of labels on it, put out by Readers Digest in the 80s. They were also on a different Readers Digest compilation, called "Herb Alpert and his Friends", (with a couple of Carpenters photos that I hadn't seen before). Apart from that, I've seen 'Close to You' and something else on A&M compendiums. 'Close to You' has been on a Burt Bacharach compilation that has been issued about a hundred times with different covers.

 

[Another Son]

I was just reading some very old threads that are no longer open for comment on this forum and there was a discussion about the 'Muriel's Wedding' soundtrack, which includes 'We've Only Just Begun'. Four or five people from the US stated in the thread that the song wasn't in the movie, but I'm positive that I remember the shock of 'We've Only Just Begun' blaring through the theatre speakers when I saw the movie in the cinema in Australia soon after it was released. Could it be one of those situations where a song is licensed for use in one country but not another? Or was the song edited out before the DVD was released, for some reason? Or is my memory playing tricks on me? (I don't think it is).

 

[Murray]

I was just reading some very old threads that are no longer open for comment on this forum and there was a discussion about the 'Muriel's Wedding' soundtrack, which includes 'We've Only Just Begun'. Four or five people from the US stated in the thread that the song wasn't in the movie, but I'm positive that I remember the shock of 'We've Only Just Begun' blaring through the theatre speakers when I saw the movie in the cinema in Australia soon after it was released. Could it be one of those situations where a song is licensed for use in one country but not another? Or was the song edited out before the DVD was released, for some reason? Or is my memory playing tricks on me? (I don't think it is).

I can't say if the Carpenters recording was in the theatrical release, as I didn't see this movie in the theatre. I'm pretty sure that the Carpenters version of WOJB isn't on the DVD. Here's the music credits from the end of the film:

If you notice, all the songs say who they were performed by, except for WOJB. All it gets is a publishing credit. What's on the DVD version, is likely just a generic instrumental, played in the background somewhere. The Carpenters version is on the soundtrack CD, which was released by A&M.

 

[Another Son]

I can't say if the Carpenters recording was in the theatrical release, as I didn't see this movie in the theatre. I'm pretty sure that the Carpenters version of WOJB isn't on the DVD. Here's the music credits from the end of the film:

If you notice, all the songs say who they were performed by, except for WOJB. All it gets is a publishing credit. What's on the DVD version, is likely just a generic instrumental, played in the background somewhere. The Carpenters version is on the soundtrack CD, which was released by A&M.

Thanks, Murray. I did a search to see if I could find anything on the internet about 'We've Only Just Begun' being on the original cinema release of 'Muriel's Wedding' but not the DVD but couldn't find anything. I'm almost certain I remember hearing it in the theatre, and the surprise, considering I knew that Carpenters' recordings usually aren't licensed for other projects.

 

[Jeff]

Thank god Richard kept a starnglehold on his catalog. Imagine the diminished integrity of the collection left to highest bidder.