How High The Moon

[newvillefan]

I came across this Les Paul and Mary Ford classic again earlier and just loved the sound that obviously influenced Richard and Karen in their formative years.

It got me thinking (or fantasising)...we know Les Paul visited them in the studio in 1980 during their MIA recording sessions. Fast forward many years and a track of the same name surfaces on the infamous 'Buried Treasures' list.

It got me wondering...what if the three of them got as far as laying down a track of the song with a view to Karen and Richard doing their own cover version and recording all the harmony parts themselves, similar to Without A Song. Now wouldn't that be a treat to behold? I can just imagine Karen's phrasing on the song and their harmonics, especially on the line "how high the moon!"

 

[Chris Mills]

The harmonies on Without A Song are outstanding, the same treatment if used by Carpenters for How High The Moon would give us a whole new respect for this great song. I can imagine Karen and Tony Peluso doing the video.

 

[Simon KC1950]

I read somewhere (Can't remember where) that after the 'Music, Music, Music' television special, Karen & Richard liked the songs so much that they decided to record them all again using just themselves. The songs the special guests sang on the show were recorded by them (Richard sang John's parts and Karen sang Ella's parts). These recordings were then made on to 2 Vinyls... One for Karen & one for Richard.

That is practically a studio album but for some reason they wanted it to be personal records for themselves.

Anyway I imagine that's where Richard got most of the material from for "As Time Goes By". That leaves 3 songs: "How High The Moon" , "Ain't Misbehavin' and "You'll Never Know" that are still unreleased but recorded with Karen and Richard on lead vocals.
There could also be more songs they recorded for those 2 vinyls that we don't know about.

would anyone else kill for one of them? Just think... Only 2 records in the whole world that have a full set of recorded songs by our star duo.

 

[newvillefan]

I read somewhere (Can't remember where) that after the 'Music, Music, Music' television special, Karen & Richard liked the songs so much that they decided to record them all again using just themselves. The songs the special guests sang on the show were recorded by them (Richard sang John's parts and Karen sang Ella's parts). These recordings were then made on to 2 Vinyls... One for Karen & one for Richard.

Richard told the story in the liner notes for As Time Goes By

Anyway I imagine that's where Richard got most of the material from for "As Time Goes By". That leaves 3 songs: "How High The Moon" , "Ain't Misbehavin' and "You'll Never Know" that are still unreleased but recorded with Karen and Richard on lead vocals.

I did hear that there is no vocal by KC for How High The Moon, which suggests all that exists is the track that Ella sang to in the show. If only though...

To this day I don't know why Richard didn't include You'll Never Know on ATGB. It's a stunning recording and lead vocal performance. Was he embarrassed by it? If so, he has a lot of lead vocals out there on multi-million selling records that are poor in comparison.

There could also be more songs they recorded for those 2 vinyls that we don't know about. Would anyone else kill for one of them? Just think... Only 2 records in the whole world that have a full set of recorded songs by our star duo.

I'd love to know just what else was on those two reference discs that Richard had made for him and Karen

 

[ars nova]

Richard told the story in the liner notes for As Time Goes By



I did hear that there is no vocal by KC for How High The Moon, which suggests all that exists is the track that Ella sang to in the show. If only though...

To this day I don't know why Richard didn't include You'll Never Know on ATGB. It's a stunning recording and lead vocal performance. Was he embarrassed by it? If so, he has a lot of lead vocals out there on multi-million selling records that are poor in comparison.

I think the reason Richard did not release YOU'LL NEVER KNOW and TOYLAND is that Karen was not a part of them, no harmonies, no drums, so, if I can make this jump, they are not CARPENTERS. if you noticed, he did not share harmonies with either dusty springfield or Dionne warwick. I think that was done out of grief and to honor Karen. there was CARPENTERS involvement in the solo tracks on loveliness, Richard oversaw the remixes.


I'd love to know just what else was on those two reference discs that Richard had made for him and Karen