My Body Keeps Changing My Mind As A Single?

[tomswift2002]

As I was answering another column, I was wondering, if, in 1979, even if the album never came out, if My Body Keeps Changing My Mind was released as a single, would it have been a good choice as a 45?

Whenever I hear anything about Karen's solo album, this track seems to be the Top mentioned track, and I wonder, if it had been released as a stand-alone single in 1979, and hit well on the charts, could Made In America or Music, Music, Music have maybe been done in a different style?

 

[aaflyer98]

I love this track. Always have. I loved Donna Summer and I think this song from Karen would have fit right in in 1979 or early 1980.

 

[newvillefan]

100% this could have been a viable single...had the album been released in 1979. I'd have put it out as the second single after If I Had You.

 

[CraigGA]

I always thought If We Try would be a safe release. If I Had You is more on the jazz side of rhythm and blues like George Benson. And, the disco song I Love Makin Love To You which was not on the album would have made a better first choice and then My Body. The only concern I would have is the overt sexual language from 1979 coming from the Christmas Queen. Plus, a lot of Carpenters fans were religious and the conservative view growing inside the churches could have backfired the playback popularity. Just because it's a good song, and performed well, does not mean it should be released. There were other things to consider, especially the catalog of Catpenters songs. Now, Paul Grein did an opinion write up on the subject and said that the new followers would one day mesh with the old followers and a revival concert of sorts would come together and play it all. That is a nice dream and I wish it would have happened. One thing is certain to me: it's a shame that none of these were heard in 1979-80.

If one could have been released to test the water it would have been nice, but which one without sturting controversy for Carpenters fans are dedicated and Karen was considered a lady. It was hard for women in the 70's to wear multiple titles. Now a lot a lot of those labels that have melted over the years. I do feel Karen made an album ahead of her time but it just was not the best fit for their image, and if some songs were lowered a tad it would have made a big difference. As a contrast look at what Diana Ross went through as she became a solo act. Emotions can be tragic and the reality they create undeserved.

But with the proper publicity machine, it could have worked, it just would have been delicate. The best thing is that Olivia was beside her and that bond may have helped and Karen could have said that her and Rich are already working on a new Carpenters record but in the meantime she wanted to hang with the girls. It would have still been a gamble for a group that was the third best selling artist of the 70's and if international sales were considered it may have been even higher. It's a shame the public can type casts artists. In today's environment there is much more freedom for everyone, here in the US, so it's hard to look back at every situation.

As much as I like at least 8 of the solo songs a lot, in 1979, I would have been shocked. But, as much as I love Karen's voice I would have come around. And, as much as I like Ron Temperton's treatment on Karen's stacked vocals, I still missed Richard in the background at first listen. If the Carpenters had not already achieved heights only few have had, Karen's album would have flowed easier, but in 1974, there was not a more recognized voice world wide than Karen. So for that reason alone, there was a lot to consider. Some say success is a two edged sword.

Craig

 

[Another Son]

There is definitely a lot of energy in the instrumental backing track for 'My Body Keeps Changing My Mind'. The uptempo beat of the song and the arrangement might have grabbed people's attention. From this perspective, it might have been a reasonable single choice. I agree, though, that the public probably would have had difficulty accepting sexual content in lyrics sung by Karen Carpenter. If you consider Olivia Newton-John's move into the territory of the sex siren, I think she was somehow more believable than Karen could have been, although, in my opinion, Olivia didn't have an iota of Karen's singing ability. If you consider Karen's state of physical health at the time, I really don't believe she could have pulled off the role of the chanteuse in promo work such as videos, TV appearances and photographic work. Because of these things, the public might have viewed her move into more suggestive content as insincere. Additionally, I personally believe that Karen's vocal performances on her solo album, overall, were nowhere near up to her usual standard. Her performance on 'My Body Keeps Changing my Mind' is no exception, as far as I'm concerned. Mind you, I do like the actual background vocal arrangement - it's just that Karen's voice doesn't sound as good as it could. Generally, the songs on her solo album are pitched too high for her and you don't hear very much of those deep, warm, rich tones that I love so much. I also believe that Karen generally sounded best on slower songs than on uptempo recordings, (although I love her sound on 'Only Yesterday', if that can be considered uptempo). Then comes the question of other releases that this song would have been completing with, at the time. I believe there were much better songs of this genre around at the time, performed much more convincingly. Another thing - Although I have said that the arrangement was energetic, it was a little generic, if that's the word. That is, it didn't sound that different from a hundred other songs of the period, what with the horn bursts, etc. In my opinion, the higher pitch of the songs on Karen's album, the lyrical content, the dance tempo, the sexual image that she apparently wanted to project, was all wrong for her, especially at this stage of her illness. I think the public just wouldn't have bought it, (in more ways than one). You can tell that I am not a fan of the solo album, (bar three or four tracks). I believe that Karen was wise to shelve it. And there is a reason, (or a number of reasons), why A&M wouldn't release it back in the day.

 

[newvillefan]

The arrangement is very reminiscent to me of Rock With You by Michael Jackson, released as a single on November 3, 1979. The same rhythm guitar patterns are used and there's a definite similarity in the horn arrangement, especially in the bridge ("And when that groove is dead and gone/You know that love survives/So we can rock forever"). Interesting to note that Rod Temperton was involved in the making of both albums.

 

[Another Son]

The arrangement is very reminiscent to me of Rock With You by Michael Jackson, released as a single on November 3, 1979.

I like Michael's 'Off The Wall' album A LOT. I love his overdubbed vocal harmonies throughout, which were quite Carpenteresque, (not surprisingly, I suppose, considering that Rod Temperton arranged the voices on both Michael's album and Karen's solo recordings). I know that 'Rock With You' and the other one or two 'Off the Wall' tracks weren't fully composed when they were offered to Karen, but I wonder how they might have sounded if she had recorded them. I wonder if she kicked herself when she later saw these songs explode to the top of the charts.

Having expressed my opinion about Karen's solo album above, I must add that I do really like some of her unreleased tracks. I think 'Midnight', given a focused and polished vocal instead of the work lead that we hear on the bootlegged copy, would have been great and could have made a good single more in keeping with Karen's image than 'My Body Keeps Changing My Mind'. Although I really like 'Midnight', I guess I have to admit that it wouldn't have set the world on fire. I also really like 'I Do It For Your Love', but it wouldn't have been right for a single at the time. On the other hand, 'Something's Missing In my Life' was just right for Karen. She performed part of it really well on the rough, unreleased version that was leaked. She just needed a couple more takes and a slightly different interpretation of the lyrics and it could have been great. I think it would perhaps have made a better single than 'My Body Keeps Changing My Mind'.....although maybe it wasn't different enough from Carpenters' songs to make people sit up and listen and maybe the tempo was TOO slow. Having said that, Marcia Hines had a big hit with this song in 1979. Btw, she was aware that Karen had recorded it, according to a friend who spoke to her many years later.

I've mentioned Michael Jackson's and Marcia Hines' success with Karen-related songs from this period but I guess the difference was that Michael was in his late teens / early twenties and in his physical prime when he recorded and promoted these songs and Marcia was also in her physical prime, in her mid to late twenties. Karen, on the other hand, although in her late twenties, was probably too ill to do full justice to these songs, in terms of her true, high level of ability. She also was in no physical state to promote them, as I said in my earlier post, above.

 

[newvillefan]

I like Michael's 'Off The Wall' album A LOT. I love his overdubbed vocal harmonies throughout, which were quite Carpenteresque, (not surprisingly, I suppose, considering that Rod Temperton arranged the voices on both Michael's album and Karen's solo recordings.

There are more similarities between this KC solo song and another song on Michael's album, It's The Falling In Love. Compare the opening vocal line on Michael's song to the opening brass parts on My Body Keeps Changing My Mind (right after the initial drum fill intro). They're virtually identical.

 

[Another Son]

There are more similarities between this KC solo song and another song on Michael's album, It's The Falling In Love. Compare the opening vocal line on Michael's song to the opening brass parts on My Body Keeps Changing My Mind (right after the initial drum fill intro). They're virtually identical.

I once made a compilation CD of Rod Temperton-related songs, focusing upon Karen's, to see how they sounded in comparison. I had songs by Karen that he wrote or arranged and songs by George Benson, Michael Jackson, Heatwave and others. Some commonalities were the good-time feel, the uptempo beat and the stacked vocal harmonies.

At another time, I made a CD of other versions of Karen's solo songs, including the unreleased ones. There was 'My Body Keeps Changing My Mind', by Johnny Mathis, 'Don't Try to Win me Back Again', by Vicki-Sue Robinson, 'Something's Missing In my Life', by Marcia Hines, 'I Do It For Your Love' and 'Still Crazy After All These Years', by Paul Simon, 'Something's Missing In My Life', by Paul Jabara and Donna Summer, and 'Jimmy Mac'.

The CDs made for interesting listening!

 

[newvillefan]

At another time, I made a CD of other versions of Karen's solo songs, including the unreleased ones. There was 'My Body Keeps Changing My Mind', by Johnny Mathis, 'Don't Try to Win me Back Again', by Vicki-Sue Robinson, 'Something's Missing In my Life', by Marcia Hines, 'I Do It For Your Love' and 'Still Crazy After All These Years', by Paul Simon, 'Something's Missing In My Life', by Paul Jabara and Donna Summer, and 'Jimmy Mac'.

It's interesting that on Johnny Mathis' version, he swapped the opening verse round so the lyrics are the reverse of how Karen sang them.

 

[Another Son]

It's interesting that on Johnny Mathis' version, he swapped the opening verse round so the lyrics are the reverse of how Karen sang them.

His tempo is also faster and the arrangement more cluttered. I like Karen's arrangement better.

 

[Mark-T]

Re: MBKCMM- Karen's warm vocal against the cool arrangement gives it quite a different feel for a disco song. I think if promoted carefully, it could have been quite a big hit. I'm a huge fan of her solo work.

 

[tomswift2002]

His tempo is also faster and the arrangement more cluttered. I like Karen's arrangement better.

I just listened to Mathis's version on YouTube, and then I listened to Karen's again. Mathis's version I found to be rather generic disco, like something I might hear on TV if I tuned into an old 70's TV show or a show that was set in the 70's and featured a scene at a disco or dance and all the script had called for was a "disco song". Very generic.

Karen's on the other hand I found the music was very bright and I think that had it been released in 79, around the same time as Mathis's, I think more people might've gone for it, since as I said, Mathis's was a very generic disco take on it. Karen's I think was a mix of disco and ballroom dancing.

As for the sexual part of the song, I think people in 79 would've realized that the song is the inner thought process of the dancer, and most people have probably seen had those thoughts when they've been at a dance; seen a person they found sexy, and while they didn't voice the thought, they did have the thought. But I don't think its as far as Olivia Newton-John's Physical single from just 2 years later went (in both lyrics and video).

I know that the song was released as part of an in-store promo CD for the From The Top collection in 1990, so in a way it did get a form of an EP release, but I've always wondered if it was released in 90 as a Dance club single, or if Richard had maybe made a possible extended Dance Club remix that might've been released on a 12-inch vinyl single.

 

[newvillefan]

I've always wondered if it was released in 90 as a Dance club single, or if Richard had maybe made a possible extended Dance Club remix that might've been released on a 12-inch vinyl single.

Richard is not - and never has been - that adventurous.

I do remember stories on the internet in the 1990s though that the box set remix was played by some DJs in discos and nightclubs.

 

[Jamesj75]

To answer the question at hand, yes, "My Body Keeps Changing My Mind" would have been a great choice as a single in 1979. It could have put Karen back on the charts. I suspect that the public would have been intrigued and pleasantly surprised that even Karen Carpenter had recorded a catchy disco single.

Further, it has always been my contention that, if Karen's solo album had indeed been released upon completion, it would have generated buzz, further respect, and appreciation; and it would have been successful.

 

[Buried Alien]

I can almost see and hear Karen performing it on SOLID GOLD in the late 1970s/early 1980s.

 

[A&M Retro]

Yup, I'm confident it would have been a hit. It's pretty irresistible ear candy, and Karen sings the hell out of it. Great lead vocal and intriguing and beautifully tackled background vocals.

The bridge of the song screams HIT record to my ears, and, given the chance, it would have caught the ears of many. Exactly what was needed at the time. Shelving it was a momentous, ignorant error on A&M's part. Clearer (and less biased) heads should have prevailed.

 

[Another Son]

Mathis's version I found to be rather generic disco, like something I might hear on TV if I tuned into an old 70's TV show or a show that was set in the 70's and featured a scene at a disco or dance and all the script had called for was a "disco song". Very generic.

Lol. I agree. It's very 'Love Boat'. I like a lot of Johnny Mathis songs, but not this one so much. It sounds contrived, too, with an artist like Johnny Mathis jumping on the disco gravy-train. I think that's how the public may have viewed Karen's foray into disco and sexual content, as well. We know, though, from all the accounts out there, that Karen really was into this style of music and believed in it. Having said the above, I think that Johnny Mathis' disco version of 'Night and Day' is great.

 

[CraigGA]

Jane Monheit has a great rendition of I Do It For Your Love. Had Karen been in better health she could have carried it in similar fashion. I believe she also recorded Merry Christmas Darling. Maybe she is a fan.

 

[tomswift2002]

Yup, I'm confident it would have been a hit. It's pretty irresistible ear candy, and Karen sings the hell out of it. Great lead vocal and intriguing and beautifully tackled background vocals.

The bridge of the song screams HIT record to my ears, and, given the chance, it would have caught the ears of many. Exactly what was needed at the time. Shelving it was a momentous, ignorant error on A&M's part. Clearer (and less biased) heads should have prevailed.

Yeah, it probably would've vaulted Karen back to the Top of the Charts. Especially after the flop of I Believe You, which in 79 was the Carpenters latest non-seasonal single, Karen's only success at that point had been Christmas Portrait.

You know its funny how the Carpenters next single would be about dancing, just like the song we are currently discussing is about dancing, and yet compared to My Body Keeps Changing My Mind, Touch Me When We're Dancing was a slow dance number. Sure it hit the Top 20, but I wonder what would've happened with the song had MBKCMM been released as a single and been a hit, and the Carpenters had still went with TMWWD. Could we have maybe seen Karen getting Richard to be more adventurous and giving TMWWD a more 80's dance feel (sort of like Belinda Carlisle's I Feel Free and Summer Rain or Lionel Richie's All Night Long (All Night)).

 

[Buried Alien]

I sort of wonder: right around the time that Karen passed away, the expectations of pop music fans for female pop vocalists were changing. Within a year of Karen's death, Madonna and Cyndi Lauper would begin making their mark on the pop world of the 80s, forever altering audiences' expectations for female pop singers. Even during the final years of Karen's life, the emergence of singers such as Patti Smith, Debbie Harry of Blondie, and the image change of Karen's good friend Olivia Newton John on records such as "Physical" demonstrated an evolution of audience tastes. If Karen had lived to continue her career, how might have she adjusted to that? Would she go head-to-head against the likes of Madonna and Cyndi Lauper and try to beat them at their own game, or would she continue as (more or less) the same Karen Carpenter that fans had always known?

 

[GaryAlan]

This is the song I play to friends and family who've yet to hear it !
And, beyond a doubt, everyone I've played this song for has loved it.
They find it catchy, inventive, interesting and extremely well-sung;
as Bob Henry (director of the TV Specials) says--"pick your own adjective."
It's a winner.
I remember playing From The Top--when first I purchased that Set.
The song was an absolute delight, a real standout.
Coupled with the proper marketing and a strong "B- Side" (as a 45-single)
this song would have garnered new fans....
Hey, what about Something's Missing
on the flip side ?

 

[newvillefan]

I remember playing From The Top--when first I purchased that Set.
The song was an absolute delight, a real standout.

Couldn't agree more. I remember listening to the box set from disc 1 track 1 and when I finally got to this song on disc 4, I loved it from first hear. The absolute standout of the entire collection.

 

[Another Son]

[QUOTE="GaryAlan, post: 162631, member: 2493"
Hey, what about Something's Missing
on the flip side ?[/QUOTE]

I'd have 'Something's Missing' on the 'A' side and 'My Body Keeps Changing My Mind' on the 'B' side.

 

[tomswift2002]

I sort of wonder: right around the time that Karen passed away, the expectations of pop music fans for female pop vocalists were changing. Within a year of Karen's death, Madonna and Cyndi Lauper would begin making their mark on the pop world of the 80s, forever altering audiences' expectations for female pop singers. Even during the final years of Karen's life, the emergence of singers such as Patti Smith, Debbie Harry of Blondie, and the image change of Karen's good friend Olivia Newton John on records such as "Physical" demonstrated an evolution of audience tastes. If Karen had lived to continue her career, how might have she adjusted to that? Would she go head-to-head against the likes of Madonna and Cyndi Lauper and try to beat them at their own game, or would she continue as (more or less) the same Karen Carpenter that fans had always known?

I think that had Karen lived, sure she would've still done some Carpenters albums with Richard, but she probably would've tried some more solo tracks, either solo 45s that would eventually lead to one album, or a couple of albums that were completely different from the standard Carpenters fare. But her solo work I think would've been more towards the 80's pop. I definitely think that the song (I've Had) The Time Of My Life was written with Karen in mind, even though Karen had been dead for 4 years in 1987. And I think that, had Karen been offered the song, she probably would've taken it, even if Richard warned her against being apart of a movie with the title of Dirty Dancing (just like he warned her not to do disco, and yet she did Love Making Love To You & My Body Keeps Changing My Mind.