Only Yesterday Reached #4 on Billboard - But No Gold

[Matthew S]

Should we ask Sharon which one is correct?

She knows but it’s a secret…

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Singles that were fast movers tended to get high on the charts but did not get the gold certification. Many number 1 singles from the sixties never got certified as gold records. One example is My Love by Petula Clark. It shot to number one but fell the next week so no gold.

Sounds like a good theory on its face, but no.

"My Love" spent two weeks at number one and six weeks in the Top 10. There were four other records that year that did the same---The Four Tops' "Reach Out, I'll Be There", Percy Sledge's "When A Man Loves A Woman", The Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On" and Tommy James and the Shondells' "Hanky Panky".

Only two of those records went Gold---"When A Man Loves A Woman" and "Hanky Panky."

All five spent roughly the same amount of time in the Top 40--12 weeks for "Reach Out, I'll Be There", 10 for the other four---and roughly the same amount of time on the Hot 100---15 weeks for "Reach Out, I'll Be There", 13 for "When A Man Loves A Woman" and "My Love" and 12 for "You Keep Me Hangin' On" and "Hanky Panky".

Belinda Carlisle hit number 1 with Heaven Is A Place On Earth and did not get a gold record. A single needed a stretch at number 1 or a long time in the top ten but even a long stretch was not a guarantee.
Stevie Nicks' single Stop Draggin My Heart Around spent six weeks in the number 3 position and it still did not get a gold certification.
Now I would bet that the latter two probably sold over 500,000 copies but the RIAA has never gone back to certify their sales.

I'd bet against that. Singles sales plummeted after peaking in 1974. By 1981 for Stevie , and especially 1987 for Belinda, the numbers weren't there to go Gold the way they had been.

Also, Stevie was much more of an album artist---the LP "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" was from, BELLA DONNA, went four times Platinum. People bought the LP, not the single. And in the CD era of 1987, Belinda was moving more of the album too---HEAVEN ON EARTH peaked at #13, but still went Platinum.

I'll just take you back to the first two lines of my original post:

Chart peaks and total sales don't necessarily correlate.

A chart peak is a snapshot of how a given record did on its best week compared to the other records on the charts, not a cumulative tally of sales up to that point. There are big sales weeks and not-so-big sales weeks.

That's the answer.

 

[Without A Song]

This is also my favorite song of all time. I've said it before but once it hit the top 5 I wish that somehow radio could have been served the 4:10 album version, where they sing "tomorrow, baby...even brighter than today" and then the resolve. It gives me chills just writing this.

The 4:10 version of "Only Yesterday" is the definitive one as far as I'm concerned. That little extra Karen and Richard put at the end of it on "Horizon" was icing on a chocolate cake! I must confess I always feel a little cheated when I hear "Only Yesterday" in its "single" format and the song fades away without that magnificent ending.

 

[Vinylalbumcovers]

The 4:10 version of "Only Yesterday" is the definitive one as far as I'm concerned. That little extra Karen and Richard put at the end of it on "Horizon" was icing on a chocolate cake! I must confess I always feel a little cheated when I hear "Only Yesterday" in its "single" format and the song fades away without that magnificent ending.

TOTALLY agreed. Gotta have the whole thing. The edit is not it.

Also gotta say that vocal arrangement is FIRE! Richard came up with some crazy good ear candy on many of their tunes and this one is full of it. That bit during the guitar solo is just incredible. We can say whatever we want about the mushiness of the music (and I have...LOL!) but those vocal arrangements. He even got mushy during the verses of the tune (Karen is Karen-ing beautifully so it doesn't matter) but the b-sections and choruses kick in and you can't hate. It grooves very nicely.

"Brighter than today..." The deliciousness of it... No one does that kind of thing better than Richard.

Ed

 

[Matthew S]

TOTALLY agreed. Gotta have the whole thing. The edit is not it.

Also gotta say that vocal arrangement is FIRE! Richard came up with some crazy good ear candy on many of their tunes and this one is full of it. That bit during the guitar solo is just incredible. We can say whatever we want about the mushiness of the music (and I have...LOL!) but those vocal arrangements. He even got mushy during the verses of the tune (Karen is Karen-ing beautifully so it doesn't matter) but the b-sections and choruses kick in and you can't hate. It grooves very nicely.

"Brighter than today..." The deliciousness of it... No one does that kind of thing better than Richard.

Ed

And oh how cool it would be to be able to separate all those tracks out and hear each vocal part pulled out separately. (Or to see the actual vocal arrangement…) That always makes it easier for me to hear them in the master track.

 

[newvillefan]

And oh how cool it would be to be able to separate all those tracks out and hear each vocal part pulled out separately. (Or to see the actual vocal arrangement…) That always makes it easier for me to hear them in the master track.

I’ve said it before, but I’ve always thought a documentary about how Richard built and developed the Carpenters sound, with him filmed sitting at the mixing desk fading different tracks in and out, would be amazing to watch. He’s such a good narrator in his own right and technically it’s right in his ballpark.

Phil Collins, Fleetwood Mac, Queen and others have done similar in documentaries such as VH1’s ‘Classic Albums’ series, focusing on the technical aspects of their music. The Bohemian Rhapsody one was particularly brilliant viewing, with Brian May at the desk explaining their recording techniques (for example, recording the bass line three or four times in different rooms to get a fatter, more ambient sound) and the gradual building of Freddie’s masterpiece, track by track.

Imagine, for example, we saw Richard doing the same with Calling Occupants?

 

[Randy M]

Four weeks at #1, eight weeks in the top 10, 13 weeks in the Top 40 where Casey Kasem could play it. I'm betting you'll hear the first three seconds and go "Oh, yeah---that!"

Johnnie Taylor, Disco Lady is on my go-to Razor & Tie disco set and had me perplexed as I didn't remember it. I like it, just don't remember it from the 70's. Another one as I'm looking at the set is Marvin Gaye, Got To Give It Up? A Fifth Of Beethoven, I remember from the Saturday Night Fever OST but not on the radio. Born To Be Alive, I remember jiving to that in the 80's and wasn't sure why it was considered a '70's hit until I looked it up. The Blue Note's Bad Luck is a groover but don't remember that one on the radio either. Get Dancin' by Disco-Tex & the Sex-O-Lettes, missing on most disco collections, but who can forget that one? Raise your hands. Sir Monti Rock is still alive. Must be a Mandela Effect thing or multiverse or Matrix.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Johnnie Taylor, Disco Lady is on my go-to Razor & Tie disco set and had me perplexed as I didn't remember it. I like it, just don't remember it from the 70's. Another one as I'm looking at the set is Marvin Gaye, Got To Give It Up? A Fifth Of Beethoven, I remember from the Saturday Night Fever OST but not on the radio. Born To Be Alive, I remember jiving to that in the 80's and wasn't sure why it was considered a '70's hit until I looked it up. The Blue Note's Bad Luck is a groover but don't remember that one on the radio either. Get Dancin' by Disco-Tex & the Sex-O-Lettes, missing on most disco collections, but who can forget that one? Raise your hands. Sir Monti Rock is still alive. Must be a Mandela Effect thing or multiverse or Matrix.

A lot of it had to do with where you were at the time and what radio stations you listened to. Here in California, R&B/disco made up anywhere from a third to half of the top 40 from the late 60s until the collapse of disco.