Part of a recent thread dealt with Richard's production of other artists' albums. Brought up was Scott Grimes and Akiko, two I was familiar with, and Véronique, one I was not familiar with. I'd heard a sample of two of the Véronique tracks over at the old Road Ode site, and to be honest, they just didn't do anything for me at the time. Maybe it was the Internet connection or the RealAudio, but I've now certainly changed my mind.
As one of our resident Canadians, Murray, pointed out in that older thread that Véronique had been an established personality in French Quebec and was finally breaking out into the rest of Canada as well with an English-language album on A&M, Borderline. Teamed with Richard Carpenter in 1989, they produced Véronique (CD-9154), a second English-language album that somehow failed to get wide distribution in Canada, let alone making it to the States. From what's been mentioned, only between 10 and 15 thousand copies were produced, over all formats.
Having now obtained a copy of the album, just out of curiosity, I've actually become quite taken with it. As described, musically it falls somewhere between the Akiko and the Scott Grimes albums. I suppose part of the reason that I wasn't all that gung-ho about seeking this one out is that I wasn't all that thrilled with either Akiko or Scott Grimes. Akiko came off as too much of an attempt to re-create Carpenters with her almost-spooky Karen-like voice. Scott Grimes just never appealed to me. Some of Richard's backing vocals made it palatable, but overall, I just didn't care for Grimes nasally voice. So the rationale must have been: "Well if those two are not so good, then how can a failed album that never got wide distribution be any good?" Wrong assumption.
On first listen to the album, I was somewhat taken with the updated take on the old Gamble and Huff song, "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me." Richard and Véronique's backing vocals were just the right touch to frame this song. The next track, "House Of Love", was new to me. From what I've learned, it and the prior track were both released as singles, with a lot of positive studio buzz about "House Of Love." It's an odd song to my ears -- not offensive, just kind of halting in its main melody-line. Hearing this song alone would not have initially swayed me to seek out this album. Next up is "Just Another Dream." This one DID catch my ears - in a big way. It's one of those "Hey, that's really a good, catchy tune, play it again", kind of songs. I've likened it's structure a bit to the old Carpenters take on "Hurting Each Other", with the kind of dark lyrics floating through a really catchy tune. This has become a real favorite of mine. So much so that I actually tried to do some research on the songwriter, listed as Ron Jankowski. The song is listed as being published by Walt Disney Music (ASCAP), so I checked out the ASCAP database. There is a Ronald Jankowski listed there, but not this song, nor the two others he contributed to the Véronique album. Several were listed as "cues" so I assume that he'd done some movie or TV-composing work, perhaps for Walt Disney, and these may have been his attempts at pop-song writing. Too bad this album didn't make it happen for him. All three of the songs he contributed to this album are quite catchy.
But wait, there's more. "All My Tomorrows", the next track, is one of those songs that sneaks up on you AFTER you've heard it a couple of times. Up next is "I Want To Get Close To You." With a title like that, there had to be some jokes in the studio regarding the "Close To You" part, what with Richard's involvement. This is no Bacharach tune, but like the previous song, it kind of sneaks up on you days later as you find yourself humming it.
ABBA's Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus provided the next tune, "One Of Us", a single for ABBA back in the early '80s. I find I like this arrangement better than the original, and is another one of those haunting songs.
Great backing vocals from Richard and Véronique enhance the next track, "A Touch Of Paradise", much like some of the early work Richard and Karen did on their early albums, with many parts doubled and tripled, especially as the song is fading.
The two additional Ron Jankowski songs follow next, "Falling In Line" and "What Kind Of Love." Again these songs have tremendously catchy choruses that hook the listener almost immediately, and again the overdubbed vocals really enhance the songs.
The last two are the two I heard over at RoadOde. "Angel In My Eyes" has a "Please Mr. Postman"-kind of arrangement to it. The song was written by Steven Tracy and sometimes Richard Carpenter collaborator, Pamela Phillips-Oland. She and Richard wrote the final track, "All Those Years Ago", which can be heard as an instrumental on Richard's Pianist, Arranger, Composer, Conductor album. As stated by others, it's the most Carpenters-like track on the album, but I find many more instances where had Karen lived, she might have been performing updated '80s-sounding songs like the rest of these.
Richard only plays piano on that final track, leaving the great bulk of the backing instrumentals to synth-programming whiz, Laythan Armor, who also worked on the Grimes album, and contributed to the song-arranging on almost all of the songs on this album. Assisting with the acoustic instruments are some familiar names, Tim May on guitar, Earle Dumler on oboe, and Joel Peskin on sax.
Véronique herself, sounds a lot like Sheena Easton at times. With the vocal overdubbing, she's even remeniscent of the vocal style of The Corrs. No wonder I like this album!
It's truly a shame that Véronique virtually disappeared from existence, and it's a shame that this experience might have halted Richard in his new album production. This one should be heard by all Carpenters fans.
Harry
...stuck in the past, online...
As one of our resident Canadians, Murray, pointed out in that older thread that Véronique had been an established personality in French Quebec and was finally breaking out into the rest of Canada as well with an English-language album on A&M, Borderline. Teamed with Richard Carpenter in 1989, they produced Véronique (CD-9154), a second English-language album that somehow failed to get wide distribution in Canada, let alone making it to the States. From what's been mentioned, only between 10 and 15 thousand copies were produced, over all formats.
Having now obtained a copy of the album, just out of curiosity, I've actually become quite taken with it. As described, musically it falls somewhere between the Akiko and the Scott Grimes albums. I suppose part of the reason that I wasn't all that gung-ho about seeking this one out is that I wasn't all that thrilled with either Akiko or Scott Grimes. Akiko came off as too much of an attempt to re-create Carpenters with her almost-spooky Karen-like voice. Scott Grimes just never appealed to me. Some of Richard's backing vocals made it palatable, but overall, I just didn't care for Grimes nasally voice. So the rationale must have been: "Well if those two are not so good, then how can a failed album that never got wide distribution be any good?" Wrong assumption.
On first listen to the album, I was somewhat taken with the updated take on the old Gamble and Huff song, "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me." Richard and Véronique's backing vocals were just the right touch to frame this song. The next track, "House Of Love", was new to me. From what I've learned, it and the prior track were both released as singles, with a lot of positive studio buzz about "House Of Love." It's an odd song to my ears -- not offensive, just kind of halting in its main melody-line. Hearing this song alone would not have initially swayed me to seek out this album. Next up is "Just Another Dream." This one DID catch my ears - in a big way. It's one of those "Hey, that's really a good, catchy tune, play it again", kind of songs. I've likened it's structure a bit to the old Carpenters take on "Hurting Each Other", with the kind of dark lyrics floating through a really catchy tune. This has become a real favorite of mine. So much so that I actually tried to do some research on the songwriter, listed as Ron Jankowski. The song is listed as being published by Walt Disney Music (ASCAP), so I checked out the ASCAP database. There is a Ronald Jankowski listed there, but not this song, nor the two others he contributed to the Véronique album. Several were listed as "cues" so I assume that he'd done some movie or TV-composing work, perhaps for Walt Disney, and these may have been his attempts at pop-song writing. Too bad this album didn't make it happen for him. All three of the songs he contributed to this album are quite catchy.
But wait, there's more. "All My Tomorrows", the next track, is one of those songs that sneaks up on you AFTER you've heard it a couple of times. Up next is "I Want To Get Close To You." With a title like that, there had to be some jokes in the studio regarding the "Close To You" part, what with Richard's involvement. This is no Bacharach tune, but like the previous song, it kind of sneaks up on you days later as you find yourself humming it.
ABBA's Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus provided the next tune, "One Of Us", a single for ABBA back in the early '80s. I find I like this arrangement better than the original, and is another one of those haunting songs.
Great backing vocals from Richard and Véronique enhance the next track, "A Touch Of Paradise", much like some of the early work Richard and Karen did on their early albums, with many parts doubled and tripled, especially as the song is fading.
The two additional Ron Jankowski songs follow next, "Falling In Line" and "What Kind Of Love." Again these songs have tremendously catchy choruses that hook the listener almost immediately, and again the overdubbed vocals really enhance the songs.
The last two are the two I heard over at RoadOde. "Angel In My Eyes" has a "Please Mr. Postman"-kind of arrangement to it. The song was written by Steven Tracy and sometimes Richard Carpenter collaborator, Pamela Phillips-Oland. She and Richard wrote the final track, "All Those Years Ago", which can be heard as an instrumental on Richard's Pianist, Arranger, Composer, Conductor album. As stated by others, it's the most Carpenters-like track on the album, but I find many more instances where had Karen lived, she might have been performing updated '80s-sounding songs like the rest of these.
Richard only plays piano on that final track, leaving the great bulk of the backing instrumentals to synth-programming whiz, Laythan Armor, who also worked on the Grimes album, and contributed to the song-arranging on almost all of the songs on this album. Assisting with the acoustic instruments are some familiar names, Tim May on guitar, Earle Dumler on oboe, and Joel Peskin on sax.
Véronique herself, sounds a lot like Sheena Easton at times. With the vocal overdubbing, she's even remeniscent of the vocal style of The Corrs. No wonder I like this album!
It's truly a shame that Véronique virtually disappeared from existence, and it's a shame that this experience might have halted Richard in his new album production. This one should be heard by all Carpenters fans.
Harry
...stuck in the past, online...