Ticket to Ride Single Review
- Thread starter Song4uman
- Start date
I'm pretty sure K&R performed (well, probably lip-synched) "Ticket To Ride" on one of the live local music shows on Los Angeles television (KHJ-TV, Channel 9 had "Groovy" and "Boss City" back then).
I don't know if I ever heard the record on the radio. KHJ and KRLA didn't play it.
I don't know if I ever heard the record on the radio. KHJ and KRLA didn't play it.
"Ticket To Ride" on the radio caught my ear in the summer of '69. The DJ's said it was the Carpenters, and to my ear it sounded like a group effort, kind of like the New Christy Minstrels. At this point in time, I had no knowledge that Carpenters was in fact a brother-sister duo, nor that they recorded for Herb Alpert's A&M Records.
I liked the way the arrangement altered the Beatles song slightly, allowing for some goosebump-inducing harmonies. Back in those days, I often taped songs from the radio on my reel-to-reel recorder, figuring that if I got a clean enough opening and closing, and with the FM radio being in stereo, that it was nearly as good as owning the LP.
It took a few listens to this record for me to decide that I liked it. Once I did, I attempted to catch it on tape, but never managed. It disappeared from the radio station's playlist as quickly as it arrived.
Nevertheless, the name "Carpenters" stuck in my head as I waited to hear the song again, or anything else from this new "group".
Harry
I liked the way the arrangement altered the Beatles song slightly, allowing for some goosebump-inducing harmonies. Back in those days, I often taped songs from the radio on my reel-to-reel recorder, figuring that if I got a clean enough opening and closing, and with the FM radio being in stereo, that it was nearly as good as owning the LP.
It took a few listens to this record for me to decide that I liked it. Once I did, I attempted to catch it on tape, but never managed. It disappeared from the radio station's playlist as quickly as it arrived.
Nevertheless, the name "Carpenters" stuck in my head as I waited to hear the song again, or anything else from this new "group".
Harry
BarryT60
Well-Known Member
I was always in hopes that Ticket would have been re-released in the winter of 73 / 74 - with the success of Top Of The World, and of course, the Singles album. It seemed - paricularly, since the song was re-recorded, it could have been a consideration.... One minor note: Though I like the re-recorded version due to the obvious cleaner production technique used by this time, I did prefer Karen's deeper more assertive reading of the line, "I think I'm gonna be sad" in the original recording. I am refering to the second time we hear the line, after the bridge... Anyone else know what I mean here?
Song4uman
Well-Known Member
I don't remember hearing the song until Singles 69-73 came out....I was only 4 when the single came out. I do wonder what would have happened if "Ticket" had been re-released when the Singles album came out....
do you think it would have charted? I personally feel that it would have done well, with the string of hits .....
I don't remember the place you are talking about, but will give a listen....
Jonathan
do you think it would have charted? I personally feel that it would have done well, with the string of hits .....
I don't remember the place you are talking about, but will give a listen....
Jonathan
BarryT60
Well-Known Member
Cool - let me know what you think... She almost attacks the line - and I like the assertieness. The newer recording is a much more subtle reading - not bad by any means - just different.
Very much like the second "But" in the two Merry Christmas Darlings. I like the orignal better. (But every day's a holiday....)
BT
Very much like the second "But" in the two Merry Christmas Darlings. I like the orignal better. (But every day's a holiday....)
BT
BarryT60 said:
They could have used one more single in 1974...having resurrected "I Won't Last A Day Without You"...and having to tread water to "Please Mr. Postman". "Ticket To Ride" would have been worth a shot. Though I probably would have led with "Ticket To Ride" at the same time as the Singles 1969-1973 release (November, 1973), then followed with "I Won't Last A Day Without You" afterward.
Consider:
"I Won't Last A Day Without You" was from a two-year old best-selling LP. Gotta figure most Carpenters fans had already heard it and still it made it to #11. "Please Mr. Postman" to #1. So the Carpenters were still very much salable.
1974 was a big year for all things Beatles. Capitol Records was running a tenth-anniversary (of their US arrival) celebration, promoting the back-catalog. All four Beatles had solo records on the charts in '74: McCartney's "Band On The Run", Lennon's "Mind Games", George Harrison's "Dark Horse" and Ringo Starr's "Ringo".
So "Ticket To Ride" had a strong shot...certainly could have gone Top 20, beating its #54 peak on original release five years before.
BarryT60
Well-Known Member
Great observation on the Beatles resurgence at the time.... What a way to propel that album to greater heights as well... Many would have preferred the Singles to the older Ticket album by 1974... Seems I actually read in some A & M media that they had actually considered a Ticket re-release - but IWLAD won out due to concert appeal... Frankly, I was surprised by both Top and Won't - since Now & Then had already been released in the interim. But that's another topic!
BarryT60 said:
Now & Then hurt them in terms of singles. The oldies medley took up the space of four songs. "Yesterday Once More" was brilliant and "Sing" had already been a hit....they needed to deliver one or two more from that album, but the medley wouldn't work (too long and needed to be bookended by "Yesterday Once More"), and the four remaining tracks ("This Masquerade", "Heather", "Jambalaya"and "I Can't Make Music") weren't singles material.
So they had to fall back and punt with "Top Of The World" and "I Won't Last A Day Without You".
BarryT60
Well-Known Member
I think Richard said it best on one of the documentaries that they were way too busy touring in 74 - and they missed s pivotal year without new material. That very decision (to tour more and record less) may very well have been a key factor in their eventual dimming in popularity. Who knows...?
One of the joys of the new CARPENTERS-THE COMPLETE SINGLES set is that it finally provides an officially-issued version of that first single in the CD format, meaning that all fans who have access to this set can now hear all of the anomalies it presents. As I've listened to this version of "Ticket To Ride", I've become quite sure that this version is NOT the one I must have heard on the radio back in 1969. The radio station I was partial to, and listened to almost exclusively was a an FM-stereo station that was quite "proud" of its status of playing songs in stereo, so they probably didn't touch the mono single and would have played the track from the OFFERING album.
The start of "Ticket To Ride" as a mono single is very different, picking up quickly with the piano riff that ushers in Karen's vocal. Then her opening vocal sounds a little odd for a few words - and then it's back to the album version, folded down to mono.
The b-side track is another strange animal. The version of "Your Wonderful Parade" heard on COMPLETE is the shorter and more dramatic difference of the two that are out there, with some of Richard's "announcement" a bit edited. His vocal tone is different too, with emphasis on different syllables.
I own a version of the single that has a more traditional Richard-opening, sounding to me like the single was re-pressed at some point - or that like some other A&M recording anomalies, there are different versions based on pressing plants of the day.
Harry
The start of "Ticket To Ride" as a mono single is very different, picking up quickly with the piano riff that ushers in Karen's vocal. Then her opening vocal sounds a little odd for a few words - and then it's back to the album version, folded down to mono.
The b-side track is another strange animal. The version of "Your Wonderful Parade" heard on COMPLETE is the shorter and more dramatic difference of the two that are out there, with some of Richard's "announcement" a bit edited. His vocal tone is different too, with emphasis on different syllables.
I own a version of the single that has a more traditional Richard-opening, sounding to me like the single was re-pressed at some point - or that like some other A&M recording anomalies, there are different versions based on pressing plants of the day.
Harry
Toolman
Simple Man, Simple Dream
In the early '70s I was still pretty young and didn't buy albums with no familiar songs on them...so I didn't hear "Ticket" until "The Singles". But I loved the re-recorded track so much that I then bought the "Ticket to Ride" album soon after "The Singles". Then and now, I greatly prefer the '73 version. I think it's one of the best single examples there is of Richard's "gift" for arranging, Karen's incomparable vocals, and the magic that happens when the overdubbed harmonies are used. I was sure it would be a second single pulled from "The Singles" and still think it should have been re-released. No question in my mind that it would have done better than "Won't Last a Day". One of the brightest gems in their catalog.
newvillefan
I Know My First Name Is Stephen
And one of the best examples where Karen re-recorded her lead. The '69 version is painful to listen to.
tomswift2002
Well-Known Member
In 69 and 73 I wasn't even around. I first heard the song on the CD of the Singles 69-73 album that my parents had in the early 90's. Later I found the LP and I got the RC version in 2000. For me it's alright, but I never really found it to be as great as "Alll You Get From Love Is A Love Song" or "Dancing in the Streets".
Why DID they release that original lead vocal? Technically she's off pitch and emotionally sounds rather disconnected from the lyric. Were they rushed to get to the single done in time? On other ballads like Eve or All of My Life she sounds amazing and nothing like the clumsiness on TTR.
The 1973 vocal and song is one of the top 5 greatest songs of theirs and it's one of Karen's greatest vocals ever.
Rick-An Ordinary Fool
Well-Known Member
Wow so they actually used that edited single of Your Wonderful Parade" on this new singles collection. I wondered if they would, we talked about this rare single 45 and how it was released 2 ways, I have this edited 45 and part of his dialog sounds like an alternate vocal take. Surprised Richard allowed this version.
tomswift2002
Well-Known Member
But I guess that for the alternate takes the audio no longer existed on tape, as it mentions the single was mastered from a vinyl record. Oh well, at least we have, but I'm reminded of a documentary that I'm working on right now where this one bit of video that I've been looking for is only available on a VHS tape recorded in the SLP mode. It was from a broadcast about 13 years ago, and the original broadcast master no longer exists (station dumped it figuring they weren't going to use anything from it). So I kind of have to go with what I've been able to dig up, which is what I guess Richard and TJL had to do, just go with the best quality that was available.
Rick-An Ordinary Fool
Well-Known Member
I think my point was if they were going to source it from vinyl why did they choose the edited version? As mentioned before I have the single 45 vinyl with the edited version while Harry mentions having the same single 45 vinyl with the normal non edited version. So if this single was pressed from different plants and 2 different versions were made why did Richard pick the edited version for this Singles Collection? I mean why not use the non edited version since it indeed existed and makes more sense to me, the longer intro sounds better as a whole than that edited version which cuts off and is rather strange after hearing the longer version for so many years.
I remember when I heard this a few years back and thinking what? This has been edited, it was a weird feeling since the album version was the proper release that I was accustomed to hearing.
It's quite possible that:
1. Richard chose the shorter version because it's the most different.
2. He chose it because it was the only copy he had access to.
3. He chose it because he's unaware that another version exists.
Choice three might seem silly, knowing what we know of Richard's attention to detail, but consider that the two versions might have existed due to geographic reasons - the east coast / west coast thing. Suppose he was unaware of the pressing plant difference. It's not unheard of. We are aware of two or three distinct pressing differences on Herb Alpert's WHAT NOW MY LOVE album. Herb was asked about it and knew nothing of it.
Also, Richard might have kept copies of albums and singles as given to him by the record company, but like most artists, he probably doesn't listen to any of them very much at all. Certainly not like we, the ravenous fans.
Harry
1. Richard chose the shorter version because it's the most different.
2. He chose it because it was the only copy he had access to.
3. He chose it because he's unaware that another version exists.
Choice three might seem silly, knowing what we know of Richard's attention to detail, but consider that the two versions might have existed due to geographic reasons - the east coast / west coast thing. Suppose he was unaware of the pressing plant difference. It's not unheard of. We are aware of two or three distinct pressing differences on Herb Alpert's WHAT NOW MY LOVE album. Herb was asked about it and knew nothing of it.
Also, Richard might have kept copies of albums and singles as given to him by the record company, but like most artists, he probably doesn't listen to any of them very much at all. Certainly not like we, the ravenous fans.
Harry
tomswift2002
Well-Known Member
#3 makes sense, as apparently he wasn't aware of the West German CD release of "Christmas Portrait" until someone close to him was visiting Europe and found the CD instead of the Special Edition.
newvillefan
I Know My First Name Is Stephen
Surely though for a pressing plant to have access to an alternate version, they must have been given a master copy of it in the first place that was done and approved at the studio during final mixing and mastering. Wouldn't Richard have been there for that?
Made In America
Member
The best reason of all is Anne Murray had a top 10 hit in 1974 with the Beatles song, "You Won't See Me". So radio was embracing a female vocalist covering the Beatles at that time. After reading some of the other comments in this thread, it would tough to say they shouldn't have released "I Won't Last A Day Without You" because it was nearly a top 10 hit. That's definitely not a mistake***. But "Ticket To Ride" would have filled in the void of Carpenters singles in the late summer & fall of '74 and it then would have followed the successful Anne Murray single, which had been a hit at the same time as "IWLADWY".
***As a sidenote, I did not care for the Carpenters version of the song in '74 because the song had already been a Top 10 single in my local radio market earlier when Maureen McGovern released it as one of the follow-up singles to "The Morning After" in 1973. So, for me personally, I wish A&M wouldn't have released that single.
Must Hear This Album
Well-Known Member
I wasn’t born when the “Ticket To Ride” single had its original run in 1969, but over a decade later, when I was 13, my parents bought me the Ticket To Ride album for Christmas, and immediately after the family finished unwrapping presents, I ran to my room and gave the album a spin. I was familiar with Carpenters’ version of the song from the Singles 1969-1973 album, so I remember after “Invocation" (for some reason) placing my needle on “Ticket.”
As soon as Karen’s vocals hit the speakers, I was puzzled. Was something wrong with my 1975 wood-grained stereo system? I kept checking the RPM speed, as it sounded like the song was running slower. Karen’s throat sounded sore and her voice draggy. I must have checked the RPM speed 5-6 times and put on other familiar albums before accepting it was the recording (obviously, I was ignorant that the Singles version was an updated recording). I didn’t return to the album for many years after that “disappointment," which was my loss, as I give their artsy debut regular spins, these days...
As soon as Karen’s vocals hit the speakers, I was puzzled. Was something wrong with my 1975 wood-grained stereo system? I kept checking the RPM speed, as it sounded like the song was running slower. Karen’s throat sounded sore and her voice draggy. I must have checked the RPM speed 5-6 times and put on other familiar albums before accepting it was the recording (obviously, I was ignorant that the Singles version was an updated recording). I didn’t return to the album for many years after that “disappointment," which was my loss, as I give their artsy debut regular spins, these days...
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