⭐ Official Review [Album]: "A KIND OF HUSH" (SP-4581)

HOW WOULD YOU RATE THIS ALBUM?

  • ***** (BEST)

    Votes: 7 8.1%
  • ****

    Votes: 20 23.3%
  • ***

    Votes: 46 53.5%
  • **

    Votes: 12 14.0%
  • *

    Votes: 1 1.2%

  • Total voters
    86
Probably been discussed previously:
Fan Club Newsletter #82 (November 1984) sates that
Richard Carpenter arranged the jazzy version of
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
for Neil Sedaka.

Is that the arrangement utilized in Sedaka's hit- recording of the song ?
 
Thanks, Harry !
Wow....Richard's arrangement on this is far superior to the version on Hush LP,
How was it that the other rendition was chosen for Hush, instead of this arrangement---
a great one, which has Karen Carpenter vocals written all over ?
 
I'd be willing to bet that both Karen & Richard, who grew up with the great Neil Sedaka oldie, really wanted to do the "down doobee doo down down" vocals for themselves.
 
Thanks, Harry !
Wow....Richard's arrangement on this is far superior to the version on Hush LP,
How was it that the other rendition was chosen for Hush, instead of this arrangement---
a great one, which has Karen Carpenter vocals written all over ?

Agreed! It's a great version. Karen would have sounded fantastic if they had chosen this arrangement.

I wish the Carpenters had recorded both versions for the album. Put the regular version to end Side 1, and the jazzier version as a reprise of sorts to end Side 2. The HUSH album at 34 minutes was too short anyway, so another song--even if it's just a reprise--would have filled things out a bit better.
 
Again, I must ask:
according to Discogs, regarding the Neil Sedaka jazzy-version
(Hungry Years LP)
of song Breaking Up Is Hard To Do,
Richard Carpenter was only credited for the strings-arrangement
of the song.
I do not have the actual LP, so I am unable to actually verify anything,
but, did Richard Carpenter come up with the entire arrangement for the song,
or, only the String-portion of it ?
 
Again, I must ask:
according to Discogs, regarding the Neil Sedaka jazzy-version
(Hungry Years LP)
of song Breaking Up Is Hard To Do,
Richard Carpenter was only credited for the strings-arrangement
of the song.
I do not have the actual LP, so I am unable to actually verify anything,
but, did Richard Carpenter come up with the entire arrangement for the song,
or, only the String-portion of it ?

It was the strings only, as Richard created the arrangement in '75 when Neil was opening for them in Vegas. Karen and Neil sang it as a duet together.
 
Ron Tutt is credited for drums on
Ordinary Fool,
"...tracked for the Hush album in 1976..."
In reading the Hush LP sleeve notes, I see Jim Gordon and Cubby O'Brien
handled the drumming on those (released in 1976) cuts.
Thus, I wonder, was the song "tracked" without drums in 1976 ?
 
Ron Tutt is credited for drums on
Ordinary Fool,
"...tracked for the Hush album in 1976..."
In reading the Hush LP sleeve notes, I see Jim Gordon and Cubby O'Brien
handled the drumming on those (released in 1976) cuts.
Thus, I wonder, was the song "tracked" without drums in 1976 ?

When they tracked a song, it was nearly always done with (in their case) bass, piano and drums at the same time, as the drums are what 'lock in' the rhythm of a track. It would be extreme difficult to record it without drums and then try and overlay a drum track onto it later to match the other instruments recorded.

They may have chosen Ron Tutt for a specific reason i.e. this was a blues number that required brushes rather than sticks, it's a very different style of song to anything that made the finished album.
 
Was it known for a while that "Box Office Movie King" had actually been recorded? Richard only mentioned that it was "considered" (clever way of saying it so people are not asking for it to be released) along with some other tunes. On the Lead Sister site I found this quote:

"Karen sings this Palma Pascale tune with beauty. It’s well-suited for her voice, and it is a lovely song. Karen’s reading of it is just right in this writer’s opinion – longing in her voice – the loneliness shows through, and you can tell she’s had more than her fair share of this kind of relationship, and she definitely needs someone to love her for being her, not the celebrity she now represents;. a beautiful read by Karen, well-produced by Rich, well-written by Palma."

Now I really want to hear this. And yet it will sit in a vault and collect dust for no good reason for Christ knows how much longer.
 
Q:
"Love Me For What I Am" was written by Palma Pascale,
and recorded by the Carpenters. What was it that caught your ear?
Were other songs by Palma recorded?
A:
Richard Carpenter:
The entire song caught my ear, especially, of course, the hook.
I felt some of Palma's lyrics weren't on par with the melody and with her permission brought in John Bettis for lyric revisions.
One other song of Palma's considered was "Box Office Movie King".

Source:
Carpenters Fans Ask- Richard Answers, May 2005 »
 
Q:
"Love Me For What I Am" was written by Palma Pascale,
and recorded by the Carpenters. What was it that caught your ear?
Were other songs by Palma recorded?
A:
Richard Carpenter:
The entire song caught my ear, especially, of course, the hook.
I felt some of Palma's lyrics weren't on par with the melody and with her permission brought in John Bettis for lyric revisions.
One other song of Palma's considered was "Box Office Movie King".

Source:
Carpenters Fans Ask- Richard Answers, May 2005 »

Richard says considered because if people knew they recorded it then they would be hounding him even more for a release. It was definetly recorded.
 
Was it known for a while that "Box Office Movie King" had actually been recorded? Richard only mentioned that it was "considered" (clever way of saying it so people are not asking for it to be released) along with some other tunes. On the Lead Sister site I found this quote:

"Karen sings this Palma Pascale tune with beauty. It’s well-suited for her voice, and it is a lovely song. Karen’s reading of it is just right in this writer’s opinion – longing in her voice – the loneliness shows through, and you can tell she’s had more than her fair share of this kind of relationship, and she definitely needs someone to love her for being her, not the celebrity she now represents;. a beautiful read by Karen, well-produced by Rich, well-written by Palma."

Now I really want to hear this. And yet it will sit in a vault and collect dust for no good reason for Christ knows how much longer.

To me it sounds like the person is describing "Love Me For What I Am" in the above quote, not "Box Office Movie King". In Rick Henry's "Online Interviews" publication, he has an extensive interview with the late Palma Pascale and she stated that she was notified that the Carpenters never recorded it. "I was told a year later that she had decided to go in a different direction with the next album, and the song wouldn't fit". There may be an unfinished version in the vault but Ms. Pascale also said that she got hold of a list of unreleased songs and did not see any of her submissions on it.
 
To me it sounds like the person is describing "Love Me For What I Am" in the above quote, not "Box Office Movie King". In Rick Henry's "Online Interviews" publication, he has an extensive interview with the late Palma Pascale and she stated that she was notified that the Carpenters never recorded it. "I was told a year later that she had decided to go in a different direction with the next album, and the song wouldn't fit". There may be an unfinished version in the vault but Ms. Pascale also said that she got hold of a list of unreleased songs and did not see any of her submissions on it.

Well now ya make me feel like an idiot! But I do stand what I said about about the unreleased tracks collecting dust for no good reason.
 
To me it sounds like the person is describing "Love Me For What I Am" in the above quote, not "Box Office Movie King". In Rick Henry's "Online Interviews" publication, he has an extensive interview with the late Palma Pascale and she stated that she was notified that the Carpenters never recorded it. "I was told a year later that she had decided to go in a different direction with the next album, and the song wouldn't fit". There may be an unfinished version in the vault but Ms. Pascale also said that she got hold of a list of unreleased songs and did not see any of her submissions on it.

I agree - I think that quote above is referring to Love Me For What I Am rather than any other track. Palma is on record as giving a similar description about their decision to record it and her reaction to Karen's reading of the song when she finally heard it on Horizon.
 
Who was it that said "I Can Dream, Can't I" was Karen's personal favorite on the album? There was someone who worked with her that had a quote that it was the song on Horizon that most encapsulated her inner yearning. I don't know if it was in one of the books but I definitely remember reading it.
 
Per the album Sleeve, it is interesting that
Scarkino and Co.,
credited for album concept and design,
apparently has this Album as their sole creation.
Allmusic and Discogs list no other credits for this company.
I wonder if their work with album Kind of Hush
spelled doom for them ?
 
Have I overlooked this in the Forum Resource ?
The UK Box Set (1989, CARPCD-12) Kind of Hush CD
utilizes the version of
I Need To Be In Love,
without the piano introduction.

I'm sure it's somewhere on the Resource page, but, I couldn't locate it.
(OK, give me a break, I am getting old !).
 
Have I overlooked this in the Forum Resource ?
The UK Box Set (1989, CARPCD-12) Kind of Hush CD
utilizes the version of
I Need To Be In Love,
without the piano introduction.

I'm sure it's somewhere on the Resource page, but, I couldn't locate it.
(OK, give me a break, I am getting old !).

Tell you one thing I noticed about the version of this song featured on the "Nation's Favourite" collection. They used the long piano intro version but on the very first note that the bass kicks in, the OK Chorale does as well. On other "long piano" versions, the Chorale is only faded in a couple of bars later. It sounds almost like Richard remixed the intro slightly and brought the Chorale in right after the harp where the bass strikes up.
 
Last edited:
Have I overlooked this in the Forum Resource ?
The UK Box Set (1989, CARPCD-12) Kind of Hush CD
utilizes the version of
I Need To Be In Love,
without the piano introduction.

I'm sure it's somewhere on the Resource page, but, I couldn't locate it.
(OK, give me a break, I am getting old !).

The UK COLLECTION Box Set is essentially all of the prior A&M CDs in terms of mixes used - with just a couple of exceptions. The whole A SONG FOR YOU album had been redone for MFSL and *that* master was used on the collection. Also, PASSAGE got a very small update with the inclusion of the remix of "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft". And I've not singled out individual albums in any of the box set collections given that they are essentially the same as the individual releases. Basically,

COLLECTION = original A&M CDs
30th, 35th, 40th Anniversary sets = Remastered Classics from 1998-9

So if you look at the entry for "I Need To Be In Love", you'll see that the original A&M CD is listed as one of the albums with the shorter, single edit - and that translates to the COLLECTION as well, though is not mentioned. I should probably find a way to detail that a little better.

Harry
 
Tell you one thing I noticed about the version of this song featured on the "Nation's Favourite" collection. They used the long piano intro version but on the very first note that the bass kicks in, the OK Chorale does as well. On other "long piano" versions, the Chorale is only faded in a couple of bars later. It sounds almost like Richard remixed the intro slightly and brought the Chorale in right after the harp where the bass strikes up.

From what I've heard on the online samples, "I Need To Be In Love" is the original album version, which does bring in the chorale earlier than on the remix. Is that what you're hearing?
 
From what I've heard on the online samples, "I Need To Be In Love" is the original album version, which does bring in the chorale earlier than on the remix. Is that what you're hearing?

Just checked Harry, yes it's the original album version featured. Good spot.
 
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