Favorite lead and/or background vocal by Richard?

[Murray]

.
Lord's Prayer - 83 Surely Richard wasn't considering this for inclusion on VOTH?

It was probably for Karen's funeral, or a later memorial service.

 

[tomswift2002]

“Slaughter On 10th Avenue” was Richard trying to be funny in 83?

But with “Lord’s Prayer” I could see Richard thinking of including it as a memorial track.

 

[Vinylalbumcovers]

They don't sound all that different to me, to be honest. The arrangement is pretty much the same right down to the backing vocals ("tell me 'bout it," etc.). Vocally, other than being a little smoother on the high notes, this guy isn't really any better of a singer than Richard.

Mark's hits significantly harder, it has actual groove, and the vocal is far more assured. Also, the backgrounds are quite different. The "tell me 'bout it" part is" is a double-octave on Mark's and just a low voice on Richard's. There's also the gauzy "tell me" bits in that same section that really don't fit, IMO. I believe Mark is confused/captivated by this woman. I don't believe Richard at all. We talked a bit about that before but this vocal should be playfully cool and Richard can't muster that. Mark sings in full voice throughout and Richard is in his head voice for almost all of it. The ad-libs at the end are truly terrible. He also removes the bridge of the tune ("you're the strangest girl I ever met..."). IMHO, Mark's destroys Richard's.

Ed

 

[GaryAlan]

February 1984, Fan Club Newsletter:
"Richard's impeccable accompaniment to Dennis Heath's vocal interpretation of
The Lord's Prayer
was an awesome contribution to poignant memorial service held February 4th..."

June 25th, 1983 , also saw the Tribute to Karen, by Richard and the Long Beach State Choir.

 

[GaryAlan]

If I interpret The Mook, correctly,
it does appear as if Richard Carpenter is credited on
Love As Old As The Heart....1983.
I wonder if ....
A Wedding Prayer and The Lord's Prayer, both 1983,.... are not, in fact, the same recording.

Regarding The Mook, it is of some interest that the song...
Something's Missing, is set "aside and outside" the list of unreleased Karen tracks (page 80).
In other words, that one song was singled out for some reason (a paragraph is devoted to it).

Parenthetically: Software is almost to the point where we will be able to soon scan the Mook and have the japanese text translated.

 

[Murray]

If I interpret The Mook, correctly,
it does appear as if Richard Carpenter is credited on
Love As Old As The Heart....1983.
I wonder if ....
A Wedding Prayer and The Lord's Prayer, both 1983,.... are not, in fact, the same recording.

Interesting. Richard sang The Wedding Prayer at Karen's wedding in 1980. Wouldn't the backing music have been recorded before the wedding, possibly in the same session as Because We Are In Love (The Wedding Song)? Since Richard sang live (to the recorded accompaniment) at the wedding, perhaps he added a studio vocal in 1983? Or the 1983 for that song was a typo? The Lord's Prayer was recorded in 1983, for a memorial service held on the first anniversary of Karen's passing, so definitely a different recording.

 

[newvillefan]

The Lord's Prayer was recorded in 1983, for a memorial service held on the first anniversary of Karen's passing, so definitely a different recording.

I wonder, does it include a lead vocal or was it an instrumental only recording? I can’t really picture Richard playing a recording of his own recording during a memorial for Karen...

 

[Murray]

I wonder, does it include a lead vocal or was it an instrumental only recording? I can’t really picture Richard playing a recording of his own recording during a memorial for Karen...

Earlier in this thread, @GaryAlan posted this info:

February 1984, Fan Club Newsletter:
"Richard's impeccable accompaniment to Dennis Heath's vocal interpretation of
The Lord's Prayer
was an awesome contribution to poignant memorial service held February 4th..."

What isn't clear, is whether Richard's accompaniment was live or pre-recorded. If the latter, then the recording must have been instrumental only. In any case, Richard could have recorded a demo of his arrangement, with his own vocals.

 

[GaryAlan]

Watch and hear (a nice rendering of) The Wedding Prayer, Richard Carpenter:

 

[John Adam]

I always like the ending of "Something In Your Eyes" where Richard's voice is heard more prominently. Certainly reminds one of something the Carpenters might of done.

Besides the wonderful arrangements and a certain "sisters" lead vocals, the magic of "Carpenters" records was that of Karen and Richards background vocals. It didn't get any better than that!