Other Female Singers

Before I head off to LA for the upcoming 50th Anniversary event, I’m spending a week in New York and one of the things I’ve always wanted to do is see a baseball game. Anyway, I’ve booked to see the Yankees play at home and to get in the mood, I’m watching a movie I’ve never seen before called A League Of Their Own from 1992 and the theme tune really struck a chord with me. It’s not smash hit material but it’s a lovely song by Carole King and I can somehow hear Karen singing it. To top that, I’ve just realised the cast includes Madonna and her song This Used To Be My Playground is also the theme song for the movie. Madonna donated the royalties from that single to The Karen A. Carpenter Memorial Foundation (as it was known then).



This Used to Be My Playground - Wikipedia


A League Of Their Own is one of my favourite films. As a child, I was a huge Madonna fan (I actually first took an interest in the Carpenters because of her, but that’s a whole other story) and I used to watch it all the time.

This Used To Be My Playground is a really nice song - one of M’s best ballads IMO. I’d forgotten she donated the profits to the charity.

That aside, Carole King has an excellent voice. I really like her.
 
Before I head off to LA for the upcoming 50th Anniversary event, I’m spending a week in New York and one of the things I’ve always wanted to do is see a baseball game. Anyway, I’ve booked to see the Yankees play at home and to get in the mood, I’m watching a movie I’ve never seen before called A League Of Their Own from 1992 and the theme tune really struck a chord with me. It’s not smash hit material but it’s a lovely song by Carole King and I can somehow hear Karen singing it. To top that, I’ve just realised the cast includes Madonna and her song This Used To Be My Playground is also the theme song for the movie. Madonna donated the royalties from that single to The Karen A. Carpenter Memorial Foundation (as it was known then).



This Used to Be My Playground - Wikipedia



This is quite a melancholy tune about baseball by one Frances Albert Sinatra. A tribute to the original Yankee Stadium ("The House That Ruth Built") which was torn down and replaced by the "new" Yankee Stadium that had its opening day in April 2009. I hope you have a wonderful time watching the game!

 
Before I head off to LA for the upcoming 50th Anniversary event, I’m spending a week in New York and one of the things I’ve always wanted to do is see a baseball game. Anyway, I’ve booked to see the Yankees play at home and to get in the mood, I’m watching a movie I’ve never seen before called A League Of Their Own from 1992 and the theme tune really struck a chord with me. It’s not smash hit material but it’s a lovely song by Carole King and I can somehow hear Karen singing it. To top that, I’ve just realised the cast includes Madonna and her song This Used To Be My Playground is also the theme song for the movie. Madonna donated the royalties from that single to The Karen A. Carpenter Memorial Foundation (as it was known then).



This Used to Be My Playground - Wikipedia


I liked this movie a lot when it first came out, and I really like Madonna's "Used to be My Playground", a slow and evocative ballad, with an ethereal quality I find very appealing. I think Karen could have sung this song wonderfully.
Edit: Sang or sung? :wink:
 
The Sugar Bears "Presenting The Sugar Bears" (January 1972) which runs 28 minutes & 42 seconds. Honey Bear is singer Kim Carnes who does "Feather Balloon" & "It's A Good Day" (sounds like Dolly Parton). The song "The Two Of Us Together" sounds like Donny & Marie Osmond. Matt Clark Sanford, MI
 
One of my favourite bands from the late 70s...



If you guys can peel your eyeballs away from Debbie Harry for a moment, watch the drummer, Clem Burke... man, that guy was entertaining!

Ha..yeah he was entertaining...I thought he was one of the Beatles at first lol
I love Blondie!!
 
Fly Me To The Moon, another popular song with great lyrics. Would've loved to hear a Carpenter's rendition of this with Karen on lead. Not a bad version from Julie London;

 


Has any one mentioned ofra haza yet in this thread? For me, no one comes close to the beauty and soul in Karen’s voice. But ofra haza’s young voice is quite stunning.
 
Album of the Week: Weyes Blood – Titanic Rising
"(Natalie) Mering’s touchstone on this record are bands like The Carpenters, whose music feels just a little too earnest and emotional for 2019. There is an open-heartedness in songs like “Close to You” that Titanic Rising inhabits to its fullest. But it’s not just optimism filling Karen Carpenter’s (and Natalie Mering’s) voice with so much emotion. It’s also a deep sadness. Karen never manages to get near her object of affection, instead left to say things like, “Why do stars fall down from the sky/Every time you walk by?/Just like me, they long to be/Close to you.” Mering taps into this as well.
Nearly every song on Titanic Rising is filled with a certain kind of loneliness."

Here:
Album of the Week: Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising
 
Nancy Sinatra's "Nancy" album (sometimes referred to as "Nancy: Twelve Ways") turned 50 this month. Although I love her upbeat groovy 60's stuff, I adore this side to her music. It's an album of sultry crooning from Sinatra, a little bit of country here and there and ballads ! There are so many here that would be perfect for Karen: the ballad-ised version of Stevie Wonder's "For Once In My Life" for example. "Long Time Woman" is another prefect one for Karen. A few here were recorded first by Nancy whilst others were already popular songs:

01. God Knows I Love You
02. Memories
03. Just Bein' Plain Old Me
04. Here We Go Again
05. My Dad (My Pa)
06. Light My Fire
07. Big Boss Man
08. My Mother's Eyes
09. I'm Just In Love
10. Son-Of-A-Preacher Man
11. Long Time Woman
12. For Once In My Life

Below is the full original album:


"Long Time Woman" is one I feel would have been good for Karen, I can just hear her singing the lines "love is gone but still you tremble, when somebody speaks her name" in her low notes:
 
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I liked this movie a lot when it first came out, and I really like Madonna's "Used to be My Playground", a slow and evocative ballad, with an ethereal quality I find very appealing. I think Karen could have sung this song wonderfully.
Edit: Sang or sung? :wink:

I love This Used To Be My Plaground, it's surely one of the most beauitful ballads ever written. It's no secret Madonna is a huge Carpenters fan and I always assumed it was an absolute Carpenters tribute; the chord changes, strings, hamonies, and her vocal is pure Karen.

I bought it on cassette back in 1992 and played it to death that summer - the long 6 minute version with the extra verse.
It would have been a gorgeous vehicle for Karen. They also used to say 'Rain' was a Karen tribute - at least in her vocal style. It's easy to forget at times how talented Madonna was at her peak - she crafted some very impressive songs.

 
I love This Used To Be My Plaground, it's surely one of the most beauitful ballads ever written. It's no secret Madonna is a huge Carpenters fan and I always assumed it was an absolute Carpenters tribute; the chord changes, strings, hamonies, and her vocal is pure Karen.

I bought it on cassette back in 1992 and played it to death that summer - the long 6 minute version with the extra verse.
It would have been a gorgeous vehicle for Karen. They also used to say 'Rain' was a Karen tribute - at least in her vocal style. It's easy to forget at times how talented Madonna was at her peak - she crafted some very impressive songs.


I disliked Madonna’s music with a passion when she first started out, up until about 1990, (apart from a couple of her slower songs). Then she recorded quite a few ballad-flavoured songs between 1990 and 1998 which I liked, and I liked some of her dance-oriented songs from this period, which I thought were inventive. I lost interest again with the ‘Music’ and ‘American Life’ albums around 2000. I like all styles of music but mainly only like Madonna’s ballads - some of which are very good and satisfying to listen to.
 
I disliked Madonna’s music with a passion when she first started out, up until about 1990, (apart from a couple of her slower songs). Then she recorded quite a few ballad-flavoured songs between 1990 and 1998 which I liked, and I liked some of her dance-oriented songs from this period, which I thought were inventive. I lost interest again with the ‘Music’ and ‘American Life’ albums around 2000. I like all styles of music but mainly only like Madonna’s ballads - some of which are very good and satisfying to listen to.

If you like Madonna’s earlier ballads, you might like this one from 2011 (forgive me if you’ve already heard it). It’s a nice number from the soundtrack of her movie W.E.



In relation to Madonna’s love for the Carpenters, it was said that Angel (see below) was also a tribute to Karen.

 
In my early teens, I became enchanted with the music of Kate Bush. I have to admit that I’ve gone off some of her stuff in recent years but I still like much of the album, ‘Aerial’, which is sort of like a Cycle of Life opus with a Dylan Thomas influence. The voice of the mature Kate Bush sounds a bit worse for wear at times, probably because of all that roaring and screeching in days of old, but there’s a certain charm to it. I have chosen the song, ‘Nocturn’, to share. True, the ‘Aerial’ album does have a ‘home demo’ feel, which you may notice in this song. I have found a copy on YouTube that doesn’t have a home-made video accompanying it, so it is possible to enjoy the story of the song and the images that the lyrics evoke.

 
I wonder if anyone in this forum has listened to Sara Barellies latest "Amidst The Chaos" yet?? I don't have the CD yet. Saw Sara perform the song "Fire" on "The Late, Late Show With James Corden". I wonder if Sara will win for best "Album Of The Year" at the Grammy Awards come February 2020?? Matt Clark Sanford, MI
 
This clip on the set of Evita says it all, they were clearly her first musical love ...



It was actually watching this that first made me ask my parents for a Carpenters album back in the late nineties. I loved Madonna and thought if she liked them, they must be good. I got Love Songs for Christmas and fell in love with Karen’s voice. I remember being so sad when I found out she’d already passed.
 
It was actually watching this that first made me ask my parents for a Carpenters album back in the late nineties. I loved Madonna and thought if she liked them, they must be good. I got Love Songs for Christmas and fell in love with Karen’s voice. I remember being so sad when I found out she’d already passed.

What a fabulous story. The Carpenters were my first musical love from a very young age, but I always loved Madonna back in the day; Like A Prayer, Erotica & Bedtime Stories are still big favourites.

And what a lovely introduction with Love Songs - that was a beautiful collection.
 
Madonna's last album, Rebel Heart, had a ballad that many compared to Karen: "Ghosttown." I love it. And I love Madonna.
 
What a fabulous story. The Carpenters were my first musical love from a very young age, but I always loved Madonna back in the day; Like A Prayer, Erotica & Bedtime Stories are still big favourites.

And what a lovely introduction with Love Songs - that was a beautiful collection.

Like a Prayer is probably one of my most played albums; I’ve loved it ever since I first heard it

Agreed on Love Songs :love:


 
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