Heard Carpenters

Thanks Harry - the Special Edition is currently available at Amazon - the CD is $20 new or from $18.68 used - the vinyl is $139.98 new or from $49.95 used - it has a rating of 4.7/5 from 1, 651 global ratings (I would have guessed even higher) and is ranked #35 in Traditional Pop and #54 in Easy Listening sales - the addition of the choir parts to "Ave Maria" is (unlike for some others here) a plus for me since I'm a big fan of choral music in general, and of how Richard tasefully incorporated the various choirs into his arrangements (although many of the arrangements on CP were, in fact, the work of Peter Knight). And thanks for the link to Discogs...very helpful!
 
Last edited:
Carpenters “Sleigh Ride” is on the holiday mixtape playlist on Delta Air Lines in flight entertainment system. Of course I had to listen to it, but I also noticed the younger guy in front of me jamming out to it later on in the flight.
 
Carpenters “Sleigh Ride” is on the holiday mixtape playlist on Delta Air Lines in flight entertainment system. Of course I had to listen to it, but I also noticed the younger guy in front of me jamming out to it later on in the flight.
Phila 106 the Breeze just played "Sleigh Ride".:santawave:
 
MYFM 104.9 played “Home For The Holidays” at about 8:05. It was the 3rd song on their Christmas version of their weekend show “Music Vault”. The host incorrectly said that it was released on ‘Christmas Portrait’ in 1978 with no mention of the 1984 AOFC or the Special Edition. But online this year I’ve seen numerous sites give CPSE the 1978 release date.
 
Here in the Bay area, we have KOIT FM playing Christmas music for about six weeks straight. Sunday night I listened about 3 1/2 hours. I heard Merry Christmas Darling, Carol of the Bells and There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays. It was really nice to hear them playing so much Carpenters. 😍⛄🌲🥂🥧.
 
I have been traveling (road-trip wise) more than usual this holiday season; however, while listening back and forth to two of the many Christmas-themed stations on XM radio I am NOT hearing much Carpenters at all. On my recent travels this weekend (about a total of six hours in the truck, listening) I heard ONE full Carpenters tune, Santa Clause is Coming to Town (OFC remix) and the last half of Carol of the Bells (the moment I turned on the radio). The rest of the time, it was radio silence for K&R. I only mention this because, in the same time period, I heard THREE Dolly Parton Christmas songs; Three from Frank Sinatra; Two from Perry Como; and an assortment of "newer" folks I was unfamiliar with. At one point, switching between stations, they had Mel Torme playing simultaneously on two channels. I notice that this happens from time to time (or year to year) where I'll hear either a inordinate amount of Carpenter's Christmas songs or hardly any at all being played. This seems to me like the latter this season.
 
I have been traveling (road-trip wise) more than usual this holiday season; however, while listening back and forth to two of the many Christmas-themed stations on XM radio I am NOT hearing much Carpenters at all. On my recent travels this weekend (about a total of six hours in the truck, listening) I heard ONE full Carpenters tune, Santa Clause is Coming to Town (OFC remix) and the last half of Carol of the Bells (the moment I turned on the radio). The rest of the time, it was radio silence for K&R. I only mention this because, in the same time period, I heard THREE Dolly Parton Christmas songs; Three from Frank Sinatra; Two from Perry Como; and an assortment of "newer" folks I was unfamiliar with. At one point, switching between stations, they had Mel Torme playing simultaneously on two channels. I notice that this happens from time to time (or year to year) where I'll hear either a inordinate amount of Carpenter's Christmas songs or hardly any at all being played. This seems to me like the latter this season.
Typically I hear quite a bit of Carpenters on Sirius XM every year—specifically on their Holiday Traditions station. I do notice that depending on the day, sometimes you'll hear them frequently, and sometimes not at all.
 
I get two radio stations that were playing the same IHeartMusic Christmas format (Tampa and Orlando), so they play roughly the same songs at the same time. Once in awhile, one will go into a commercial break while the other waits a song later to do that.

So I caught "Home For The Holidays" on one, and then switched to the other to hear it again.
 
A really special moment is that one right after the lengthy instrumental interlude at the beginning of AOFC when Karen makes her first long awaited vocal appearance by singing "Oh, there's no place like home for the holidays..."

Right up there with some of the best...
 
But how long will it take the Post Office to deliver it?
You'll need a time machine back to 1972 to both mail the post card and to use the tickets you'll win.

For the record, I entered that contest and did NOT win the tickets. Then we waited too long to try to buy tickets as the concert sold out. We were told by someone at the radio station that they were adding a second concert that evening and to wait for that announcement to buy ours, which we did. The second show was pretty full too, as the duo was extremely popular at that time.

A recording of "Help!" from that second show:

 
Here's an interesting "Heard Carpenters" post. It happened about fifty years ago as I recorded a promo off the radio. It's amazing that the promo actually used "Another Song" as its background!



This is indeed fascinating to me, as someone who has spent many years in marketing. Who made the decision to use Another Song for this, as opposed to any of/or cut medley of their smash hits at the time? Someone MADE that choice. I would imagine it's impossible to find out now, and doubt many are interested anyway, but for me I'd love to know why that choice was made, what the thinking was at that time.
 
This is indeed fascinating to me, as someone who has spent many years in marketing. Who made the decision to use Another Song for this, as opposed to any of/or cut medley of their smash hits at the time? Someone MADE that choice. I would imagine it's impossible to find out now, and doubt many are interested anyway, but for me I'd love to know why that choice was made, what the thinking was at that time.
^This! That's why I posted this particular promo. If it had been just something with "Close To You" or "We've Only Just Begun" or even "For All We Know", which was out by then, then it wouldn't have been such a surprise to me. But for them to have chosen "Another Song" is quite surprising.

I did later work at that station, but the DJ on that promo was long gone. I don't think that an ad agency would have had anything to do with it - it's just an in-house contest announcement.

One possibility: the station was pretty much automated at the time, meaning that the promo could have run immediately before or right after a regular Carpenters song in the rotation. Nothing in radio sounds worse than the same song played back to back, unless it's some kind of a "play it again" feature. So whoever chose it may have picked a song that wasn't being played.
 
Heard "I Won't Last A Day Without You" (original version from 1972 "A Song For You") at McDonald's in Sanford, Michigan where I live!!
 
At about 10:25 this morning, I heard the Carpenters "We've Only Just Begun" on MyFM104.9 FM. It sounded like it was a post-1985 mix, but I was also hearing a lot of treble, the bass seemed to be missing or wasn't being played correctly by the ghetto blaster that I heard it playing on in another room (of course I could see the ghetto blaster from where I was sitting). Or maybe the radio station edited the version to have it play over the radio with less bass.
 
Hurting Each Other at #12 for the week of 3/19/1972. Casey talked about them winning the Hollywood Bowl battle of the bands and taking away 9 awards. Then being signed to RCA to make strictly instrumental recordings. A group know for their vocals. Only 2 cuts, and not released. 5 years later A&M picked them up, and now their 6th gold record in a row. Etc etc. It was nice that anyone listening whether a fan or not, be aware of that bit of Carpenters trivia, and early history. I really think Casey Kasem was a big fan, as he’s done that type of Carpenters trivia on other broadcasts in the 70’s.
 
Yeah, that was all part of Casey's modus operandi, to make listeners aware of things they might not know from just standard radio where DJs were limited to just how much they could talk. But Casey, since it was his own show on his own terms, could have all sorts of research in front of him when fleshing out his show.
 
Heard Carpenters “For All We Know “ on AT40 for the week of 3/13/71 at #3, up from #7 the week before, it’s top position. 👍
I heard that AT40 replay as well last weekend and really enjoyed it. Hearing Henry Mancini's version of "Love Story" at #13 reminded me of how much radio has changed over these last decades. It was exciting to hear so many favorites again, yet it makes me sort of sad.
Someone cue "Yesterday Once More". 😑
 
Back
Top Bottom