1978/79 album that never was

[Rumbahbah]

Listening to I Believe You the other day got me wondering about the rumoured 1978/1979 album for which it and other songs like Where Do I Go From Here? were allegedly recorded. Has it ever been confirmed by Richard or anyone else that there was a definite intention to release an album at this time before issues in their personal lives took priority? To judge from his liner notes, Richard implies that the songs recorded during this period were more as something done alongside the work on Christmas Portrait with no definite objective in mind. That said, releasing I Believe You as a single seems like a definite statement that there was an album to follow it, as I can't imagine it would make any sense to have released it to promote Christmas Portrait, which was released at a similar time but on which it did not feature, or as a stand-alone single. Is anyone able to shed any light on this? It seems like quite a puzzle!

 

[mr J.]

There was a definite album planned for Spring 1979 release(the fan club newsletters from 1978/1979 confirms this fact,as well as K&R's appearance on the "Tonight" show in 1978-intended to promote the planned release.) All of the tracks for that planned 1979 album have been released on the 4 subsequent Carpenters albums("Made In America","Voice Of The Heart","Lovelines" and "As Time Goes By"),and all of the tracks were recorded in 1978 during the "Christmas Portrait" sessions.

 

[newvillefan]

And yet what a disjointed affair it would have been. Consider the songs that were recorded during the period:

Slow Dance
Honolulu City Lights
Where Do I Go From Here?
I Believe You
Little Girl Blue
When I Fall In Love
Look To Your Dreams
The Rainbow Connection
Leave Yesterday Behind

There's no real theme or direction amongst those tracks, and nothing I would consider worthy of a single release, not for 1978 or 1979 anyway. The other songs from the buried treasures list that were recorded during this period probably wouldn't have ended up on the album anyway, since they're still imcomplete tracks.

I also don't think Richard would have returned to the stuff from previous years like 'Ordinary Fool' to pad the album out, as he considers this and other album tracks nowadays to be unworthy of even having released.

Stephen

 

[Johnny Angel]

I'm going through old threads and this one caught my eye.

I've made my own "Lost '78 CD" which has all the song mentioned above, but I've also included "Sailing On The Tide" which was mentioned in one of the newsletters prior to 1978. "Thank You For The Music" was mentioned as being considered for a single release in 1978, but "I Believe You" was released instead...

I also included "Trying To Get The Feeling Again" on it, since I felt they could have included it (if they had found it again, after losing it).
I also included "You're The One" since it wasn't included on "PASSAGE."
"Ordinary Fool" was recorded during the "Kind of Hush" sessions, right? So I included that one, too.
I included "Dancing In The Street" which was featured in the "SPACE ENCOUNTERS" special along with "Little Girl Blue," so I'm assuming it was also recorded at the same time.

So here's the track list for my "Lost 78" CD:

1) Trying To Get The Feeling Again
2) Where Do I Go From Here?
3) Leave Yesterday Behind
4) Sailing On The Tide
5) Slow Dance
6) Little Girl Blue
7) You're The One
8 ) Thank You For The Music
9) Ordinary Fool
10) Dancing In The Street
11) Honolulu City Lights
12) When I Fall In Love
13) Look To Your Dreams

It's not a bad album to listen to, and in my opinion it's at least as good A KIND OF HUSH... I think it would have been a safe return to the familiar type of tunes the public expected after "PASSAGE..." And with "CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT" coming out that same year, it would have been a double dose of great Carpenters music that might have held everyone over till "MADE IN AMERICA" a few years later...

 

[JMAR5]

I have all of those cd's except fort "As Time Goes By" I always thought that album was a re-hash of Greatest Hits, but I guess not because I see that "Rainbow Connection" is on it.

 

[Harry]

AS TIME GOES BY was really the last Carpenters album (to date) with "new" material. Richard reworked some early demo stuff and some TV tracks to compile an album of all fresh stuff, though some of the songs in TV medleys will be familira.

Harry