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Late 1976, The Carpenters were simply out-of-favor.
Now, how do I square that with the apparent excellent Nielsen rating of the
Carpenters' Very First Television Special ?
Thanks John (above, post #425) for reminding me of the chart success of Muskrat Love.
Now, that brought back memories--how I detested that song back then !
Well, I took another listen a few minutes ago--horrible song, still.
And, Muskrat Love charted very successfully !
Late 1976, The Carpenters were simply out-of-favor.
Now, how do I square that with the apparent excellent Nielsen rating of the
Carpenters' Very First Television Special ?
If you were a hip radio programmer of a cool Top 40 station (where image is everything), would you jump at the chance to play a single called ‘GOOFUS’? Great album track, but bad single choice.
I don't think that things had gotten so bad that radio would not play any single they put out in 1976. (If) 'All You Get From Love is a Love Song' been a single in mid-1976 rather than 1977, I think it would have attracted more support. They were just facing a tougher marketplace, which required better singles choices
Don't underestimate the effect of the monster SINGLES 1969-1973 on sales. It sold a humongous amount of albums - and there was a feeling back then that if a "greatest hits" album was issued, then that's all you needed from that particular artist.
I am happy to be a part of this great community. That we are here discussing A Kind of Hush (among so many others) in 2018 is quite the legacy... And we actually have an upcoming release (RPO) to stoke our interest and enthusiasm!
Way way back then in 1971 my CarpenterS Fanclub newsletters came each month like clockwork. It was quite some time later when they became quarterly.The only reason for that is the fan club newsletters were usually issued three, sometimes four months apart. By October it would already. old news.
That's the way Commercial radio worked then but today it's run by consultants and bean counters but thankfully I'm still at one of the very few freeform stations left where the Dj s still choose and program the music and we do have a few carpenter's records in the library but I own the CDS and I usually use my CDS because sadly the records weren't cared for very wellI want to clarify that even back in 1975 or thereabouts, it would have been extremely rare to have a DJ in any major market with the power to choose records to play. The playlists of stations were controlled by the music or program director at these big stations. Little mom and pop radio stations were where you could find some DJs with the power to pick and choose records.
So if a song like "Goofus" wasn't on the approved playlist, there was precious little a DJ could do to play it, even if requested. Other "radio-isms" that may have been in play is the idea of dayparting. A friendly record promoter from A&M might twist a PD's arm to get them to play a record like "All You Get From Love Is A Love Song" and the PD would maybe oblige by putting it on the list, but then when program logs were prepared, the song might be buried in the late nights or overnights so as not to hurt the ratings in the main money dayparts. The PD could then show the promoter, "Look, your record got 18 plays over the last two weeks, but it's not getting any traction." The promoter is happy, the PD is happy. But the record went nowhere. Of course not - very few people heard it!
Would any song by The Carpenters have been chosen--in late 1976, for radio play ?
^^ Harry that jogged a memory - I specifically remember radio stations running ad campaigns where a voice-over would say something akin to "IS THIS what you want!? And play a quick 10 second medley of Bread, the Carpenters, or like bands. Then a loud needle scratch sound, and "well turn the channel, because we play THIS!! And then a medley of rock bands. Had forgotten that stuff.
I remember, after "Touch Me When We're Dancing" left the charts and "Want You Back In My Life Again" was released, calling the local radio station and requesting the latter. After all, "Touch Me..." went to No. 16 so, naturally, I thought the follow-up would also get airplay. However, when I requested "Want You...," they DJ's actually LAUGHED AT ME and said, in not so few words, "ain't gonna happen." I couldn't wrap my mind around, not only the rudeness but, that they played "Touch Me..." and completely disregarded and mocked "Want You.."
Billboard Magazine May 6,1978, on the
Seals and Croft album Takin' It Easy, regarding
One More Time: "...three members of the Carpenters' band do background vocals
and a pretty MOR arrangement of One More Time"
This is actually a pretty good version of the song that I’ve never heard before. Interesting that members of the Carpenters band are on backing vocals because the opening sounds for all the world like When Time Was All We Had.