My take on the two "I Just Fall In Love Again" recordings (Anne Murray and Carpenters) is affected by my time working in radio. As Anne Murray's version was a hit record, I heard it often on our soft rock radio station. I had the station on in the background at work and the record was played quite often, and as such records tend to do, they burn themselves into one's brain.
Carpenters version only became known through PASSAGE as an album track - not from radio but my own plays of the album. It was always just a nice album track, but I forever and always heard Karen's "just over a cold" vocals on it. To me, it sounded like a remake of Anne's hit, which is the way I thought of it for years.
As time has progressed, Anne Murray's version of the song has faded into the rarely-played dustbin of history (here in the US, anyway - I'm sure it's a staple of Canadian radio to this day!). And through my participation on this forum, Carpenters version has had a lot more plays from me than Anne Murray's. As such, the PASSAGE version feels more comfortable, but even now, playing Anne's long-forgotten version, I get that "this is the hit version" feeling from listening to it. I probably haven't heard it in twenty years or more. But that old burned-in-the-brain feeling comes back with its play today.
Given the large number of times that Richard has placed the song on compilations tells me that he perhaps wishes that Carpenters take had been the hit and that it was a bit of a missed opportunity. Even with the RPO intro, he tweaked it to make it longer on the 2019 vinyl version.
Carpenters version only became known through PASSAGE as an album track - not from radio but my own plays of the album. It was always just a nice album track, but I forever and always heard Karen's "just over a cold" vocals on it. To me, it sounded like a remake of Anne's hit, which is the way I thought of it for years.
As time has progressed, Anne Murray's version of the song has faded into the rarely-played dustbin of history (here in the US, anyway - I'm sure it's a staple of Canadian radio to this day!). And through my participation on this forum, Carpenters version has had a lot more plays from me than Anne Murray's. As such, the PASSAGE version feels more comfortable, but even now, playing Anne's long-forgotten version, I get that "this is the hit version" feeling from listening to it. I probably haven't heard it in twenty years or more. But that old burned-in-the-brain feeling comes back with its play today.
Given the large number of times that Richard has placed the song on compilations tells me that he perhaps wishes that Carpenters take had been the hit and that it was a bit of a missed opportunity. Even with the RPO intro, he tweaked it to make it longer on the 2019 vinyl version.