Breaking Up Is Hard To Anthologize

[Harry]

While dubbing off the little 3-inch singles from the Carpenters' Japan Single Box Set, I came upon the song "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do." Though I've heard it many times before, it struck me that it didn't sound quite as familiar to me as most Carpenters "hits" do.

Then it occured to me to check just how many times this particular song had made it to a compilation. Starting with the recent ULTIMATE COLLECTION's and working backwards chronologically, I was shocked that it hadn't appeared on very many compilations at all - in fact until I got to the end of the compilations, I hadn't found it *anywhere*. That includes the two box sets, the Readers Digest set, the old ANTHOLOGY set, and even the exhaustive six-disc SWEET MEMORY set from Japan! I finally found it on an old '80s Japanese compilation called GOLD SERIES VOLUME 1.

Given the sheer number of Carpenters compilations that have been issued, I find it interesting that even "Goofus" has better representation than "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do."

Obviously it was a single in Japan, and probably charted and got airplay over there. It must have been largely ignored in the rest of the world. (?)

Harry

 

[newvillefan]

I often think about songs that fall into this category Harry, and the only other one I can think of that has appeared virtually nowhere since its original release is 'Kiss Me The Way You Did Last Night'.

Stephen

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Do you suppose maybe because the song is SO identified with Neil Sedaka, that Richard has left it off most comps because it doesn't "seem" as much like a Carpenters song? You have to admit they didn't do much with the arrangement.

 

[Dave]

Neil Sedaka could'a left the Arrangement of the New Version of "Breaking Up..." to Artie Butler (which I have a feeling he really did) who arranged the music on the rest of his The Hungry Years album...

Somehow I don't believe the "Richard Carpenter" credit on the Inner-Sleeve, which for years also omitted the Elton John Duet-Vocal credit on "Bad Blood"...



Dave

 

[newvillefan]

So why would they credit Richard with that arrangement?

Having said that, I have never seen any written confirmation, or anything mentioned in interviews, to confirm that Richard did in fact write this arrangement.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Richard wrote all the Carpenters arrangements except for some of the Christmas material, if memory serves.

My comment about the arrangement was a bit off - I should have used the word "STYLE" instead. Carpenters did the song in almost the exact same style as the Sedaka version - in other words, not putting their own "stamp" on it as much as they had done with so many other cover tunes in the past.

 

[newvillefan]

I thought you meant that Richard didn't really write the arrangement to the Neil Sedaka slowed down remake. It's that credit I was referring to

 

[Dave]

I thought you meant that Richard didn't really write the arrangement to the Neil Sedaka slowed-down remake. It's that credit I was referring to.

Yes, it was that credit I was referring to, too!

So why would they credit Richard with that arrangement?

Having said that, I have never seen any written confirmation, or anything mentioned in interviews, to confirm that Richard did in fact write this arrangement.

Which proves my point as far as any Musical Factuation to back me up goes, on what I commented earlier... inkshield:



Dave

 

[Harry]

http://www.grantguerrero.com/carpenters/neilsedaka.html

Harry

 

[newvillefan]

This is the thing though Harry. Dave made the point that the credits may be doubtable on this album. Any thoughts?

Stephen

 

[Dave]

I don't mean to be too doubtful about Richard's involvement in Neil's song... I tend to associate the "Arrangement" with "Conducting" and I can tell that's Mr. Butler's baton, right down to the "swishing through the air" it makes...

Artie's "Wavin' Stick" seems to have orchestrated Sedaka's trilogy of LP's on Elton John's Rocket label (thus beating Sir Elton at his own game...) with exception of "Cardboard California" on Sedaka's Steppin' Out; arr. by Jimmie Haskell...

So I also have to side with there being no written confirmation from Richard in any interview, according to the above statement newvillefan also made...

NP: "If I Can't Have You" -- Yvonne Elliman --Jimmie Haskell arranged (orchestrated) the Strings and Horns this one, too! No B.S.! The musician credits in the SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER Soundtrack are "lifted" from the LP she made before Night Flight, which the song also appears on was released... "If I Can't..." was released onto the Soundtrack BEFORE Night Flight was issued and you can hear Jim Horn's flute, as well (also missing from the S/T credits)... The rhythm section and studio credits on BOTH are right, though...



Dave

--'Sides Jimmie told me...! inkshield:

 

[soapzone83]

I never really understood the Carpenters recording of this song . I know Richard could have done abetter arrangement. Inever knew if it was recorded before or after their falling out with Sedaka. I just remember it sounded like everyone was cracking up at the end of the song. And the same album had Boat to Sail which ended with the "DeShannon is back" placement . It always seemed to be a swipe at the Captain and Tenilles "Sedaka is back" in Love will keep us together. But Bottom line - I wish the y had recored "Breaking up" with a great slow arrangement

 

[newvillefan]

I never knew if it was recorded before or after their falling out with Sedaka.

It was recorded after. They fired Sedaka from their tour in 1975 and recorded this song for their 1976 album 'A Kind Of Hush'.

The story goes that they recorded this cover as a way of making it up with Neil, but his account is very different. I remember reading his biography and it recounted the firing of Neil from the tour and that they fell out with him over it, and then after Karen died, the book went on to say that 'Richard Carpenter never spoke to him again'.

Stephen

 

[Calvin R Murty]

Hmmmm...if that is true, then maybe the song never appeared on compilations because compilations tend to sell well, and the appearance of the song means he would get royalties, which RC would not want someone he had a falling out with to have...(?)

Or maybe, it is just that their version was not hit material and nothing really spectacular!

 

[SakuraSYayoi]

Wasn't Richard planning "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" with another song, partly recorded in 1976? Like "Comin' Through The Rye / Good Vibrations"?

I guess "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" was supposed to be completed with another song, so Richard may feel it had not been completed and hardly put this song on compilations(?)

Sakura

 

[superbu]

They fired Sedaka from their tour in 1975 and recorded this song for their 1976 album 'A Kind Of Hush'.

The story goes that they recorded this cover as a way of making it up with Neil, but his account is very different. I remember reading his biography and it recounted the firing of Neil from the tour and that they fell out with him over it, and then after Karen died, the book went on to say that 'Richard Carpenter never spoke to him again'.

Stephen

Hmm, I don't think you're remembering that quite correctly. Either that, or Neil wrote an updated version of his autobiography, because his book was published in 1982, before Karen died. In the original edition of the book, at least, Neil says his and the Carpenters' relationship had been "cordial" when they'd run into each other since his firing. (He could not say the same for Elton John, who he had a REAL falling out with.)

Neil's story of the firing was -- and I just read through the book last week -- was that he was getting better reviews on the tour than the Carpenters were, and that the audience was cheering him, the opening act, and responding lukewarmly to the Carpenters. This was when Neil was in the middle of his big mid-1970s comeback, and Sedaka has always been known as a fantastic live performer.

Neil said he personally felt that the Carpenters had chosen too many ballads for the tour, and that they were trying to perform them exactly like the recorded versions, which he felt took away their sponteneity.

At any rate, the end began with Richard cutting the closing number where Neil returned and they all sang a medley together. Then, when a New York paper published a review of the show with the headline, "Sedaka Steals Show from Carpenters," Neil says Richard had a fit, shouting, "Get that son of a bitch out of here! I want him off!"

Neil said Karen came up to him crying and said, "I'm so sorry, Neil."

But this is the interesting thing: Neil comments in the book (which, again, was published before Karen died) that Karen looked like she weighed about 90 pounds -- he couldn't believe how thin she was. He credited it in the book to the stress of the tour.

The next day, Neil was informed that Richard had removed him from the tour. Neil said that as soon as the six-week tour was over, Karen was hospitalized. "She was simply exhausted," he says in the book. No mention of an eating disorder -- very few knew about it at the time the book was published.

I just thought his comments about her weight and assuming it was stress-induced were interesting, and sad. It's so strange to think there was a time when no one had ever heard of anorexia.

 

[Tony]

It IS strange to recall that there was a time, not that long ago, when no one knew what anorexia or bulimia was. In the early '80s I was in college and had a girlfriend that had an incredible appetite. Or so I thought. I was amazed that she could eat double and triple servings when we went out and never seemed to gain a pound. But then I discovered what those little trips to the bathroom during meals was all about. I had no idea at the time what it was called, I just knew she had a strange problem.

 

[Dave]

My guess as to why Neil Sedaka would avoid any mention of the real reason for Karen's condition in his Autobiography (which I definitely gotta read; I was not aware of any such thing, let alone two Editions) was maybe if he was aware of any "anoerexic condition" he would certainly would not want to cause any great controversy to his career, let alone contribute to the impending controversy of Richard & Karen's by elaborately mentioning it, right then and there... He knew "what was wrong" and was just afraid of putting it there...

Falling out there may have been between The Carpenters and Sedaka, but "two wrongs wouldn't have made a right", not as there was any such intention, but Neil's simply put statement would've at least have not called any negative attention to that situation at hand...



Dave

...Noting that Neil Sedaka, unlike a lot of entertainers, seems to be awfully damn good at keeping himself out of The Press over "Negative Issues" and the controversy a lot of celebrities seem to get very embroiled--sometimes to DEATH--in...! inkshield:

 

[newvillefan]

Hmm, I don't think you're remembering that quite correctly. Either that, or Neil wrote an updated version of his autobiography, because his book was published in 1982, before Karen died.

The version I read was from the late 80s or early 90s, and it had a more recent picture of him on the cover. It definitely did state that after Karen died, Richard never spoke to him again. So it has to be a biography written after her death, because it mentions her death.

Stephen

 

[superbu]

Was that a biography or an autobiography? We may be talking about a completely different book.

 

[newvillefan]

It must have been a biography, cos it was written in the third person, rather than Neil saying 'me'.

Stephen

 

[superbu]

It must have been a biography, cos it was written in the third person, rather than Neil saying 'me'.

Stephen

Well, there you go! We are talking about a different book.

 

[Johnny Angel]

I have a copy of Neil Sedaka's chapter on the Carpenters. He talks about Richard in a rage after one of the concert performances when Neil upstaged them, Karen crying and trying to apologize to Neil for Richard's behavior, "I'm so sorry..."

As for the song, it's not one of my favorites... As for why they recorded it, my feeling has always been that since most of the Carpenter albums had some sort of "bookending," and it was the last song on the album, I thought it was their way of saying that "you've listened to our album, this is the last song, and breaking up is hard to do..."

I've always wish that Karen had recorded the song with the "slow" arrangement that Richard wrote for Neil...

 

[JMAR5]

Interesting insight into the Sedaka-Carpenters tour. I had forgotten all about this. I like their cover of BUIHTD, but I can understand why it was not included on a compilations album. If Richard was that upset, it must be a royalties thing.