Canta the song in it's entirety (not the From the Top version)



Just saw this on youtube...Karen's voice in Spanish

Wow, this would be great to hear digitized. Unfortunately, between putting the fingers all over the record and the slow motor, I had a hard time watching it...

The part that's different from From the Top goes:

No te preocupes que no sea tan buena
Para que otros la oigan

(Don't worry that it's not good enough for others to hear)
 
I wonder why this section was replaced with English for "From the Top." It's great to hear the entire song in Spanish, and Karen sounds terrific.
 
This came up a couple of years ago. As I recall, Billy Rees had a copy of the 45 and shared it with us, and I remember lifting the "new" Spanish section from his copy and inserting it into the cleaner FROM THE TOP version. His single was mono and I had to fold down the stereo FROM THE TOP version to make things match up better. His version was way better than the one on YouTube.

I had two thought as to the "why" it was altered for FROM THE TOP. Either there was damage to the actual master tape that was irretrievable in that section, or perhaps the Spanish wasn't quite perfect or proper there. A Spanish speaker could confirm or deny the latter.
 
This came up a couple of years ago. As I recall, Billy Rees had a copy of the 45 and shared it with us, and I remember lifting the "new" Spanish section from his copy and inserting it into the cleaner FROM THE TOP version. His single was mono and I had to fold down the stereo FROM THE TOP version to make things match up better. His version was way better than the one on YouTube.

I had two thought as to the "why" it was altered for FROM THE TOP. Either there was damage to the actual master tape that was irretrievable in that section, or perhaps the Spanish wasn't quite perfect or proper there. A Spanish speaker could confirm or deny the latter.
My guess is that the master tape had issues in those regions. As someone who also speaks Spanish, I always thought that the lyrics were too literal, in the sense that, in order to fit all the syllables that need to be accentuated, Karen really had to cram together sounds (cant’ una canción, cantá ‘n voz alta), and that section was no exception. And in other parts, Karen actually accentuates the wrong syllable (canta de cosás buenas, que no sea tan buená). In other parts, pronunciation just seems a little off (pera que dure).

That being said, the same part was redacted twice, so who knows?
 
As things sometimes happen, I'd been searching for this single for years and just a week or so ago it showed up in one of my want lists. The 45 arrived today and I've cleaned it up the best I can and have uploaded it to YouTube.

The single is in mono, which might explain something regarding the replaced line. It might be damaged on Richard's stereo master and he opted to substitute the English line. Then to match it, he replaced it twice for consistency.

 
As things sometimes happen, I'd been searching for this single for years and just a week or so ago it showed up in one of my want lists. The 45 arrived today and I've cleaned it up the best I can and have uploaded it to YouTube.

The single is in mono, which might explain something regarding the replaced line. It might be damaged on Richard's stereo master and he opted to substitute the English line. Then to match it, he replaced it twice for consistency.


Considering that hybrid mix only appeared on 1991 “From The Top”, if Richard ever approved of its reissue again, nowadays the technology is present that Karen’s Spanish vocal could be separated from a mono master, just like they were able to seperate Elvis’s vocal from his 1950’s songs that were recorded in mono and insert it into a new recording of the song for a bunch of duets, or even when Capitol was trying to make a stereo version of “Pet Sounds” and different vocal tapes turned up lost. Capitol couldn’t get the vocals seperated in 1997 for the Pet Sounds box set but by 2001 technology had improved to where they could seperate the lost vocals from the mono master, and even make a 5.1 mix .
 
As things sometimes happen, I'd been searching for this single for years and just a week or so ago it showed up in one of my want lists. The 45 arrived today and I've cleaned it up the best I can and have uploaded it to YouTube.

The single is in mono, which might explain something regarding the replaced line. It might be damaged on Richard's stereo master and he opted to substitute the English line. Then to match it, he replaced it twice for consistency.


Sounds amazing! Thanks for uploading it!

Carpenters were not ABBA doing spanish songs for sure. The later group nailed every spanish recording they released in ORO (Gold)

I agree with Cuyler. Lyrics were too literal and pronunciation therefore is a little, well, pretty off. But still so lovely they had decided to record this song in spanish. As a spanish native speaker it made me really happy the first time I heard it in "From the Top." Very likely it was a rush job, otherwise whoever was doing the translation could have found the right words to fit better with the melody. But still a lovely piece. I don't know about Sing in Japanese... I have jokingly sang that to some japanese people I have met, and they wondered where did I learn that song. LOL.
 
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Sounds amazing! Thanks for uploading it!

Carpenters were not ABBA doing spanish songs for sure. The later group nailed every spanish recording they released in ORO (Gold)

I agree with Cuyler. Lyrics were too literal and pronunciation therefore is a little, well, pretty off. But still so lovely they had decided to record this song in spanish. As a spanish native speaker it made me really happy the first time I heard it in "From the Top." Very likely it was a rush job, otherwise whoever was doing the translation could have found the right words to fit better with the melody. But still a lovely piece. I don't know about Sing in Japanese... I have jokingly sang that to some japanese people I have met, and they wondered where did I learn that song. LOL.
I’ve wondered if they ever sang it in any other language like German? I know that back in the 60’s Capitol had both the Beatles and Beach Boys record German versions of one of their songs in order to try to break into the mainland Europe scene. I wonder if there’s a German versing of “Sing” in the vaults?
 
I’ve wondered if they ever sang it in any other language like German? I know that back in the 60’s Capitol had both the Beatles and Beach Boys record German versions of one of their songs in order to try to break into the mainland Europe scene. I wonder if there’s a German versing of “Sing” in the vaults?
If they ever practiced to do the song in German, the perfect opportunity to perform it would have been at the White House dinner for the West German Chancellor.
 
I think they sang Stille Nacht (Silent Night) in German for the Christmas TV special, Canta in Spanish (Sing), Japanese version of Sing in Concert, Latin for Adeste Fideles (O Come All Ye Faithful), Latin for Ave Maria....those are the songs they did in other languages, in recording studio or live in concert....
 
I don't know about Sing in Japanese... I have jokingly sang that to some japanese people I have met, and they wondered where did I learn that song. LOL.
As someone who is not fluent in Japanese but grew up hearing Japanese (and I've studied it formally for years without becoming fluent LOL), the Japanese version to me sounds more like ABBA singing in Spanish. The translation is not literal, so it doesn't sound forced. For example, English "sing" is pretty vague (it's an imperative--but who is being told to sing?) -- Spanish "canta" is a tú command, so it's very specifically telling you, the listener, to sing a song. The Japanese translation for this line is 歌おう (utaou), which means "let's sing" (which actually matches the Japanese culture a lot more tbh--it's about the collective more than the individual).

The next line, in English "sing out loud, sing out strong," and in Spanish "canta en voz alta, canta fuerte" (a literal translation here too), takes a totally different turn in Japanese: 声を合わせ (koe-wo awase). Literally, all it means is "voices joining" or "voices together" or "voices united" (I wrote "wo" because that's the standard romanization, but it's pronounced "o" like Karen sings.)

The only thing Karen does across languages that outs her as a native American English speaker is that she uses diphthongs, whether it's "awase(i)" or "tame(i)" in Japanese "Sing," or "alegre(i)" or "triste(i)" in Spanish "Sing," or "ave(i)" or "ple(i)na" or "te(i)cum" in "Ave Maria." I spoke with a Spanish speaker about this in length--Americans don't hear just how much we use diphthongs in English, so when we speak in other languages, this phenomenon spills over unintentionally.
 
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The song "Sing" was written for a children's TV show and was meant to be somewhat simplistic. I don't think it really needs too much analysis or fine tuning. There will always be differences in meanings between languages and cultures, and it's fun to have these alternate versions available for us to hear.
 
There will always be differences in meanings between languages and cultures, and it's fun to have these alternate versions available for us to hear.
True, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be able to analyze the music.
 
Oh, by all means, analyze away. I love hearing about language differences and meanings. As a US native who only studied German in school, I often feel stuck in my basically mono-linguistic life.
 
I forgot to mention in my post... I rarely listen to "Live in Japan" only because I don't have the CD, BUT other than the diphthong phenomenon (which, like I said, is unintentional), Karen nails the Japanese performance and whoever translated the lyrics into Japanese did a great job. This could have been a very successful western single in Japan, in my opinion!
 
As things sometimes happen, I'd been searching for this single for years and just a week or so ago it showed up in one of my want lists. The 45 arrived today and I've cleaned it up the best I can and have uploaded it to YouTube.

The single is in mono, which might explain something regarding the replaced line. It might be damaged on Richard's stereo master and he opted to substitute the English line. Then to match it, he replaced it twice for consistency.


Also, you did a beautiful job at transferring this single, @Harry!
 
As someone who is not fluent in Japanese but grew up hearing Japanese (and I've studied it formally for years without becoming fluent LOL), the Japanese version to me sounds more like ABBA singing in Spanish. The translation is not literal, so it doesn't sound forced. For example, English "sing" is pretty vague (it's an imperative--but who is being told to sing?) -- Spanish "canta" is a tú command, so it's very specifically telling you, the listener, to sing a song. The Japanese translation for this line is 歌おう (utaou), which means "let's sing" (which actually matches the Japanese culture a lot more tbh--it's about the collective more than the individual).

The next line, in English "sing out loud, sing out strong," and in Spanish "canta en voz alta, canta fuerte" (a literal translation here too), takes a totally different turn in Japanese: 声を合わせ (koe-wo awase). Literally, all it means is "voices joining" or "voices together" or "voices united" (I wrote "wo" because that's the standard romanization, but it's pronounced "o" like Karen sings.)

The only thing Karen does across languages that outs her as a native American English speaker is that she uses diphthongs, whether it's "awase(i)" or "tame(i)" in Japanese "Sing," or "alegre(i)" or "triste(i)" in Spanish "Sing," or "ave(i)" or "ple(i)na" or "te(i)cum" in "Ave Maria." I spoke with a Spanish speaker about this in length--Americans don't hear just how much we use diphthongs in English, so when we speak in other languages, this phenomenon spills over unintentionally.
In Japanese I have to wonder what “Ole King Cole” has to do with ‘Sing’.
 
At one point Karen sings a line that sounds like she’s saying ‘Ole King Cole’!
Ohhh, I think you're referring to the line she sings "ookina koe-wo dashi" (大きな声を出し), which I'm having a hard time translating literally. Literally it's something like "big voice(s) leaving," but a more normal translation would be something like "singing loudly" or "producing big voices." The next part, "hazukashi garazu" (恥ずかしがらず) means "without being shy" or "donʻt be shy" (Cat Stevens!).

So, together, "ookina koe-wo dashi, hazukashi garazu" means "sing with a big voice without being shy."
 
I didn't realize it, but I translated 2/3 of the Japanese lyrics. I might as well post the whole thing here, hahaha!

歌おう、声を合わせ悲しいこと忘れるため
Utaou, koe-wo awase kanashii koto wasureru-tame
Let's sing, let's sing together (let's join our voices) in order to forget about sad things

歌おう、幸せが来るように
Utaou, shiawase-ga kuru youni
Let's sing so that happiness/good fortune/blessings will come

大きな声を出し、恥ずかしがらず
Ookina koe-wo dashi, hazukashi garazu
Sing with a big voice (let your voice be big), don't be shy


And in Spanish:

Canta, canta una canción
Canta en voz alta, canta fuerte
Canta de cosas buenas, no malas
Canta alegre, no triste

Canta, canta una canción
Hazla sencilla para que dure toda tu vida
No te preocupes que no sea tan buena
Para que otros la oigan

Canta, canta una canción


Spanish translated into English (as literal a translation as possible):

Sing, sing a song
Sing out loud, sing strong
Sing of good things, not bad
Sing happy, not sad

Sing, sing a song
Make it simple so that it lasts for your whole life
Don't worry that it's not good enough
For others to hear it (it = the song)

Sing, sing a song
 
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As things sometimes happen, I'd been searching for this single for years and just a week or so ago it showed up in one of my want lists. The 45 arrived today and I've cleaned it up the best I can and have uploaded it to YouTube.

The single is in mono, which might explain something regarding the replaced line. It might be damaged on Richard's stereo master and he opted to substitute the English line. Then to match it, he replaced it twice for consistency.


This is really cool, almost like hearing a new Carpenters recording. This would be a nice addition to have in your collection. Did you find this overseas or within the US, just curious. It sounds pretty decent as these 45's can be hit or miss on sound quality. Does it mention mono in the run off groove? It's interesting how small the Carpenters logo appears on the label.
 
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