🎵 AotW Carpenters CLOSE TO YOU (A&M SP 4271)

[LPJim]

CARPENTERS
Close To You
A&M SP 4271

The second album by Richard and Karen Carpenter marked their breakthrough. CLOSE TO YOU entered the Billboard Top 200 on 9-19-70 and peaked at #2 while remaining on the charts 87 weeks, according to Joel Whitburn's "Top Pop Albums" guidebook.
Later this title was reissued as SP/CD 3184 and subsequently remastered.

Side One: We've Only Just Begun (3:04); Love is Surrender (1:59); Maybe It's You (3:04); Reason to Believe (3:03); Help (3:03); (They Long to Be) Close to You 4:33.

Side Two: Baby It's You (2:50); I'll Never Fall in Love Again (2:57); Crescent Noon (4:10); Mr. Guder (3:15); I Kept on Loving You (2:14); Another Song (4:23).

Produced by Jack Daugherty/ Arrangements and orchestration by Richard Carpenter, who also did vocals & keyboards/ Karen Carpenter did vocals and played drums (with Hal Blaine)/ Bass: Joe Osborn and Danny Woodhams/ Woodwinds: Jim Horn, Bob Messenger & Doug Strawn/ Engineer: Ray Gerhardt and Dick Bogert/ Art Direction Tom Wilkes/ Photography: Kessel/Brehm Photography.
Ludwig Drums and Wurlitzer pianos.

JB --- predicting hundreds of 'views' and possibly an equal number of replies this time out, online.

 

[Harry]

My remeniscences:

The first album that I owned by Carpenters was this 1970 entry, our Album Of The Week. I'd remembered hearing a really nifty version of "Ticket To Ride" by some choral group, Carpenters maybe(?) back in the fall of 1969 on the radio. I liked it a lot but never managed to get a recording of it on my reel-to-reel tape recorder (early piracy!). Then in the summer of 1970, another record came out, "(They Long To Be) Close To You", a Burt Bacharach song in the height of HIS popularity. At the record department of some discount-type store, while being dragged along to the Jersey shore by my parents, I saw the 45 of "Close To You" in the singles bin - and discovered it was on my beloved A&M Records. Purchasing it right then and there was a no-brainer, and I eagerly awaited the accompanying album. Once it came out, I remember discovering that "Close To You" was even longer on the album, and though disappointed that "Ticket To Ride" was among the missing (not realizing that it came from a prior album!), I thoroughly enjoyed the album, and continue to do so to this day. Sometime after I'd had the album for awhile, a buddy of mine managed to drop something on the vinyl, effectively ruining it, but he replaced it for me. One thing to notice there was the change from a silver-colored jacket cover to a more flat grey color.

As CDs were being issued in the '80s, I remember that CLOSE TO YOU was one of the last of the Carpenters' titles to be issued, and as Jim mentioned, it's of course been remastered as of a few years ago, with all of the original recordings sounding better than ever.

I loved the heavy dose of Bacharach on the album, as well as the tunes by that up-and-coming songwriting duo of Nichols and Williams.

It was after falling in love with this album that I discovered that the prior album existed. I couldn't find it the local record stores, but my sister found a copy for me as a Christmas present that year - the original, and then withdrawn OFFERING - now a prize in my collection today.

Harry
...harkening back to 1970, online...

(Harkening? Who talks like that?!)

 

[W.B.]

...harkening back to 1970, online...

(Harkening? Who talks like that?!)

Well, I've seen it spelled as "hearkening" in some places. Another one of those words that've virtually disappeared from the landscape that is the English language in recent years.

But I have some pics relating to this LP to come. . . .

 

[Rick]

I find "Close To You" to be an electrifying and exciting album form beginning to end.
My favorite tracks are: "Another Song", "Mr. Guder" and "Crescent Noon".

 

[W.B.]

As promised, here are original labels relating to this breakthrough for the Carpenters, Richard and Karen:

This was from Side 1 of the first pressing of Close To You. As you can see, for some inexplicable reason "Love Is Surrender" is listed with the same time (3:09) as "Maybe It's You." Also, on the publishing, some notes:

• On "Reason to Believe," the publisher was originally listed as Faithful Virtue Music Co. Inc. Later pressings changed the publisher to Koppelman & Rubin Music, Inc. (which was the publisher of record when Rod Stewart recorded his better-known version on the LP Every Picture Tells a Story, Mercury SRM-1-609, and single 73224 which was the flip of "Maggie May").
• On the Richard Carpenter-John Bettis compositions, the publisher was shown on these first pressings as Almo Music Corp. Later on it was changed to Irving Music, Inc. Such copies with revised info betray that it was such because the Williams-Nichols songs indicate Irving Music Inc. (w/o the comma).

The first pressings of the 45 single that catapulted the Carpenters to superstar status. As you can see, only one company – US Songs Inc. – is listed, as opposed to later pressings which added Blue Seas and Jac to the publishing info, periods after each initial of U.S. Songs, and a hyphen instead of a dash between the matrix number and the S suffix. Also, the B-side, "I Kept On Loving You," had a different situation time-wise: At 2:20, it was a few seconds longer than on the LP.

In both cases, these originals would most likely be of higher value than the second pressings and all those that followed.

 

[pogWo4life]

My mother had a Korean copy of "Close to You" and when i first heard it; it was a good album, but it was all scratched up. Then my junior year in college, I saw the "close to you: remembering the Carpenters" PBS documentary which really kick started my modern appreciation for the Carpenters ever since. That night after the PBS documentary first aired I listened to the record (especially side one which I love), but it was so scratched up, I went that night to a record shop down the street from UNT and bought the CD, and I have been listening to it ever since.

That's my story.

 

[Harry]

Also to be noted regarding the first pressing of CLOSE TO YOU is that, in addition to the jacket having a silver component to it, there's no A&M Records logo present in the upper right corner. The logo apparently appeared in the subsequent pressings underneath the "A&M SP 4271".

Those publishing "anomalies" also appear on the back covers of the different pressings, which also have a few differences. The first pressing has the "A&M Records & Tapes" logo centered at the bottom of the track list and credits. Over to the right is the SP 4271 designation underneath an "RIAA Member" logo. In addition, the "Write for free, full-color catalog" verbiage appears before the A&M Records address in the credits. On subsequent pressings, the A&M Records logo (no "tapes") is moved over to the right side, replacing the RIAA logo.

Interesting differences, and they're something I'd not noticed before. Thanks W.B., for pointing the way.

Harry
...getting closer to CLOSE TO YOU, online...

 

[Harry]

Hey! How coincidental is it that CLOSE TO YOU is the album of the week and today, March 2, is Karen Carpenter's birthday!

Harry
...amazed at that turm of events, online...

 

[Rudy]

I've got this one in a rare dbx encoded pressing. The sound, as far as noise is concerned, is equal to a compact disc, but the source tape they used for it leaves a lot to be desired. Standard LP master...rather noisy. The Remastered Classics CD does have an edge in clarity.

 

[W.B.]

Also to be noted regarding the first pressing of CLOSE TO YOU is that, in addition to the jacket having a silver component to it, there's no A&M Records logo present in the upper right corner. The logo apparently appeared in the subsequent pressings underneath the "A&M SP 4271".

Those publishing "anomalies" also appear on the back covers of the different pressings, which also have a few differences. The first pressing has the "A&M Records & Tapes" logo centered at the bottom of the track list and credits. Over to the right is the SP 4271 designation underneath an "RIAA Member" logo. In addition, the "Write for free, full-color catalog" verbiage appears before the A&M Records address in the credits. On subsequent pressings, the A&M Records logo (no "tapes") is moved over to the right side, replacing the RIAA logo.

Interesting differences, and they're something I'd not noticed before. Thanks W.B., for pointing the way.

Harry
...getting closer to CLOSE TO YOU, online...

Much obliged for the compliments. By some strange coincidence, I too noticed these characteristics on the album cover of that first pressing. However, that same back cover got the time for "Love Is Surrender" correct. How the label inside would've screwed up, is a mystery to me.

 

[Rudy]

Probably the same staffer who put "Herb Albert" on the spine of the TJB's greatest hits.

 

[W.B.]

Naw . . . more like the staff that did the "Herb Albert & The Tijuana Brass" typesetting for the "Sandbox" side of A&M single #1065 (flip of "Without Her").

 

[LPJim]

My vinyl copy of SP 4271 is an original, shiny cover with no A&M logo at upper right.
What's unique is that the back cover is upside down.
Wonder if that was done deliberately, to facilitate flipping over to read the track list, or just a freak accident.
Does anyone else have an upside down back cover LP?
JB

 

[W.B.]

A word about the 45 release of "We've Only Just Begun" (#1217): Early picture sleeves -- with a design based on the Close To You album cover -- listed "Maybe It's You" as the B-side, even though the flip ended up being "All Of My Life" from the by-then reissued debut LP which was now called Ticket To Ride. To say nothing of the "A&M Records & Tapes" logo design variation on the lower left-hand corner, below the "AM 1217" designation, on said pic sleeve. Later picture sleeves corrected the flip. I.I.N.M., it was also one of the last A&M picture sleeves to list the A and B sides on the layout on both sides; later picture sleeves would list the A-side on one side and the B-side on the other side.

In addition, I saw one place (on the Web, I think) where the release of the Close To You LP was pegged as May 1970. Seems more like that was actually when the single was released. One way you can tell, especially with pressings emanating from Columbia's Pitman, N.J. plant, is how the typesetting of the label copy artwork is laid out, spaced etc. Releases from the May 1970 period had the same kind of spacing you see on the 45 of "Close To You." (Bread's #1 charter from that same year, "Make It With You," Elektra EKM-45686, had not too dissimilar type spacing from Pitman.) However, the LP, which appeared to come out in August or September of that year (after all, it did debut on Billboard's Top LP's charts on Sept. 19), had spacing of the text slightly farther than the close spacing of text type for the 45 (both between words and in lines of type).

For what it's worth, I'd rank the label-copy layout of the Close To You LP -- the first-pressing layout, that is -- as among my favorites from Columbia's Pitman factory.

 

[W.B.]

My vinyl copy of SP 4271 is an original, shiny cover with no A&M logo at upper right.
What's unique is that the back cover is upside down.
Wonder if that was done deliberately, to facilitate flipping over to read the track list, or just a freak accident.
Does anyone else have an upside down back cover LP?
JB

That might have been a production error, that upside-down back cover.
Also, I've seen errors of different types on other records -- the label copy printed upside down, wrong labels attached to certain records (I have some examples; one being a copy of Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson's "To All The Girls I've Loved Before" with labels indicating "All Night Passion" by Alisha, the other a copy of "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte" by Patti Page with labels of "Theme from 'Harlow'" by Bobby Vinton), sometimes the die-cut labels cut so far off center that you can actually see the bleed and other indications that it was printed from a label sheet.

Needless to say, the back cover on my copy is as it should be.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

CLOSE TO YOU remains my 2nd-favorite Carpenters LP. I like it because of the relative adventurous-ness of the arrangments, the variety of vocals (several Richard leads), and the way some of the songs segue together. (I like A SONG FOR YOU even more, for the exact same reasons.)

I first heard "Close to You," the song, on the radio. My favorite part of it was the trumpet solo, which I still think sounds like it could've been played by Herb Alpert. (I know it isn't Herb now, though.)

I was about 14 when the album came out. I didn't want to buy the album originally because my sisters liked it, and of course anything THEY liked must not be cool.

It wasn't until the A SONG FOR YOU album came along that I became a certified Carpenters fan, and once I had that album I had to go back and get the previous three LPs. So I became an owner of CLOSE TO YOU not long after A SONG FOR YOU was released.

I hadn't heard about a "silver" cover...I always thought the cover was gray.

 

[Harry]

I hadn't heard about a "silver" cover...I always thought the cover was gray.

See...no matter how long you hang around here, you learn things!

Harry
...who learned of other packaging/labelling variants in this thread, online...

 

[Carpenters]

Reply to LPJim, I have a vinyl copy of close to you, sp 4271, same record number, but both front cover and back are bright yellow!!. I have never seen one like this before, has anybody else come across this? It is a genuine A&M Release.

 

[LPJim]

That's the first I've heard of this, and if not for the identical catalog number I'd tend to assume it was an import. Are the disc labels standard (ochre or grey)? It's might be from a different manufacturer. Very interersting. There's likely something in tiny print which might provide other clues.
JB

 

[Harry]

This is either the second case of this "yellow" cover I've heard of, or we've chatted before elsewhere. I'm wondering if it was a manufacturing error with the dyes and maybe the yellow color wasn't really supposed to be issued.

Recall that the folks at A&M weren't all that thrilled with Karen & Rich early on, so maybe they figured that a misprinted yellow album was "good enough."

Harry
...moving along with the new computer changeover, online...

 

[W.B.]

Recall that the folks at A&M weren't all that thrilled with Karen & Rich early on, so maybe they figured that a misprinted yellow album was "good enough."

Sounds almost similar to Columbia Records' attitude viz Barbra Streisand prior to her "breakout" with her role in "Funny Girl" on Broadway and her Top 10 hit from same, "People," in 1964, from what I've read.

 

[Carpenters]

TO LPJIM,
IT IS A PROPER A&M RELEASE, IT IS ON THE BROWN A&M LABEL,AND I DO NO THINK IT IS AN IMPORT. PERHAPS IF YOU GAVE ME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS I COULD SEND YOU SOME PICTURES.

 

[Bruno]

CLOSE TO YOU was the last vinyl Carpenters LP I purchased back in 1983 in Cologne in a big record store (Saturn).

At first listen, I was quite disappointed, because it was so different than MADE IN AMERICA or A KIND OF HUSH, which I had listened to before. It's still not one of my favorite Carpenters albums, but I like it nonetheless.

My favorit songs from that album are BABY IT'S YOU and REASON TO BELIEVE; the remixes of those two songs I like even more.

By the way: The cover is gray.

Bruno

 

[Mr Bill]

Just an update to add aotw image...

--Mr Bill