Carpenters instrumental song ?

[Paul Johnson]

Ive found an old cassette with a number of Carpenters songs recored on both sides, on track 2 is a lovely instumental song, it starts off with what seems to be Richard playing on the piano then a clarinet joins in.

Does anyone know what this song is ?

 

[newvillefan]

From your description it sounds like 'Heather', from side 1 of the Now & Then album.

 

[ullalume]

Really more a personal note, but I made a short film last year, just 3 1/2 minutes, a mood piece really, no dialogue, and was looking for a couple of songs to put with the film to show to my composer friend to give him a feel of what kind of music I was looking for.

Heather was one of them, but what I found crazy was how well it fit. . . scarily well. . .if you started the song about 30 secs into the film.

Anyway, when i hear this song now it forever ties it to my film. . .which I think is cool.

 

[JeffM]

"Heather" was written by John Pearson, a British composer of "library" or "production" music used for low-budget film projects. Richard Carpenter apparently picked up on the tune when it was used as the background music for a gawdawful but widely shown TV commercial for Geritol; in which a beaming husband describes how energetic his wife is from taking Geritol, concluding with "My wife...I think I'll keep her."

 

[mr J.]

Ive found an old cassette with a number of Carpenters songs recored on both sides, on track 2 is a lovely instumental song, it starts off with what seems to be Richard playing on the piano then a clarinet joins in.

Does anyone know what this song is ?

The song is "Flat Baroque" from "A Song For You"-it would've been side 2/track #2 on the old cassettes.

 

[A&M Retro]

Actually, the cassettes and 8-tracks featured a different track order for the 'Close to You' and 'A Song For You' albums for reasons of continuity (one side potentially running longer than the other).

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I just looked up the A Song For You album on Wikipedia and it shows Flat Baroque as being on BOTH side 1 and side 2 of the cassette -- but not as track 2 on either side. For side 1 it's listed as track 4, and side 2 has it listed as track 5.

There's a lot of bizarre to this cassette listing. Can it be accurate?? I can't imagine A&M fouling up an album to this extent. Here's the listing from Wikipedia. I looked at Google images in hopes of finding a picture of the cassette sleeve with track listings but didn't see it.

Cassette

1. "A Song for You"
2. "Top of the World"
3. "Piano Picker"
4. "Flat Baroque"
5. "I Won't Last a Day Without You"
6. "Goodbye to Love"
7. "Intermission"

1. "Hurting Each Other" (edited version, containing only the first verse, one full chorus then fade-out chorus)
2. "Crystal Lullaby"
3. "It's Going to Take Some Time"
4. "Bless the Beasts and Children" (Soundtrack version)
5. "Flat Baroque"
6. "Road Ode"
7. "A Song for You (Reprise)"
8. "Intermission" (same version as side one)

 

[Harry]

This picture from eBay has "Flat Barogue" [sic] as the second track on side two.

This one below has a picture of a side one with some jumbled titles, but no "Flat Baroque".

This later-issue from Polygram doesn't seem to indicate what's where. Perhaps a "same program on both sides" approach?

Harry

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I wonder what countries those cassettes are from? None of them looks like a US edition -- the outer box in the middle piocture looks right, but the tape is the wrong color plastic. I think A&M cassettes were white in those days. I know their 8-tracks were an olive-green color for a while but I don't know that cassettes were ever that color. 70s memory getting foggy.....

 

[aaflyer98]

My A&M cassette tape plastic was white, purchased in 1972.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Also Harry's third picture has one of those "full" back cards -- I don't think those kind of packages appeared till the 80s, although I could be wrong on that since it's a reissue, but I still don't think it's a U.S. product.

 

[JeffM]

Going back to the top of the thread, what Mr. Johnson said he found was "an old cassette with a number of Carpenters songs recorded on both sides." He really didn't specify whether it was a commercial pre-record or a homemade mix tape. Could actually be anything. All this debate over which track goes where may be veering off at an angle. More info needed??

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I agree, it wasn't really specific, if it was a commercial tape wouldn't the name and titles still be on the tape unless it wore off. I also can't help but grin that this was posted on April Fools Day....no connection I'm sure.

 

[A&M Retro]

The photo posted is the updated version of the ASFY cassette. I've got an original from 1972, and the strange track listing posted by Mike is correct.

There is also a shortened version of 'Yesterday Once More' on the original 1973 cassette tape of 'Now and Then' which follows 'This Masquerade' on side one. Then, on side two, the full version is used to bring in the oldies medley.