CARPENTERS SINGLES RE-ISSUES

[Rudy]

That depends on how you define John Denver and Sam Cooke.

Oh shoot! Forgot about them. Still, even looking at Denver and Cooke, there weren't many (or any) other similar artists on the label.

But RCA's steadiest seller, from the days of Jimmie Rodgers the Singing Brakeman, has been country & western music. From Eddy Arnold to Jim Reeves to Porter Wagoner to Charley Pride to Dolly Parton all the way to Clint Black and most of today's lite-country (Lonestar et al.), RCA is there.

Arista also has a good presence in Nashville--come to think of it, we may have one or two RCA country CDs around here also. My favorites, BR5-49, released their first four CDs on Arista, and just recently moved to Sony for their latest.

But you're basically correct. Once it had Elvis, RCA didn't really go too far out of its way to build a rock 'n' roll or rock catalog. RCA was the only major label that never hopped on the British Invasion bandwagon, for example.

I wonder if it was a conscious move on RCA's part (and possibly a smart one at that--they obvoiusly didn't gamble often on unproven rock or pop acts like other labels did), or if RCA's A&R department was just that "square" and felt that kind of music was too outside of the Perry Comos and Al Hirts. If you think about it, aside from a few aberrations, RCA has been a relatively low key label.

-= N =-

 

[Rudy]

And not being alive (at least according to conventional wisdom) hasn't stopped Jim Morrison's periodic comebacks... or Jimi Hendrix's ...

...or Stevie Ray Vaughan's continued popularity which, after his death, is still growing. Didn't someone write that the Doors have sold more albums after Morrison's alleged death than when they were still together as a group? (It's curious that there are few new Doors packages released, whereas Hendrix, Vaughan, and even Elvis probably have far more albums of compilations, live concerts and unreleased tracks than they had original albums.)

It certainly wouldn't hurt Carpenters to get the extra exposure! Bring on that toll-free hotline!

-= N =-

 

[jimac51]

A couple of notes on above postings concerning BMG. The chart position of "Ultimate Manilow" did indeed take everyone by surprise,including BMG. Timing and the TV spot were major contributions to the success of the project. TV started about three weeks before Valentine's Day-taking advance orders and generating interest to older women(35-55)who probably look at tons of TV while radio loses them and probably look at more TV in the dead of winter than any other time of the year. The album was released a full week before Valentine's Day,giving the momentum of press(Barry is Back!-headlines appeared at the top of any entertainment news medium)a push past the first week. After the initail success,CBS took notice and gave him a special(though buried on Sat.,it was properly placed for its desired audience and was broadcast during a sweeps period)and all of this attention kept the album chugging through Mother's Day. The album will probably have a brief sales spike for Christmas. If the same strategy was set for a Carpenters collection,with Richard appearing on shows like Larry King and Regis,success would be all but guaranteed. A note about Arista Nashville-it is now nothing more than a logo. When L.A. Reid took over Arista from Clive Davis,BMG shuttered Arista Nashville and put its remaining roster(Alan Jackson being the big star)under Joe Galenti's leadership at RCA Nashville. RCA's biggest pop act right now is Dave Matthews,who seems to come out with lots of albums with little airplay but does fanastic business as a touring act. A new studio album is due in the middle of July and another live album will be out before years end. Despite recent news stories claiming BMG's market share to be fifth of the Big 5,as current domestic share goes,taking in the evevtual absorption of Zomba and distribution deals with Wind Up(Creed),J Records(Alicia Keys) and departing Bad Boy(Notorious B.I.G.)BMG is #2( with about 13-15% market share) to Universal,which controls about 25% of the music business. Mac

 

[Man]

8)
I love to see "Baby it's you" to be released as a single.

I love the tune "It dosen't matter what they say. I'm gonna love you any old way . What can I do?....".

It's just like the way we love Carpenters' music despite many negative comments come upon on their works like being "too much vanilla ".

 

[PJ]

I am sure that with a well selected 1 CD set of Carpenters classics / singles that UNiversal / UTV plus a structured campaign for six months minimum , success would be achieved and kick start Carpenters for a new generation in USA.

Even some Radio networks may respond to this success and Fans requests.

Some well marketed Ads , Videos , Film tie-ins would maintain this campaign along with Richard TV and Radio promotion.

A&M missed out on repromoting Carpenters after the huge ratings success of KC Story TV Film -had there been a soundtrack or new single CD release -great success would have resulted .....catalog sales increased greatly.

Equally Polygram failed to follow up the worldwide success in 1990/1991 of "Their Greatest Hits / Only Yesterday " in USA.

As relations are poor at present between Richard and Universal , probably RC has no belief in Universal 's plans to issue "Gold" as another compilation....

Perhaps the current Vivendi Universal problems/issues will lead to a separate Universal Music Company with some Exec changes and a whole new Musical policy .........

Peter....we can dream for the future.......

 

[Harry]

Just thought of another '60s/'70s pop artist on RCA. Wasn't Jose Feliciano on RCA? And if that's the case, did his duet track with Lani Hall ("Un Amor Asi") ever appear on the RCA label? Should this thread be headed for Nipper's Place?

I just found the answer to one of these questions. Yes, the duet between Lani Hall on Jose Feliciano did indeed appear on one of Jose's RCA albums. Link here:

http://www.josefeliciano.com/yasoytuyo.htm

Harry
...stumbling onto answers to old questions, online...

 

[testerguy35]

I saw Barry Manilow live, in April, here at the Fox Theater in Atlanta. He was AMAZING! I even enjoyed a couple of songs from his new album, which is about a tenement building in New York and all the different people living there.
He looked and sounded great. His voice has been well preserved. I bought the new album, and one of my favorite tracks is also one of Karen's fav's: 'This One's for You.'
I was sad, though, at the concert, for a moment, because it dawned on me how great it would be to see Rich and Karen together in 2002, performing all kinds of tunes, just like Barry was that night.

Oh yeah, some women were throwing bras onstage to him. It kind of threw the poor guy off!!
Steve