Chris Christian does Carpenters remake
- Thread starter AM Matt
- Start date
-
- Tags
- carpenters
Vinylalbumcovers
Ah am so steel een luv weeth yoo
This is the original; Carpenters is the cover. Mild correction there. This version is how it should sound. Richard’s overproduction ain’t it. He’s aiming for the charts but can’t let go of his elevator tendencies so it can’t happen. The strings are not needed IMHO. Worse yet (in this case) is @JohnFB’s much-maligned “doubling.” Karen sounds uninvolved with this and the doubling here makes her sound utterly robotic. The only good thing about Carpenters’ version is the fun vocal arranging after the last verse. Richard is a master at that sort of ear candy and he provides plenty of it here. It’s why I can’t totally dismiss the tune. Richard redeemed a lot of tunes for me with his vocal arranging chops.
Chris’ version is far cleaner and less involved. This allows the emotion of the tune to come through far better. This does prove that there was a good song there. Ideally, we’d have Chris’ arrangement with Karen’s non-doubled vocal.
Ed
Chris’ version is far cleaner and less involved. This allows the emotion of the tune to come through far better. This does prove that there was a good song there. Ideally, we’d have Chris’ arrangement with Karen’s non-doubled vocal.
Ed
Geographer
Well-Known Member
Just goes to show how much of a genious RIchard is. His addition of the strings and Karen's fantastic reading really elevates this song. Richard took a good song and made it a great one! Still one of my favorites from MIA. Glad Richard, at least on this tune, didn't stray too much from this original and overproduce it. He just took a good song and made it better.
newvillefan
I Know My First Name Is Stephen
What this and many other tracks from their latter years highlight is how much Richard copied earlier versions he heard of tracks they went on to record. Yet on the official site he wrote that he jettisoned their version of “Thank You For The Music” because “Benny and Bjorn had done the definitive arrangement and all I'd be doing was copying it; something I just don't do, of course”.
I cut him some slack because of what was going on in his personal life in the late 1970s, but listening to the arrangements of Michael Franks’ “B’Wana”, Dorothy Moore’s “I Believe You”, Kristy McNichol’s “Slow Dance”, Klaatu’s “Calling Occupants” and especially Robert Palmer’s “Man Smart, Woman Smarter” you cannot say they aren’t all pretty much carbon copies.
I cut him some slack because of what was going on in his personal life in the late 1970s, but listening to the arrangements of Michael Franks’ “B’Wana”, Dorothy Moore’s “I Believe You”, Kristy McNichol’s “Slow Dance”, Klaatu’s “Calling Occupants” and especially Robert Palmer’s “Man Smart, Woman Smarter” you cannot say they aren’t all pretty much carbon copies.
tomswift2002
Well-Known Member
I never could listen to Klaatu’s original of “Calling Occupants”. I found the instruments sounded more like fingers on a chalkboard that was forgettable. I think the Carpenters made a vast improvement over the original that was not a copy.
newvillefan
I Know My First Name Is Stephen
Are you kidding? It’s genius. If the Beatles had recorded it in the late 70s, it would sound like this. Beatlesque touches aside, my point was Richard didn’t take it anywhere different from their original. Right down to those “ah ah ahh ahhs” in the outro. Even the drum fills are pretty much the same. All he did was make it more lush with 160 more instrumentalists and singers on the A&M Sound Stage.
Mark-T
Well-Known Member
I respectfully disagree. I think Richard's arrangement is great and different. And so is the original.
tomswift2002
Well-Known Member
No I’m not kidding. It’s horrible. It sounds more like the remake on they “If I Were a Carpenter” album that was one of the worst songs on that album.
Vinylalbumcovers
Ah am so steel een luv weeth yoo
I agree with every syllable. Richard's is a big budget copy of Klaatu's original. He had a bigger budget at his disposal so he could use real instruments in place of the synthetic ones and he could overproduce to his heart's content. Never a dull moment but it's so right for this song. Richard (and Peter Knight) went gonzo closely based on Klaatu's template and Richard did everything he wanted. It's totally amazing IMHO. Add Karen's somewhat sweet, anachronistic voice and it's irresistible. I love that Karen calls sweetly to the "occupants of interplanetary craft." It's hilarious...and I am hear for it. The two-part "we are your friends" destroys me. How can you not love that? It all finishes off with 1 million background singers with strings and horns blazing at the end. It's so overblown that it makes you want to donate to the cause to make "World Contact Day" an actual thing.
In short, I love this track - copy or not. It's without question the strangest and most absurd thing in their entire catalog. It hinges incredibly close to Klaatu's original - just like "B'wana" is Michael's track in a different key. Heck, "Man Smart" is Robert Palmer's track...and that one's in the exact same key. Richard did quite a bit of copying at that point.
Ed
newvillefan
I Know My First Name Is Stephen
I do too - maybe that didn’t come across in my above post. It’s one of the best things they ever committed to tape and still a joy to listen to. I’ve lost count of the number of friends and work colleagues I’ve mentioned Carpenters to, and how many times they’ve said to me “what’s that occupants song they made about aliens, I love that one!”. It was a top 10 hit here in the UK and if memory serves me right it went to #1 in Ireland. It’s a shame these statistics aren’t even recognised in the Wikipedia listing for the song.
JohnFB
She was born to belong to the lines of a song...
This is "spot-on" - every part of that. And we've said the same about other songs/arrangements. I've said it about the lovely WHEN IT'S GONE...and others have said it about I JUST FALL IN LOVE AGAIN (no doubling on those two, thank the lord for minor miracles!). A simplified, softer arrangement would have helped both tremendously.
This, then, is the big difference between potential singles releases and just simply moderately entertaining album fillers, which is what we end up here with WANT YOU BACK...
rockdoctor
Well-Known Member
I still have this album. I bought it as a cut out. He never charted again that I know of.
I did see where he started Christian/Gospel music a few years later.
Wow! Chris Christian! Haven't that name in years! Last time I heard about Chris, pterodactyls were flying in the air! But seriously, like rockdoctor said he did do "Contemporary Christian Music" which basically is Gospel music with a pop backbeat. He was a biggie in that genre, a sought after producer who worked with Amy Grant, The Imperials(the gospel group who was also famous for backing Elvis in the early 70s, not Little Anthony and The Imperials.),et al. it was around this time(1981) that he announced that he wanted to get into secular pop and this song that The Carpenters remade is one of the results of that decision. He himself did a remake of a famous pop tune(can't remember what song that was) and went on American Bandstand to promote the single. He also told Dick Clark that he was a musician in Wayne Newton's band in Las Vegas.
