Duet with Karen

[Mark-T]

Does anyone have knowledge as to why some of the (any of the?) popular artists of the day never recorded a duet with her?
I would think after the relative sales slump of the "Hush" album, a duet could have been just the thing to bring them back to the top of the charts.
(Or maybe after "Horizon" to keep things hot.)
Was interest ever epressed by anyone?
Were Richard and Karen just against this idea?
Or A&M?
Or their management?
Or were singers just intimidated by being compared to her?

All speculation welcome...

 

[Dave]

Does anyone have knowledge as to why some of the (any of the, then-) popular artists of the day never recorded a duet with her?

Uh, well...

Was interest ever epressed by anyone?

Perhaps...then again, what about (suitable) Material?

Were Richard and Karen just against this idea?

Any possibility someone like Olivia Newton-John or ABBA or even Andy Gibb (or perhaps any individual or collective combination of The Bee Gee's) inquiring about "a song or two"? Guess you'd have to go to them or Richard would be able to share how he (and Karen) would have felt at the time...

...Or A&M?

You have to wonder about an act who belonged TO and ONLY to A&M; it'd be like HERB recording for another label (and were any of HIS Guest-Appearances done on any "other" labels?) I don't know much there, otherwise...

...Or their management?

Well, see above...

...Or were singers just intimidated by being compared to her?

That may also be possible--The Carpenters made SOME return to the Top-Of-The Charts even after the "Lull"-period; people must have seen and acknowledged their "superiority" and anticipated some kind of "comeback"...

...All speculation welcome!

...There's MY "speculation"--2¢, worth!!


Dave

 

[Mike Blakesley]

You have to wonder about an act who belonged TO and ONLY to A&M;

In a "duet" arrangement, a few scenarios could happen.

1. The artist could perform uncredited, such as Elton John did on John Lennon's "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" (and Lennon returned the favor on EJ's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds")

2. The artist can appear "courtesy of" his record company -- as on countless examples old and new

3. The artist can appear under a phony name. Stevie Wonder made a couple of guest apperances as "Eivets Rednow," and George Harrison appeared as "Hari Georgeson" on some album in the 70s.

Bottom line is, if an artist is "big" enough, they can figure a way to do just about anything they want.

Interesting question though. I would bet RC fielded duet offers but didn't want to dilute their trademark sound, or felt that the quality might be out of his control, or something. Good question for their website.

 

[Dave]

...In a "duet" arrangement, a few scenarios could happen:

...The artist could perform uncredited; The artist can appear "courtesy of" his record company; The artist can appear under a phony name...

Yeah, I never thought about the "uncredited" appearance--Elton John sang on Neil Sedaka's song, "Bad Blood" on Sedaka's Hungry Years album, yet there was NO written-credit until the album came out on CD... However, Elton WAS credited on Neil's follow-up album, Steppin' Out for a duet on the Title-Track; I forgot about that one...

The ROCK BOOK OF LISTS lists a few "psudonyms" that George Harrison went under and Stevie Wonder did an instrumental album of some of his songs as "Eivets Rednow", too...

Well, yes, Karen could either "appear courtesy of A&M" or an artist singing with her on HER album could "appear courtesy of...", too--but that's the original question: Why wasn't it ever done...?


Dave

 

[Harry]

Let's not forget the duet that WAS done - Peter Cetera of Chicago, dueting with Karen on his own song, "Making Love In The Afternoon," from Karen's solo album.

Harry

 

[Mark-T]

I always thought Peter Cetera's part seemed only as background vocals. Was it originally intended to be a full duet?

 

[Vinylalbumcovers]

Elton & Bernie also wrote under pseudonyms when they wrote "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart".

The writers are listed as Carte Blanche and Ann Orson. LOL!!

Ed

 

[Dave]

...Elton & Bernie also wrote under pseudonyms when they wrote "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart"... ...The writers are listed as Carte Blanche and Ann Orson...

Ed

Ann Orson was a background singer on Neil Sedaka's albums, which were released by Elton John's Rocket Record Company... Elton John did "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart" as a duet with Rocket Records artist, Kiki Dee... Could she have been under the psudonym, Ann Orson all that time?


Dave

 

[A&Mguyfromwayback]

Bear in mind that duets between differnet artists in the 70s were not nearly as common as they are today - now it's almost expected, but there's a lot of artists from that era that never did....

 

[goodjeans]

I think that I heard at some point that Karen either recorded or wanted to record a duet on her solo album with a female woman of color. If so, again Karen was way ahead of her time.