Kiss Me the Way You Did Last Night

Mark-T

Well-Known Member
I gotta say, this is becoming one of my favorite songs from our duo. Great vocals, innovative arrangement, and very contemporary sounding. Up there with Only Yesterday. Why this was not on MIA and a single I do not know. From the first time I heard it on Lovelines, I was hooked. The last "yeah" at 3:49 gives me chills.
 
Agreed. It’s a shame that this song has never been anthologized, although it did receive a Remix in 1998!

Well, we call it a remix for the purposes of the Resource, but really it was just a cleanup of a stray noise in the track.
 
This song to me is one of the standouts on Lovelines along with "If We Try" and "Honolulu City Lights" and "You're the one"as well as the title song those are to me Definitive to the album although 2 of those were from "Karen's Solo album" which I also like
 
Great to see this underrated track getting some much needed love and attention. It’s a standout for me from those 1980 Made In America sessions, with a stellar, sultry vocal by Karen. Why it hasn’t featured regularly on some of the compilations, in particular Love Songs, is beyond me.

One thing I particularly like is the point at 3m37s where they pause and “push it” on the final “Kiss Me...yeah” line, reminiscent of the final “waaah” of Close To You, where Hal Blaine pushed the tomtom fill at Karen’s urging.
 
Agreed. The electric guitar solo is fantastic, too.

What I love about this song is that it keeps the signature harmonies that marked their sound for most of the Seventies, but it leans forward into the 80's and sounds so fresh. (No OK Chorale type choir!) It's the kind of song I would've imagined them doing in the mid 80's, had Karen not passed.
 
I love the backing vocals on this song. I always try to hear Siedah Garrett but I guess she’s buried too far down in the mix. Or its mixed so well you just can’t single her out. I’m not a big fan of the intro to the song, sounds tacked on and the horns are out of place to me. And the guitar solo should have stayed the same “fuzz guitar” all throughout in my opinion. But this one is also one of my favorites most specifically because of the vocals.
 
I love the backing vocals on this song. I always try to hear Siedah Garrett but I guess she’s buried too far down in the mix. Or its mixed so well you just can’t single her out.

I think that’s the genius of the choice for her as background vocalist. You can’t really distinguish her because her voice is at times doubled with Karen’s but mixed very well and so complementing Karen perfectly, especially on the higher register areas of the song. Richard should have gone that route (i.e. carefully chosen session singers) for the posthumous recordings rather than the chorale sound.
 
I love the backing vocals on this song. I always try to hear Siedah Garrett but I guess she’s buried too far down in the mix. Or its mixed so well you just can’t single her out. I’m not a big fan of the intro to the song, sounds tacked on and the horns are out of place to me. And the guitar solo should have stayed the same “fuzz guitar” all throughout in my opinion. But this one is also one of my favorites most specifically because of the vocals.

Agreed regarding the guitar; when it switches from fuzz to an almost country twang sound, it's a bit jarring. Overall though, love the song, and Garrett sounds great in background harmony.
 
I find her easy to pick up in those backing vocals.

I do too. Her "last night" is right there at the surface. I wish Richard would have done more of this after Karen passed rather than just pass backgrounds to the chorale. While no one is Karen, there are other incredible capable female singers that could have joined him in "stacking".

Ed
 
It's a nice song and definitely one of the tracks from the Made in America sessions that was heading in the right direction. However, it is somewhat reminiscent of 'Touch Me When We're Dancing', which I'm guessing is what stymied its chances of making the album.

Also, I really don't care for the use of the dreaded oboe on this track - it added an unnecessarily old-fashioned flavour, whereas the song needed a more contemporary production sound.
 
I gotta say, this is becoming one of my favorite songs from our duo. Great vocals, innovative arrangement, and very contemporary sounding. Up there with Only Yesterday. Why this was not on MIA and a single I do not know. From the first time I heard it on Lovelines, I was hooked. The last "yeah" at 3:49 gives me chills.


"Kiss me the way you did last night" is among my Carpenters Top 10 songs. That is the kind of song Carpenters should have been recording in the 80's, not Beechwood 🤷‍♂️
 
If there is to be any substitution on Made In America,
I would replace When You've Got What It Takes with Kiss Me The Way You Did Last Night.
By the way, Those Good Old Dreams and Strength of A Woman are two of my favorites off of MIA.
Strength of A Woman presents an outstanding vocal and arrangement.
By the way, what is so wrong with the utilization of Oboe ? I love it, alongside Earle Dumler's performances.
 
If I had to replace one song on MIA with "Kiss Me...." it would probably be "I Believe You." But I think replacing "Those Good Ol' Dreams" with it would have been great, too. What an opening! "Strength of A Woman" is a great song! As GaryAlan said, "outstanding vocal and arrangement;" and, as I am in the great minority on this, a really fantastic and clever lyric if you understand the irony (which I did immediately).
 
There's little that couldn't be replaced on MIA. It's a bust of an album with claustrophobic over-production and nearly-embalmed vocal performances from Karen on far too much of that record. She's doubled to the point of robotics on "Back In My Life Again" and "Beechwood...". Her voice was the greatest asset by a nautical mile and it was just part of the machine on MIA. That's my biggest problem with it. Her voice should always have been the focus but Richard lost the plot totally. He put the focus squarely on the production and anything that wasn't Karen. The album peaked at #52 on the Pop charts which is essentially a stiff so I'm sure that decision was a contributing factor.

I'm another one who couldn't stand the oboe. I know Richard felt it was a trademark and it really shouldn't have been. Anything he put the oboe on headed straight for the elevator. The unique trademark of their sound was Karen and Karen only. Even "Kiss Me" is only redeemed by Karen and its excellent vocal arrangement. Most things are for me, really. The orchestration (not everything needs one) and oboe kept it in the elevator by and large. It's also entirely too produced. Never a dull moment and the song nearly collapses under the weight of its production.

Ed
 
Based on all the positive comments on "Kiss Me..." I have been too quick to judge anything associated with the MIA album as "sub-par". Therefore, I am going to give this song careful listen and make an honest appraisal. It has happened before that I have dismissed various material in their library upon first hear only to become a fan later on...
 
MIA is sub-par. Aside from Beechwood 4-5789, Touch Me When We're Dancing & (Want You) Back In My Life Again the rest of the MIA tracks should've been left in the vault. Seriously, the rest of the tracks were lifeless and really dated for the early-1980's. And Those Good Old Dreams really doesn't remind me of Top of the World.

Seriously, why were the best tracks of the sessions left in the vault? Kiss Me The Way You Did Last Night, The Uninvited Guest, Prime Time Love, Your Baby Doesn't Love You Anymore & Honolulu City Lights feel more alive than I Believe You & Strength of a Woman.
 
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