Mark Lindsay, of Paul Revere and The Raiders, released on album two songs the same as Carpenters in 1970; ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ and ‘I’ll Never Fall In Love Again’. He also appeared on Karen and Richard’s 1971 TV series, ‘Make Your Own Kind of Music’.
As everyone knows, the above two songs appeared on Carpenters’ 1970 album, ‘Close to You’.
Mark Lindsay had a million-selling single in the USA in 1970, ‘Arizona’ and a multi-million seller in 1971, ‘Indian Reservation’, under the name Raiders but actually Lindsay solo.
‘Indian Reservation’ featured Hal Blaine on drums, who, of course, also played drums on most songs on Carpenters’ LP, ‘Close to You’ (and other early albums).
‘Indian Reservation’ also featured The Ron Hicklin Singers, who, at various times, included Tom Bahler and John Bahler. As we know, the Bahler brothers were musically intertwined with Karen and Richard and Tom Bahler was romantically involved with Karen.
Mark Lindsay opened on stage for Carpenters in their early years with A&M and, of course, Karen and Richard recruited Tony Peluso from his band.
One or two of the songs on Mark Lindsay’s 1970 albums have background vocals that are quite a bit Carpenteresque - mostly not, though, but the beginning of ‘Bookends’ sounds a bit ‘Carpenters’, in terms of close vocal harmony - “Barp barp barp, barp bup bardarp”.
By the way, Mark Lindsay’s best-known song in the UK during his solo hit period was probably ‘Silverbird’, which only just scraped the Top 30 in the US. In Australia, ‘Arizona’ was Top 10, ‘Miss America’ and ‘Silverbird’ were Top 20 and ‘Indian Reservation’ was Top 25.
In the 1960s, Mark Lindsay was the usual lead singer for Paul Revere and the Raiders, who had US Top 10 hits such as ‘Kicks’, ‘Hungry’, ‘Good Thing’ and ‘Him or Me - What’s It Gonna Be?’ This was around the time Karen and Richard were getting started with Joe Osborn and Magic Lamp.
Joe Osborn probably played on Mark Lindsay’s 1970 albums as they featured members of The Wrecking Crew. Joe, of course, played bass on the LP, ‘Close to You’ (and others).
As a pre-teen, I LOVED both ‘Silverbird’ and ‘Indian Reservation’, (I sometimes listened to American Top 40 from the other side of the world), but had no idea that these two songs were essentially the same artist under different names.
I also didn’t realise that some of my favourite songs by different artists were pretty much the same musicians with just a different singer out the front, sometimes using the same writers and producers, or how connected many of the artists were.
As I write this, I’m listening to Mark Lindsay’s albums, ‘Arizona’ and ‘Silverbird’ on CD and am totally enjoying them.
Now in his 80s, I say a moment of respect for Mark Lindsay.
As everyone knows, the above two songs appeared on Carpenters’ 1970 album, ‘Close to You’.
Mark Lindsay had a million-selling single in the USA in 1970, ‘Arizona’ and a multi-million seller in 1971, ‘Indian Reservation’, under the name Raiders but actually Lindsay solo.
‘Indian Reservation’ featured Hal Blaine on drums, who, of course, also played drums on most songs on Carpenters’ LP, ‘Close to You’ (and other early albums).
‘Indian Reservation’ also featured The Ron Hicklin Singers, who, at various times, included Tom Bahler and John Bahler. As we know, the Bahler brothers were musically intertwined with Karen and Richard and Tom Bahler was romantically involved with Karen.
Mark Lindsay opened on stage for Carpenters in their early years with A&M and, of course, Karen and Richard recruited Tony Peluso from his band.
One or two of the songs on Mark Lindsay’s 1970 albums have background vocals that are quite a bit Carpenteresque - mostly not, though, but the beginning of ‘Bookends’ sounds a bit ‘Carpenters’, in terms of close vocal harmony - “Barp barp barp, barp bup bardarp”.
By the way, Mark Lindsay’s best-known song in the UK during his solo hit period was probably ‘Silverbird’, which only just scraped the Top 30 in the US. In Australia, ‘Arizona’ was Top 10, ‘Miss America’ and ‘Silverbird’ were Top 20 and ‘Indian Reservation’ was Top 25.
In the 1960s, Mark Lindsay was the usual lead singer for Paul Revere and the Raiders, who had US Top 10 hits such as ‘Kicks’, ‘Hungry’, ‘Good Thing’ and ‘Him or Me - What’s It Gonna Be?’ This was around the time Karen and Richard were getting started with Joe Osborn and Magic Lamp.
Joe Osborn probably played on Mark Lindsay’s 1970 albums as they featured members of The Wrecking Crew. Joe, of course, played bass on the LP, ‘Close to You’ (and others).
As a pre-teen, I LOVED both ‘Silverbird’ and ‘Indian Reservation’, (I sometimes listened to American Top 40 from the other side of the world), but had no idea that these two songs were essentially the same artist under different names.
I also didn’t realise that some of my favourite songs by different artists were pretty much the same musicians with just a different singer out the front, sometimes using the same writers and producers, or how connected many of the artists were.
As I write this, I’m listening to Mark Lindsay’s albums, ‘Arizona’ and ‘Silverbird’ on CD and am totally enjoying them.
Now in his 80s, I say a moment of respect for Mark Lindsay.
