Matt Monro and Karen

[Tony]

Knowing that Karen considered Matt Monro one of her favorite singers and was said to be influenced by him, I downloaded some of his songs recently to see what he sounded like. I must say, he has one helluva good voice—very clear and true with a rich, resonant lower range, good enunciation and an understated delivery. Sound like any other singer you know of?

I was also struck by the similarity between his and Karen's vowel sounds, particularly their O's. After listening to Monro it seems to me that Karen, especially in her early years, actually emulated his sound to a degree. Has anyone else noticed this?

Tony

 

[Harry]

Richard surely noticed it. He's mentioned how he used to tease Karen about her emulation of Matt Monro's "O's".

Harry

 

[Mark-T]

Any recommendations on which of his songs are particularly good?
Any songs he and Karen both recorded?

 

[Tony]

Harry,

You write: "Richard surely noticed it. He's mentioned how he used to tease Karen about her emulation of Matt Munro's "O's"."

That's awesome! Where did you read this? I'd love to see it. I didn't realize that Richard had specifically singled out the "O's" as well. But it's not as if it takes some great skill for me to hear it too; it's a pretty obvious similarity. For example, Karen's "O" on the "only" in "WOJB" is very much like Monro's "O" on "I only KNOW what I KNOW" in the second verse of "Time After Time," which he does beautifully.

Mark, I downloaded "Time After Time", "Autumn Leaves", "I Get Along Without You Very Well", "Laura" and "When I Fall in Love", the latter being recorded by Karen of course. Their versions of "When I Fall..." are somewhat alike, especially at the beginning—the vowel similarities are there—but Monro goes on to play around with the melody, and his phrasing is quite a bit different in places.

Tony

 

[Mark-T]

Thanks, Tony.
I'll have to check out these songs.

Mark

 

[Harry]

Harry,

You write: "Richard surely noticed it. He's mentioned how he used to tease Karen about her emulation of Matt Monro's "O's"."

That's awesome! Where did you read this? I'd love to see it. I didn't realize that Richard had specifically singled out the "O's" as well.

I'm thinking it may have been documented in the Ray Coleman book? I'm not sure just where I read or heard that. The reason it stuck in my mind is that we used to have an AM station that played Matt Monro all the time and I recall verifying that indeed Karen was emulating his somewhat affected "O" sound.

Harry

 

[cubsfan Joe]

Matt Munro also recorded the theme from the James Bond movie 'From Russia With Love" A very nice tune!!!

 

[Harry]

OK, found it. It IS in the Coleman biography where the subject of Matt Monro comes up:

[Richard:] "But Karen sang so well and obviously in a style that I liked, so that I never had to say much to her, other than to give her what parts to sing for the back-up vocals."

Only once did he comment on her lead vocal work. The episode stemmed from their joint admiration of the British ballad singer Matt Monro. When it came to recording, because she loved Monro's pronunciation so much, Karen tended to enunciate the words you and know more like yew. Richard told her this did not sound natural several times when she adopted her "Matt Monro kick" on such words.

Karen became angry at Richard's mild rebukes. "She didn't like me, or anyone else, telling her how to sing. So it's ridiculous for people to say I had my hand in her back when it came to her lead vocals. Who was I to interfere?"

And later, during the solo sessions:

In the studio for one session, [Phil] Ramone brought Karen to tears. He criticized her singing of the word love--she was probably emulating Matt Monro too clearly once again, and the criticism might have reminded her of Richard's presence at such moments. "It's phony as hell," Ramone rebuked her. "You have to immerse yourself in that word. You can't be Karen Carpenter of the Carpenters singing that. It doesn't work."

Harry

 

[Tony]

Harry,

Thanks a million for posting the pertinent excerpts from Coleman's book! I couldn't readily put my hands on it because my copy has been in storage in Atlanta along with almost all of my other possessions since late '98 when I left and ended up in a NYC studio apartment. (I did, however, get my CD collection out this summer and have been slowly moving everything into iTunes in preparation for becoming assimilated into the iPod Zombie cult like almost everyone else in this city.)

Side note: Because I now have my CDs again I FINALLY got to hear—or notice, I should say—the squeak in "Bless the Beasts...". For what it's worth, my copy of ASFY, which I bought very early on, has the single version of "Top of the World" but "Bless the Beasts..." appears to be the original with the squeak intact, so I didn't have to go out and purchase the Remastered Classics version.

Tony

 

[Mark-T]

Just got to listen to some ITunes snippets of Matt. His voice and style remind me of a "poor man's" version of Nat King Cole- not quite as rich or warm sounding. But still a pretty good vocalist. I'm gonna pass on the album purchase here, however.
Still, it was quite fun to hear one of Karen's influences.