JohnFB
She was born to belong to the lines of a song...
I've tried on several occasions to figure out both how this song could have been reconstructed to make it more "balanced" and how it could have been recorded differently to make it more appealing....
Maybe, although to me it doesn't seem to have as big of a "pop hook" as some of the other earlier hits. I'm not sure why, and it may just be my own taste talking. I've just never warmed up to that song, for some reason. To me it's OK, but not a classic.
As far as modifying it's structure goes, one idea I keep coming back to is to add a fourth 5-line verse right after the third verse ("I have found my home here in your arms...") - the first two verses (5 lines each) are at the beginning of the song, leading into the pre-chorus and then the chorus. The third verse comes nicely out of the chorus (beautifully, as the accompaniment becomes less prominent). This is where the fourth verse should have come in, to balance out the double verses at the beginning. After this I want to say that I'm not sure there should be a repeat of the pre-chorus & chorus. Instead, the song should end softly just as it began, with maybe a repeat of part of the fourth verse with the same minimal accompaiment that the first verse started with.
As far as the recording goes it only needed to have Karen sing the entire song all the way through without any double-tracking (you probably expected me to say this) and with neither her nor Richard singing along on the lyrics, but both doing strategically placed background vocals. And it needed toned down orchestral accompaniment. After all, the best parts of the recording by far are the three verses Karen sings alone, so why not make the song her's all the way through. With her dominating there is no way this couldn't have been great.
Just some random thoughts...