Original Master Karaoke album

Status
Not open for further replies.

Harry

Charter A&M Corner Member
Staff member
Site Admin
Yuko's website was recently updated in regards to the Carpenters ORIGINAL MASTER KARAOKE album. This, you'll recall, was the effort that Richard put out in Japan in the early 90s when the whole Karaoke thing was taking off. There were lots of unnofficial Carpenters releases, so Richard decided to make an official one. He used the original backing tracks and filtered out Karen's lead to produce this album.

Yuko mentions that she's provided this Japanese-only release to countless fans worldwide over the years (she got one for me!), but now finds that it's no longer available -- out of print.

So, if you don't have it, and you're a Carpenters fan, and you happen to see one in a store carrying imports -- grab it. It may never come around again.

cover.jpg


Harry
...noting another album out of print, online...
 
A Carpenter Stack 'O Tracks? Cool. It's tough to argue about Karaoke when the original artists oversee their release. I never understood why an album like this or the Beach Boys version never achieved $$$ levels. If you are a true fan of a vocal group-instead of the Hollyridge Strings or a skimpy synthesizer performing dreadful versions of your favorites-the original backing tracks for you to either sing with,to decompose the levels of sound or just simply listen to them-I would have bought bunches of these if available. Years ago singles reverted to an instrumental version of the "A" song on the flipside instead of a new track. I never thought of this as lazy as opposed to reinforcing the life of the single. Mac
 
jimac51 said:
If you are a true fan of a vocal group-instead of the Hollyridge Strings or a skimpy synthesizer performing dreadful versions of your favorites-

Or worse yet--a "vocal eliminator" removing some of the lead vocals which, as a side effect, could cancel out other instruments in the center or create that "phasey" sound. I remember in the back of Stereo Review for all those years, the Thompson Vocal Eliminator...and this was a decade or two before "karaoke" became the curse of Wednesday nights. :wink:

Harry said:
Yuko's website was recently updated in regards to the Carpenters ORIGINAL MASTER KARAOKE album. This, you'll recall, was the effort that Richard put out in Japan in the early 90s when the whole Karaoke thing was taking off. There were lots of unnofficial Carpenters releases, so Richard decided to make an official one. He used the original backing tracks and filtered out Karen's lead to produce this album.

Curious: since these were original Carpenters recordings, was it an A&M (or Polygram...or UMG) release, or just licensed?

-= N =-
 
The CD I have is POCM-1521. It's an A&M release from 1994, with the following verbiage:

All Karaoke tracks totally remixed and digitally mastered by Richard Carpenter and Roger Young for this package.

I understand that an earlier release (1992) came with the same tunes on a separate disc that included the vocal tracks as well. The track list is:

Yesterday Once More
Superstar
Rainy Days And Mondays
Top Of The World
This Masquerade
I Won't Last A Day Without You
For All We Know
Jambalaya (On The Bayou)
(They Long To Be) Close To You
Hurting Each Other
Please Mr. Postman
Bless The Beasts And Children
Goodbye To Love
I Need To Be In Love
We've Only Just Begun

It's interesting to note that all of the backing tracks are presented here, just as they were present on the regular release. So, as you're singing along, Karen & Rich come in to back you up.

On the later multi-track recordings, all traces of the lead vocal are gone, but on the earlier recordings (like "Superstar"), a bit of bleed-over of Karen's lead can be heard.

Harry
NP: Original Master Karaoke, Carpenters
 
Hello,

I have this CD. I've used it quite a few times at karaoke. Only problem with it is that you have to do the songs 'blue screen' aka without words. I usually sing Jambalaya, I Need To Be In Love, and This Masquerade off it. It's really nice to sing along with the real music. Its a great CD to get whether you do karaoke or not.

Pamela
http://www.LeadSister.com
 
Welcome over to the A&M Corner Pamela. Nice to see you here.

Harry
NP: radio at work
 
I like your "avatar" too. Very appropriate! :)

Harry
NP: radio at work
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom