⭐ Official Review [Single]: 14. "I WON'T LAST A DAY WITHOUT YOU"/"ONE LOVE" (1521-S)

Which side is your favorite?

  • Side A: "I Won't Last A Day Without You"

    Votes: 43 78.2%
  • Side B: "One Love"

    Votes: 12 21.8%

  • Total voters
    55

Chris May

Resident ‘Carpenterologist’
Staff member
Moderator
“I WON'T LAST A DAY WITHOUT YOU"/"ONE LOVE"

Won'tLastADay.png Won'tLastDaySingle.png OneLove.png

Side A: I Won't Last A Day Without You 3:47 (Williams/Nichols)
Side B: One Love 3:23 (Carpenter/Bettis)


Catalogue Number: A&M 1521-S
Date of Release: 3/25/74
Format: 7" Single
Speed: 45 RPM
Country: US
Chart Position: #11


Arranged and Orchestrated by Richard Carpenter
Side A taken from A&M SP-3511 album "A Song For You / Side B taken from A&M SP-3502 album "Carpenters"
Producer, Side A: Richard and Karen Carpenter and Jack Daugherty / Producer, Side B: Jack Daugherty

For more definitive information regarding each single, you can visit our Carpenters - The Complete Singles page in our Carpenters Resource.
 
As much as I love "I Won't Last A Day", especially its single version (and the guitar licks) here, I play "One Love" all of the time. One of my favorite cuts from the Tan Album.
 
These are both lovely songs, but I would choose "I Won't Last A Day Without You" as my favorite. I always thought it was an odd choice to release it 2 years after the album, but no matter. It's a typical, quiet, and meaningful Carpenters song. Karen's voice is in its prime during her performance.

"One Love" is a great flashback to the early Carpenter/Bettis compositions. The tune is very pretty, and I enjoy it just as much as "I Won't Last A Day Without You". The overdubs are amazing, especially those right near the end!
 
As this song was from an older album, by two years, it fits their earlier tunes and I wish it was part of the Singles 1969-1973 Collection but I seems there were too many good songs to fill up the time given. It is quite remarkable once you add the touring schedule to the formula. Everything was a smash hit. If this song was not already 2 years old it would have sold more and broke through the top ten. It is one of my favorites and I can't imagine the 1976 Medleu without it! I liked the added guitar and loved the ending filled with harmony that once dissected, the character of each vocal range used by Karen and Richard in the vocal parts comes alive. Paul Williams and the Carpenters are a match made from heaven.
 
This was a very tough decision for me, as I love both One Love and I Won't Last A Day Without You, I'd have to go with I Won't Last A Day. Even though I tend to listen to One Love a tad bit more than I Won't Last A Day Without You, I prefer Side A over Side B.
 
"Won't Last a Day" would be the clear winner in my book. Agree that despite the cut's many merits, it was a head-scratcher of a choice to release in 1974. Because "The Singles" was the current album, I'd probably have released the recut "Ticket to Ride" instead -- wonder how that would have fared. Regardless, as you've said, "Won't Last a Day" fits comfortably among their classics regardless of not entering the Top Ten.
 
The Single--I Won't Last A Day Without You--always a favorite.
An instance where I am glad the arrangement was beefed-up a bit.
As much as I love One Love--it being written in 1967--it is not a song that
I would have released in late 1974 on the flip side.
But, royalties are royalties, I suppose.
 
'I Won't Last a Day Without You' is indeed the clear winner here. While the timing of its release may seem a bit incongruous (nearly two years after the release of its parent album and at a time when a 'Greatest Hits' album that didn't feature it was on the market), it's an evergreen classic that really deserved a place on the The Singles 1969-1973 in terms of its quality. In the UK it still gets more radio play than a number of singles that charted higher than it.

The single remix is simple but effective, the guitar licks on the chorus giving it that necessary bit of extra oomph to lift it to another level. I've always been rather disappointed that it's not that easy on find on CD these days, as instead the re-remix, which waters down much of what made the original remix so effective, is normally used.

'One Love' is a perfectly nice song but is one of the 'lesser' tracks from the Tan Album in my opinion - although to some extent that just goes to show what a strong album it was if this track can be considered to fall in its bottom half.
 
I guess I'm in the minority here, but "One Love" is definitely my favorite of the two. It's been on so many of my playlists and heard so often in our home and cars over the years, that my wife thought it was one of the their singles. One of my favorite Carp's non-single tracks ever.
 
I guess I'm in the minority here, but "One Love" is definitely my favorite of the two. It's been on so many of my playlists and heard so often in our home and cars over the years, that my wife thought it was one of the their singles. One of my favorite Carp's non-single tracks ever.

I went with the B-side as well. Gorgeous album track. The 1994 remix just added that extra special something.
 
It's funny. One Love is a song that never grabbed me. Not 25 years ago. . . .wow just realized this month marks my quarter century love affair with the duo. . .and still doesn't today. I know that this was the first thing RC and Bettis worked on after their split in '67, re-writing the lyrics to "Candy" about a pretty girl in Coke Corner, Disneyland. I'd love to hear the original lyrics.

IWLADWY is the single that should have been the lead off single from that 1974 album that never was. But Sherwin had them mental busy so we got this instead. It's a lovely track. . .just classic Carpenters, and my Dad's favourite of theirs.
 
I loved this album cut (side a), and then I heard the single version with the guitar fills! A cut above!!!

Tony Peluso did that for me: add layers of excitement, happy. Until 1983!??!! ;(.

Until Sad.
 
CraigGA hits the spot with his comment "Paul Williams and the Carpenters are a match made from Heaven."
(Throw in Roger Nichols, and it's the perfect four-way.)

"One Love" and the Tan Album are a good fit, and the song's ending is gorgeous. But with "I Won't Last A Day" there's a well-defined structure and lot more variation with the melody, rhythm and key modulation, which makes it by far the stronger song in my book.
 
One Love,
as performed on Make Your Own Kind Of Music,
had a different piano interlude.
That different piano break gave some punch to the song,
which, sadly, is absent from the LP or Single version,
and every subsequent occurrence.

Listen (piano: 1:57 to 2:16):
 
Both are nice, but I went with IWLADWY.

But the other day I was looking through the pages of my MFSL copy of "A Song For You" and was reading Richard's notes for each track. Apparently, in 1974, DJ's and radio programmers were still asking when IWLADWY would be issued on 45, so Richard agreed and released the song.
 
One Love,
as performed on Make Your Own Kind Of Music,
had a different piano interlude.
That different piano break gave some punch to the song,
which, sadly, is absent from the LP or Single version,
and every subsequent occurrence.

Listen (piano: 1:57 to 2:16):


A tad bit off topic somewhat, but was this recorded the same day as the Rainy Days video? I just immediately recognized the background and thought of that.
 
The insightful discussion regarding B'Wana She No Home
has me re-listening to every 45-Single that I have in my possession.
Listening to the White Label Promo 45- of
I Won't Last A Day Without You,
the strings seem to come in with a stark difference (in arrangement) near the end of the song
compared to any other--especially from that which appears on the CD Singles 1969-1981.
Anyone hear this difference ? (or, any difference for that matter ).

Note,
I Won't Last A Day Without You:
The resource under this song states that the song appears on the
Quad LP Singles 1969-1973 ,
probably a typo.
 
The insightful discussion regarding B'Wana She No Home
has me re-listening to every 45-Single that I have in my possession.
Listening to the White Label Promo 45- of
I Won't Last A Day Without You,
the strings seem to come in with a stark difference (in arrangement) near the end of the song
compared to any other--especially from that which appears on the CD Singles 1969-1981.
Anyone hear this difference ? (or, any difference for that matter ).

Note,
I Won't Last A Day Without You:
The resource under this song states that the song appears on the
Quad LP Singles 1969-1973 ,
probably a typo.

"I Won't Last A Day Without You" on SINGLES 1969-1981 is a remix whereas the 45 is the faster single mix.
 
I Won't Last A Day Without You is one song that it's single version rarely saw the light of day anywhere else. The one on the Gold CD is my favorite version. It has the clearest vocal stacks and bring more focus to Karen's voice. If it had the vocal stacks singing different parts per side as the MFSL does it would be perfect. Back to your strings comment, the Complete Singles has that string part you are talking about, but the Gold version does not and the harp takes over more predominantly. I never noticed it before for both version send that "goose bump" feel. I no longer have my single for I gave it to a new convert that was leaving town and I gave it to him in a pack of extras (I thought were extras) I had as a classic example of a Carpenters tune. (And yet it does not have the classic saxaphone section in the middle).
 
:doh:
Of course it isn't on that album, and the entry will be fixed immediately. Thank you for spotting that - it was indeed a typo.
 
I Won't Last A Day Without You is one song that it's single version rarely saw the light of day anywhere else. The one on the Gold CD is my favorite version. It has the clearest vocal stacks and bring more focus to Karen's voice. If it had the vocal stacks singing different parts per side as the MFSL does it would be perfect. Back to your strings comment, the Complete Singles has that string part you are talking about, but the Gold version does not and the harp takes over more predominantly. I never noticed it before for both version send that "goose bump" feel. I no longer have my single for I gave it to a new convert that was leaving town and I gave it to him in a pack of extras (I thought were extras) I had as a classic example of a Carpenters tune. (And yet it does not have the classic saxaphone section in the middle).

The GOLD version is a 1991 remix. The single is of course the original single version. (Or am I missing something else here?)
 
This is one of my least favorite singles. There's something about this song that never did really grab my attention. A nice album cut, though.
 
My vote, side A. I Won't last a day... has that hook where Karen kicks her performance up a notch (octave) or two; "When there's no getting over that rainbow..." really belts it out, makes my neck hair stand up, similar to Bless The Beasts...; "Light their way when the darkness surrounds them...". It was hard to vote against One Love, which also rates very high on my list of favorite Carpenters songs.
 
one aspect of I WON'T LAST A DAY WITHOUT YOU is Richard's genius of putting the line. "when you're near my love" as a chorus vocal. if you have heard paul Williams version, you will understand, it is very clunky. tony's guitar, as always, takes the song to a whole new level.

I always felt ONE LOVE would be a wonderful song for a pas de deux.
ONE LOVE was written when Richard and john worked at Disneyland. it was originally called CANDY about one of their co-works.
 
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