⭐ Official Review [Single]: 19. "THERE'S A KIND OF HUSH"/"(I'M CAUGHT BETWEEN) GOODBYE AND I LOVE YOU" (1800-S)

Which side is your favorite?

  • Side A: "There's A Kind Of Hush (All Over The World)"

    Votes: 22 40.7%
  • Side B: "(I'm Caught Between) Goodbye And I Love You"

    Votes: 32 59.3%

  • Total voters
    54

Chris May

Resident ‘Carpenterologist’
Staff member
Moderator
“THERE'S A KIND OF HUSH"/"(I'M CAUGHT BETWEEN) GOODBYE AND I LOVE YOU)"


AKOH.png AKOH Single.png GAILY.jpg
Side A: There's A Kind Of Hush (All Over The World) 2:53 (Reed/Stephens)
Side B: (I'm Caught Between) Goodbye And I Love You 3:58 (Carpenter/Bettis)


Catalogue Number: A&M 1800-S
Date of Release: 2/76
Format: 7" Single
Speed: 45 RPM
Country: US
Top Chart Position: #12


Arranged and Orchestrated by Richard Carpenter
Produced by Richard Carpenter
Associate Producer: Karen Carpenter


For more definitive information regarding each single, you can visit our Carpenters - The Complete Singles page in our Carpenters Resource.
 
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I picked the A-side, "There's A Kind Of Hush (All Over The World)" as it seemed at the time like a good choice for a single. The oldies thing was starting to get a little old, but the duo did a good version of this song. The B-side is just a lukewarm album track that never did anything for me.
 
I get Harry's dislike for GAILY, and how it can be really slow and samey for some, but I actually find it still sounds very fresh, much like Horizon as a whole. It's not one of my favorites per se and don't love it like many others but it's sophisticated and has Karen hitting some deep, smoky notes. After this, she rarely went that deep again and she gives tremendous atmosphere to the record. It could have used more pep in its arrangement but I still love it.

AKOH is okay and fun to hear once in a blue moon but it's pretty bland and terribly thin musically and vocally. You can practically hear Richard's addiction in the uninspiredness. Hell, even Beechwood was better and given more care to. I can't believe this went to #12(!!) in 1976 and a year later a gem like AYGFLIALS stalls at #35.
 
"Hush" is one of my guilty pleasures. I love everything about it. Both the studio version and the live one. It's obviously not a "classic" or all that memorable in their catalogue, but it doesn't matter to me.
 
^^Mark, I have loved There's A Kind of Hush, from Day One !
I still remember, 1976, seeing the 45-PS Single on the record racks:
placement under the Tag "HitBound".....and, still believe the Single is
'sped-up' versus the Album version of same. (Or, rather, perhaps the LP version is 'slowed' !).
Great song to my ears.
 
Both the studio version and the live one.

This is one of the few times where I feel the live version of a song of their's was superior to the polished studio one. The slow, hushed opening is beautiful and then it moves with much more energy and vigor when it starts up compared to the studio recording.
 
What is it about the B-side you don't like much?

Hmm...it's too draggy, a bit like Solitaire. The verses aren't really that well constructed, the melody is too repetitive and has Karen up and down too much for my liking, for example:

"It might be time to leave"
"You're like a stranger, then you're a lover"
 
Hmm...it's too draggy, a bit like Solitaire. The verses aren't really that well constructed, the melody is too repetitive and has Karen up and down too much for my liking, for example:

"It might be time to leave"
"You're like a stranger, then you're a lover"

I totally get that, yet I still really like it somehow. For me, it's better than "Love Me For..", I hate that Richard doubled her lead on it (or in general) and although it's lyrically mature it doesn't take off the way it should.

Verse-wise and melodically, Tryin to Get the Feeling Again beats both of them easily and is genuinely compelling in structure, and with a work lead(!). But it wouldn't have had the 90s edge had it been released with Horizon and achieved greatness - the arrangement would have been more mellow combined with Karen possibly redoing her perfect vocal.
 
I totally get that, yet I still really like it somehow. For me, it's better than "Love Me For..", I hate that Richard doubled her lead on it (or in general) and although it's lyrically mature it doesn't take off the way it should.

That doubled lead has never sounded right to me. It makes Karen sound "metallic", like a robot. I can't understand why it doesn't work that well when a song like I Won't Last A Day Without You sounds superb with Karen's doubled lead in the choruses.

Verse-wise and melodically, Tryin to Get the Feeling Again beats both of them easily and is genuinely compelling in structure, and with a work lead(!). But it wouldn't have had the 90s edge had it been released with Horizon and achieved greatness - the arrangement would have been more mellow combined with Karen possibly redoing her perfect vocal.

No arguments from me there, that song would have been the highlight of Horizon for me if it had been included. I've lost count of the number of reviews I've seen of Interpretations and the Essential Collection set I've read that singled it out as the standout track. I definitely think Richard missed a trick there in 1975.
 
That doubled lead has never sounded right to me. It makes Karen sound "metallic", like a robot. I can't understand why it doesn't work that well when a song like I Won't Last A Day Without You sounds superb with Karen's doubled lead in the choruses.



No arguments from me there, that song would have been the highlight of Horizon for me if it had been included. I've lost count of the number of reviews I've seen of Interpretations and the Essential Collection set I've read that singled it out as the standout track. I definitely think Richard missed a trick there in 1975.

Her doubled lead on IWLADWY is the one thing that I don't love about that song. But it never bothers me when I'm hearing it because the rest is constructed so well and goes for the soul. It doesn't make her sound robotic like Love Me, but why was it needed? I want her voice directly.

I think Randy Schmidt wrote in an interview once about hearing Interpretations when it first came out in a record store when you could go in a booth and hear an album with headphones. He remembered being moved to tears hearing it, probably in part due to this gorgeous gem being buried for so many years and having a part of Karen's soul feel like it's being exposed more. This, and of course the immediate, visceral feeling he got when he heard it.
 
I wasn't around to experience the ups and downs of the duo's career first hand. All I can do is look back. To me, to have experienced the sheer class of Horizon, and then 6 months later to have this as the flag-ship 1976 release would have given me cause for concern.

Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike it, and never skip it, but sonically it just seems like a come-down. The song, the mix, the arrangement - the beginnings of the Carpenters living up to that Muzak label they got saddled with years earlier. Presumably they felt the same way and came back with Passage.

So I prefer "Goodbye and I love You".

Laters

Neil
 
Neither of these is a top-drawer track in my opinion and I'd agree with most of the criticisms levelled against 'There's a Kind of Hush' as both a track and as a lead single - in hindsight it was quite a big tactical error. I don't hate it, but I hardly ever listen to it these days, and if I were to, I'd probably go for the live version on Live at the Palladium, which at least has some of the energy that's so lacking in the studio version.

'Goodbye and I Love You' is OK but has a rather odd and meandering melody that I find a bit grating. Again, not a song I'd actively seek out these days.
 
I went with the A side, "There's a kind of hush". From a career standpoint, they probably should have stopped covering oldies after "Postman", but I can't help but like "Hush". It's very well done, and a pleasure to listen to.
 
Picked the B side, but it's close. Karen's vocals on CBGAILY are gorgeous. Yes, the song is a little slow, but there are moments of magic. Can't say the same for the A side. I do remember immediately liking the call-and-response arrangement of the guitar and sax at the fade. Overall, the guitars struck me as a little choppy, and I don't know that it's a very expressive vocal from Karen. Pretty song, though.
 
Picked the B side, but it's close. Karen's vocals on CBGAILY are gorgeous. Yes, the song is a little slow, but there are moments of magic. Can't say the same for the A side. I do remember immediately liking the call-and-response arrangement of the guitar and sax at the fade. Overall, the guitars struck me as a little choppy, and I don't know that it's a very expressive vocal from Karen. Pretty song, though.

The vocal quality and the technical way the latter song was recorded is lesser in every way than Goodbye and I LY sounded. The vocal richness isn't there on Hush and she sounds the thinnest we heard her up to that point. This goes back to ghe fascinating, endless debate on whether the vocal quality shift was totally intentional/conscious or a result of her illness, but they sound very different.
 
I voted for the B side for what i feel is a heartfelt original. I love karen's " Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" line and the i am able to relate to the overall lyrics because as they say " I've Been There". And i used to hear it on the radio more often than AKOH i agree it wasnt their greatest album but it does have its good moments i think the better choice for the a side should have been "I Need to be in Love" so the single would totally have Two Original compositions. Just my 2¢ worth
 
Kind of Hush is simply a single track. No matter the chart number, it was best choice for this record. As beautiful and delightful as the B side is, I don't think radio would have supported such a mellow song as there were so many on radio at the time. Minus a very few and I do mean "few", There are probably as many more possible A sides that were never heard by the masses. But that is my opinion as I love as many of the album tracks as the hits. There will come a day in the future when the world discovers all the magic they missed by purchasing the singles. I hope!!!
 
I really didn't care for "There's A Kind of Hush" when it came out in 1976. Sounded too much like the Herman's Hermits version which I didn't care for either. Wish that he could have reinterpreted it like he did with "Ticket to Ride". "Goodbye And I Love You" is a fabulous song with Karen's haunting ending verse.
 
I picked "Hush" mainly because like others have posted, its release was exciting to me at that time to have a new Carpenters single moving up the charts and generating significant Top 40 airplay! I heard it a lot more on the radio than I ever did "Solitaire". Is it my favorite, no, but simply a pleasant tune that evokes happy memories of that period.
 
This one was quote the challenge for me. I have always loved I'm Caught Between Goodbye & I Love You... Certainly, for the aforementioned Devil & The Deep Blue Sea line... and really, the whole emotional impact of the lyric and the conundrum she's in.... the theme continues on Two Sides and again on The Uninvited Guest.... "just like the old song, Torn Between Two Lovers.... it's not happening to others... it's happening to you and me - and the pain is intense..."

Content, arrangement, melody, and vocals are all winners to me - but not a single choice...

That's why I ultimately selected Hush as my vote here. Like many, I longingly awaited the "next" single, and as I recall, this was one that caught me off guard... Usually, I'd call A & M studios and harass them until they'd tell me when new releases were coming, and what they were... But I remember just hearing this one on the radio - prior to any requests or investigation.

Possibly the last time that may have happened - & that's a sweet memory.... So - Hush wins my vote. and as of this moment - it's a tie! Wow!
 
I love "There's A Kind Of Hush" I actually ordered the 45' from eBay yesterday. It's one I don't have yet (I'm 16)
my first album of theirs was 40/40 which I got when I was 14. After playing those 40 songs millions of times, I decided to find some more... And I found There's A Kind Of Hush. I learned it was a single and wondered why it wasn't on 40/40.
I then went on amazon and got my first Carpenters studio albums: "A Kind Of Hush" and "A Christmas Portrait" .
Then I became a big fan! Ordered "Horizon" and "As Time Goes By".
It was Christmas soon after and I got all of their other studio albums. ☺
 
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