Tambourine On The Carpenters Records?

[Chris May]

I have always had this question buried in the back of my mind:

Almost every early Carpenters hit has tambourine on the chorus. Who played this? I can only assume maybe Karen, but does anyone know for sure? This is one of those things that you hear, but no one gets credit for. -Chris

 

[Jeff]

The Portland concerts of '72 and '74 had the leading lady featured on percussion and the like. However the primary instrumention was performed by Doug Strawn or one of the group's members on tamb. There's is a video on GOLD that shows one of the dudes rattlin' away.

Jeff

 

[Chris May]

Well, I know on the radio contest outtakes you hear Karen at the timpani drum so I can only assume that she did the tambourine overdubs on the records. Maybe this would be a good question for Richard with regard to many of the "miscellaneous" bells and whistles on the albums. -Chris

 

[newvillefan]

Karen went unsung on many overdubs on their records, I'm sure she was there banging away on percussion somewhere or other!

Stephen

 

[GOODY4SHOES]

I assume Karen recorded all the percussion instruments during the early years. She played the triangle on "Mr. Guder" and "Sing" and the a-go-go bells on the "Bacharach Medly".

IMO, the tamborine is over-done on the WOJB bridge: "Sharing horizons that are new to us"... for some reason it just jumps out at me. Too loud for the rest of the track.

During that period, the tamborine was really "in".

 

[Harry]

A certain "H.Alpert" is credited on "shaker" on the first album, but we don't know how extensive his participation was.

Harry
...who likes the tamborine on "We've Only Just Begun", online...

 

[Chris May]

IMO, the tamborine is over-done on the WOJB bridge: "Sharing horizons that are new to us"... for some reason it just jumps out at me. Too loud for the rest of the track.

It depends on which mix you listen to. The original mix from '70 has the tambourine panned hard right and very "present". The latter remixes are tamed down a bit, blending in the 16ths with the rest of the track...Sounds nice. -Chris (...who was rather dissapointed that Richard deleted the tambourine track on all of the "Yesterday Once More" remixes...)

 

[GOODY4SHOES]

IMO, the tamborine is over-done on the WOJB bridge: "Sharing horizons that are new to us"... for some reason it just jumps out at me. Too loud for the rest of the track.

It depends on which mix you listen to. The original mix from '70 has the tambourine panned hard right and very "present". The latter remixes are tamed down a bit, blending in the 16ths with the rest of the track...Sounds nice. -Chris (...who was rather dissapointed that Richard deleted the tambourine track on all of the "Yesterday Once More" remixes...)

Good points Chris.

I confess, am a purist. I usually listen to the original mixes. I listen to the re-mixes to compare them to the originals. The originals have better separation and a lot less reverb.

 

[Dave]

Well, the tambourine seemed to be a very vital part of Pop Music and The Carpenters' records around this period...

"We've Only Just Begun", "Hurting each Other" and "Sing", to me, have that tambourine mixed in up-front, very noticably...

Second, of course, are those castanets on "Only Yesterday"...


Dave

 

[SakuraSYayoi]

At Budokan concerts of '76 Doug Strawn played the castanets.

Richard wrote about Bacharach/David medley on 3rd album:
For the rhythm track, instead of studio musicians, I used Karen and our group who, after having performed it countless times on stage, got it in one take. Karen and I then did all the vocals, which sound terrific and no doubt contributed to our winning a Grammy for "Outstanding Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus" for this album.

On videos of Bacharach Medley Danny Woodhams and backup drummer(I don't remember his name) played the tambourines. I guess that the members played the tambourines at longer medley. I don't know if the drummer played on 3rd album.

Sakura