The 20th Anniversary of the release of KAREN CARPENTER

Although:
Peter Knight arranged the Christmas Portrait version of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town,
whereas, Richard Carpenter arranged the ballad version.
 
Compare the way Karen inflects on the solo version. She's almost whispering and sounds very sexy. Then play Richard's remix. The vocal take is much more Carpenter-esque.
 
Compare the way Karen inflects on the solo version. She's almost whispering and sounds very sexy. Then play Richard's remix. The vocal take is much more Carpenter-esque.

I actually prefer the alternate vocal take, it's more strident, which suits the jazzy feel of the song better.
 
Alternate vocal take? Is there a third recording of the song that hasn't seen the light of day?
 
Nope, just the two lead vocal takes of 'If I Had You' that we know about (the original solo album version and the Richard remix from 'Lovelines'). I'll bet there are other 'takes' in the vault, as well.
 
Compare the way Karen inflects on the solo version. She's almost whispering and sounds very sexy. Then play Richard's remix. The vocal take is much more Carpenter-esque.
But that's an edit, just like on "My Body Keeps..." Richard brought Karen's voice and the drums more forward in the mix than Phil Ramone had intended to get rid of the disco influence. But there's only so much Richard can do because he has to follow what Ramone originally arranged. Really Richard was just re-working Ramone's ending on "If I Had You", whereas Richard created an all new arrangement for "Make Believe...", even going so far as to ask the writer's to write a new bridge, just like he slowed down "Santa Claus..." but Knight did a more traditional arrangement.

And Karen probably recorded a number of takes of the end.
 
I know he edited the ending by bringing up the background vocals. I was referring to the actual lead vocal track. Not the backgrounds. They're two different leads he had from which to choose.
 
I never realized the two different lead vocal tracks on If I Had You. This thread made me relisten to the two Cd's and I heard a softer more intimate reading on the Karen Carpenter Cd vs. Lovelines Cd. But, I am not sure that a different compression and pro tools edits couldn't replicate what is done on the Lovelines Cd using the same track. So, I will accept the word of those that know more than I know.
 
In the very first line of "If I Had You", Karen's reading of the word "bedroom" is different between the two versions. On the solo version, the second syllable "room" is a little more drawn out. On the Carpenters remix, that second syllable is a little more curt or cut short. Just a slight difference, but audible.
 
Like many on here, I had no idea about the album's release, but chanced upon a single copy in HMV's back catalogue section towards the end of 1996. At the princely sum of £16.99 (amazing what record shops used to get away with in terms of pricing in the 1990s) and at a time when I wasn't exactly flush with cash, I couldn't really afford to get it, but eventually picked it up in early 1997 at an independent store for a much more reasonable £10.

Even though I'd already heard the six solo tracks released on Lovelines and From the Top, it was still quite a surprise to hear the variety of the previously unreleased tracks, like the dryness of 'All Because of You' and the playfulness of 'Guess I Just Lost My Head'. The biggest surprise though was the inclusion of 'Make Believe It's Your First Time', as I'd never heard before anything about this having been anything other than a 'Carpenters' song.

I still play the album a fair bit, so even though the solo tracks form quite a key part of the Lovelines running order, I associate them more with the solo album now than with that album.
Karen & Phil Ramone's version is SOOOO much better.
 
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