For those who don't remember, here's a bit of the history of the song "Superstar." It first appeared as an album track on the tan Carpenters LP, and met with a lot of positive reaction, so after "Rainy Days And Mondays", it was released as the next single. The single version was identical to that album track in terms of 'mixes'.
It next appeared on the Singles 1969-1973 album, pitched up slightly and with a different ending in order to effect a segue on the album to the next track, the aforementioned "Rainy Days..." Other than the altered ending and pitch, it was still the same basic recording.
Flash forward to the 80s and the advent of CDs. By this time, Richard had remixed "Superstar" for the Yesterday Once More set, with an altered descending horn line in the opening, a punchier drum track, and Karen's voice now more reverbed. This remix would then appear on virtually every compilation (with an early 90s update) right through to the year 2000. Even the early release on CD of the tan Carpenters album featured the remix. In fact, the only place on CD for years that one could find any existence of the original mix was on the Singles 1969-1973 disc, and that was in its altered form.
It wasn't until the 1998-1999 issues of the Remastered Classics series of albums that we actually got to hear the original "Superstar" mix on CD, with the song appearing on the tan Carpenters CD. Since then, it's appeared on the Japanese By Request CD, and most recently on the Essential Collection box set.
To me, this kind of indicates that for many years, Richard saw no reason to 'subject' us to the original mix, instead favoring his remix. But recent releases tend to tell me that he may have 'come to terms' with the original mix -- perhaps after spending time with it in preparing for the Remastered Classics set.
So I thought I'd poll the membership here on which mix you prefer.
Harry
It next appeared on the Singles 1969-1973 album, pitched up slightly and with a different ending in order to effect a segue on the album to the next track, the aforementioned "Rainy Days..." Other than the altered ending and pitch, it was still the same basic recording.
Flash forward to the 80s and the advent of CDs. By this time, Richard had remixed "Superstar" for the Yesterday Once More set, with an altered descending horn line in the opening, a punchier drum track, and Karen's voice now more reverbed. This remix would then appear on virtually every compilation (with an early 90s update) right through to the year 2000. Even the early release on CD of the tan Carpenters album featured the remix. In fact, the only place on CD for years that one could find any existence of the original mix was on the Singles 1969-1973 disc, and that was in its altered form.
It wasn't until the 1998-1999 issues of the Remastered Classics series of albums that we actually got to hear the original "Superstar" mix on CD, with the song appearing on the tan Carpenters CD. Since then, it's appeared on the Japanese By Request CD, and most recently on the Essential Collection box set.
To me, this kind of indicates that for many years, Richard saw no reason to 'subject' us to the original mix, instead favoring his remix. But recent releases tend to tell me that he may have 'come to terms' with the original mix -- perhaps after spending time with it in preparing for the Remastered Classics set.
So I thought I'd poll the membership here on which mix you prefer.
Harry
As I already own a set of the "original", remixed CDs, I just couldn't afford to buy a new set, especially not at import prices!
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