The Singles... That never were

Simon KC1950

Well-Known Member
The Carpenters had many strong album tracks. Some even stronger than songs that were actually released as singles. So i thought it would be fun to take a look at those tracks.

Here are the songs that i think would have made good singles:
-Reason To Believe - i think this was considered as a single due to lots of airplay but they decided to just get on with new material.
- Let Me Be The One- this one should have been released and would probably have been Gold certified I imagine.
-One Love - a nice track
- A Song For You - one of their bests although i think the sax solo would have to be shortened.
- The End Of The World - it was pretty much a full song anyway but a full recorded version would have been great, I have read that the live version from Japan was released as a promo single there.
- Desperado - one of many tracks from Horizon which could easily have been singles. It would have been interesting to merge Aurora & Eventide into one track for the B-Side
-Happy- another that could have made a strong single
Some more:
-Love Me For What I Am
-Can't Smile Without You
-I Just Fall In Love Again
-Sleigh Ride
-Kiss Me The Way You Did Last Night

What do you think? Any others?
 
My first post...been visiting this site for years and wanted to jump in.
I would agree that these unreleased tunes should have been released and are on my list.
Btw. I rexently drove by former AM Studios and parked my car by the entrance. The song that came to mind was A Song For You
 
My first post...been visiting this site for years and wanted to jump in.
I would agree that these unreleased tunes should have been released and are on my list.
Btw. I rexently drove by former AM Studios and parked my car by the entrance. The song that came to mind was A Song For You

Welcome OhioFan, great to have you in the forum! Simon, I agree with most of your list, but I would add This Masquerade and Any Day Now, which should've been recorded in studio and released as a single (on my wish list). I agree with I Just Fall In Love Again and A Song For You most definitely. Though I like the duo's version of Reason To Believe, I think Rod stole the show on that one...
 
--Still remember Randy Edelman's "You" as being the "first-play 'chill-factor song'" from "Hush." ... And then, after "I Need to Be in Love" (love it, but a commercial blunder, if you ask me), the label goes and releases the doomed-from-the-start "Goofus" -- a move I actually blame OUR community for:
A&M apparently got many so many fan requests.
WTH were we and they thinking? And this coming from a HUGE Johnny Mercer fan.

--Rich says "I Just Fall in Love Again" was too long to release for radio. Nonsense, as singles with longer running times scored big as the decade progressed; OR it could have been properly edited. Best song on "Passage," and you just hand the hit to Anne Murray (whom I adore, BTW; at least SHE got it, and not the bombastic Mr. Manilow -- the latter I'll never forgive for swiping "I Write the Songs" from Captain & Tennille and "Somewhere in the Night" from Helen Reddy, and improving on neither. One Manilow exception in my mind is his "Trying to Get the Feeling," primary because he had the good sense to gut and filet the often baffling original David Pomerantz lyrics (and was even given a writing credit for his extensive rehab). Manilow's more subtle reading also makes it the (literally) gold standard, if you ask me. But, my God, Rich's arrangement is stunning, isn't it. Even with the dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks "re-be his lover ..." lyric (huh?), it's still my favorite posthumous Carpenters track.

--The release of "I Believe You" was a faux pas. Dorothy Moore's version was too fresh in both pop and soul listeners' minds

--Pre-"Hush," I agree with every release and remix. (That's a lot to be in agreement on!) After "Passage," while I have a soft spot (but nothing more) for "Touch Me" because it was the last chart hurrah, the only singles I think really matter are "Honolulu" (so lovely, sincere -- even locals in Hawai'i hold it dear; no small feat give how beloved the original is there), Rich's "Time" (beautiful) and Karen's "If I Had You" (mind-blowing -- I wish that jam in the last act would never have ended ...)

I love this stuff. Spent a fortune collecting every single (hardest finds, believe it or not: the misprinted "We've Only Just Begun" sleeve (erroneously listing "Maybe It's You" as side B), the fan-club issue of "Yesterday Once More" (GORGEOUS sleeve), mint picture sleeves of "All You Get ..." and "Honolulu," and the "Little Alter Boy" and "Let Me Be the One" promos.

Anybody else into collecting the singles. They're stacked and playing right now. So. Much. Fun. Especially for those of us who started our (almost 50-year) Carpenters love affairs as youngsters with "(They Long to Be ..."), only to flip it over and get the gift of "I Kept on Loving You."

Who really had a clue the half-century of musical heaven that would be in store.

Maybe Herb and Burt ...

PLEASE let's continue this string. I LOVE that it is here, but feel it's only just begun.

Mike
 
I Just Fall In Love Again could have had a single version recorded, fresh.

You...Could it have made it? The arrangement is too sleepy, but I think Richard would have changed it some if company pressure would have been present for this song.? The words and Karen’s reading are hit worthy.

When I was a teenager I wanted Love Me For What I Am and Boat To Sail to be Singles. I still think Love Me For What I Am is a strong song and would have been perfect for the summer of 1975, right after Only Yesterday!
 
The Carpenters had many strong album tracks. Some even stronger than songs that were actually released as singles. So i thought it would be fun to take a look at those tracks.

Here are the songs that i think would have made good singles:
-Reason To Believe - i think this was considered as a single due to lots of airplay but they decided to just get on with new material.
- Let Me Be The One- this one should have been released and would probably have been Gold certified I imagine.
-One Love - a nice track
- A Song For You - one of their bests although i think the sax solo would have to be shortened.
- The End Of The World - it was pretty much a full song anyway but a full recorded version would have been great, I have read that the live version from Japan was released as a promo single there.
- Desperado - one of many tracks from Horizon which could easily have been singles. It would have been interesting to merge Aurora & Eventide into one track for the B-Side
-Happy- another that could have made a strong single
Some more:
-Love Me For What I Am
-Can't Smile Without You
-I Just Fall In Love Again
-Sleigh Ride
-Kiss Me The Way You Did Last Night

What do you think? Any others?
One song that might be considered odd for a single is Druscilla Penny, but I've got a Paraguay/Argentinian promo 45 that has Druscilla Penny as the A side, and Sometimes as the B side.

But some other songs that should've been 45's

My Body Keeps Changing My Mind (especially Richard's 1990 remix---that should've been issued as a Dance single)
Prime Time Love
I've Got Rhythm
Say Yeah!
I Kept On Loving You
Book Of Love
Saturday
Happy
Can't Smile Without You
 
But some other songs that should've been 45's

My Body Keeps Changing My Mind (especially Richard's 1990 remix---that should've been issued as a Dance single)

Couldn't agree more. If I'm not mistaken, it did gain notoriety in some clubs in the 1990s, as the word got around about the song and DJs started playing it.
 
Couldn't agree more. If I'm not mistaken, it did gain notoriety in some clubs in the 1990s, as the word got around about the song and DJs started playing it.
I even have a promo CD that stores could play that featured an announcer highlighting a few tracks from “From The Top” and “My Body” was one of the tracks! Imagine walking into a store and hearing that tracks playing!
 
So agree with "Love Me for What I Am": one of my 10 fave album tracks, and it would have charted solidly. I think "Boat to Sail" would have done great at A/C, but failed at Top 40 -- too sleepy, even with a remix. However, if the smooth-jazz format had existed in '76, it would have done well there, too.
 
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I even have a promo CD that stores could play that featured an announcer highlighting a few tracks from “From The Top” and “My Body” was one of the tracks! Imagine walking into a store and hearing that tracks playing!

That sounds like a really cool item! Where did you find it and what's on it?
 
I might be the youngest one being in my 20s but.. I have a different opinion thne most. I feel the following wouldve had big or moderate success.

Get Together
Reason To Believe
I Kept On Loving You
Drucilla penny
Happy
You
Two Sides
Just Fall In Love Again
Two Lives
When I fall In Love.
Little Girl Blue
 
That sounds like a really cool item! Where did you find it and what's on it?
I got it off of ebay a few years ago. It's track listing is

Close To You
Still Crazy After All These Years
Let Me Be The One
We've Only Just Begun
My Body Keeps Changing My Mind
Goodbye To Love
Looking For Love

A&M used a brown background with the writing and Carpenters logo in lime-green. It is an official, pressed CD, not a CD-R, but the brown and lime-green makes it very difficult to read or even photograph. It doesn't show up to well in photo's.
 
I got it off of ebay a few years ago. It's track listing is

Close To You
Still Crazy After All These Years
Let Me Be The One
We've Only Just Begun
My Body Keeps Changing My Mind
Goodbye To Love
Looking For Love

A&M used a brown background with the writing and Carpenters logo in lime-green. It is an official, pressed CD, not a CD-R, but the brown and lime-green makes it very difficult to read or even photograph. It doesn't show up to well in photo's.

Great item that - a real eclectic mix from the box set!
 
Fine thread, and fodder for a hoped-for (albeit highly unlikely) special release that most of us have been (at least subconsciously) yearning for over the past decade--something that shows the other side of the C's oeuvre, allowing them some form of escape from their "goody-four-shoes" image.

Basing it on what's been listed thus far, and adding in a couple of my own personal faves, here's a draft of a release called GETTING IN DEEP with the CARPENTERS:

1. All I Can Do
2. Turn Away
3. Reason to Believe
4. I Kept On Loving You
5. Let Me Be The One
6. (A Place to) Hide Away
7. A Song For You
8. Crystal Lullaby
9. Road Ode
10. Happy
11. Love Me For What I Am
12. Boat to Sail
13. Honolulu City Lights
14. Bwana She No Home
15. My Body Keeps Changing My Mind
16. Love Makin' Love To You
17. Last One Singing the Blues

Clearly there are many variations possible here, but the idea behind this version is to combine commercial potential and unfamiliar genres. Looking forward to seeing other proposed track lineups in subsequent posts!
 
I’m Still Not Over You should have been then lead single from Time right off the bat. Biggest mistake Richard made. Wouldve been an easy top 20 minimum with the right promotion. You hear Richard Carpener is coming out with a new album, and hear someone else singing? Shoudlve been a simple album cut or later single. He released Who Do You love in Japan. Shoulve made that the second single.
 
Once again, regardless of whatever Richard Carpenter was going to include on his solo album,
if there was going to be little promotion by him, I fail to see how the album would have charted any better....
---as far as Richard's "Time" is concerned, we read:
People Magazine, October 26th, 1987:
"Record business wisdom would have Carpenter go out on tour to support his new LP,
but he plans to stay home for a while, he says, “because I don’t want to leave my baby yet.”
Source:
Four Years After His Sister Karen's Death, Singer Richard Carpenter Makes His Debut as a Solo Act
 
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