Week #4: Favorite Carpenters Song/Album: 'A SONG FOR YOU'
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Dave
Well-Known Member
I like how Gabor Szabo covered "It's Going To Take Some Time"--he does it as an instrumental and you can hear a flute (or maybe a RECORDER) in the background, along with some good percussion and strings. I would often hear it at one of my local shopping plazas (where I'd also hear Wes Mongomery's "A Day In The Life"). 
But he does convey the "melancholy sadness" that was behind a lot of the Carpenters' stuff; listened to Szabo's Mizrab album and heard it today! 
"Top Of The World" actually saw a couple of remakes that I like! One is by Jerry Vale, who sings it in an entirely different key--giving it a sort of "Jim Nabors-like Quality"!
The Ray Conniff Singers applied their unique voices and a "bah, bah, bah, bah, bah..." to the electric piano melody heard in the original. You can buy the RC Singers version on CD--it's available on The Way We Were, packaged with The Happy Sound Of...
Dave
...Shazam...!
But he does convey the "melancholy sadness" that was behind a lot of the Carpenters' stuff; listened to Szabo's Mizrab album and heard it today! "Top Of The World" actually saw a couple of remakes that I like! One is by Jerry Vale, who sings it in an entirely different key--giving it a sort of "Jim Nabors-like Quality"!
The Ray Conniff Singers applied their unique voices and a "bah, bah, bah, bah, bah..." to the electric piano melody heard in the original. You can buy the RC Singers version on CD--it's available on The Way We Were, packaged with The Happy Sound Of...
Dave
...Shazam...!
W.B.
Member
Er . . . I have the LP on which Ms. King's original was featured, alas it turns out to be her third album for Ode ('70), Carole King Music. Having been attuned to the Carpenters' rendition for so long, though . . .Ed Bishop said:
And speaking of which . . . some Columbia pressings of their 45 had a shiny (glossy finish) ochre color in the background, rather than the dull finish ochre they were usually associated with, alongside the bright orange color they used for the "A&M" part of the label design. This was in-between the "old" dull ochre of Pantone 117U and the darkening/browning of the dull ochre to Pantone 125U that would be on Columbia-pressed A&M 45's from spring 1972 to late spring/early summer 1973. The shiny ochre, meanwhile, appears to be Pantone 125C. I have one of those "shiny ochre" Columbia-pressed copies . . . but the song still sounds good.
Carole King's version was out there first, and I'd heard it enough by hearing it played on radio as an album track, and by listening to the album itself, to consider hers the original.
I still recall an early Sunday morning when my favorite radio station began playing "It's Going To Take Some Time" by Carpenters. It was un-announced and I recall thinking, "Oh no, not another remake! Is nothing sacred?" About a minute in, of course, I recognized it as a Carpenters song and was much more forgiving...
Harry
NP: "It's Going To Take Some Time" - Carole King
I still recall an early Sunday morning when my favorite radio station began playing "It's Going To Take Some Time" by Carpenters. It was un-announced and I recall thinking, "Oh no, not another remake! Is nothing sacred?" About a minute in, of course, I recognized it as a Carpenters song and was much more forgiving...
Harry
NP: "It's Going To Take Some Time" - Carole King
Grits Blitz
New Member
Tough call being one of the best albums of the C's. My vote is for "I Won't Last a Day Without You" for sentimental reasons. It takes me back to its single release in 1974 and my playing the 45 over and over. I also remember Maureen McGovern also released her version around the same time. I remember seeing her as a guest on the Merv Griffin show and her cringing when he asked - "Didn't the Carpenters also just release that song as a single?" Guess she knew whose record was going to sell, but she is a great singer, too.
Guess she knew whose record was going to sell, but she is a great singer, too.
Rick-An Ordinary Fool
Well-Known Member
Wow, this was too hard of a choice but I casted my vote.
I always vote before I read the thread posts so I am not swayed
My vote was Goodbye to Love. I remember hearing this for the first time & it mean more to me than anything Karen ever sang to my early Carpenters listening ears. I guess I just identified with the lyrics so much & Karen made me feel that she knew how I felt & it was comforting & lifted me even though it's sad song. I can still remember so vivdly, me sitting in my plush bean bag chair with my headphones on listening the Goodbye to Love. The lyrics to this song are so powerful.
I couldn't really choose A Song for You cause at the time of hearing this album, the song didn't affect me much, but now years later it has become one of my favorites, so it is a close 2nd.
I always vote before I read the thread posts so I am not swayed
My vote was Goodbye to Love. I remember hearing this for the first time & it mean more to me than anything Karen ever sang to my early Carpenters listening ears. I guess I just identified with the lyrics so much & Karen made me feel that she knew how I felt & it was comforting & lifted me even though it's sad song. I can still remember so vivdly, me sitting in my plush bean bag chair with my headphones on listening the Goodbye to Love. The lyrics to this song are so powerful.
I couldn't really choose A Song for You cause at the time of hearing this album, the song didn't affect me much, but now years later it has become one of my favorites, so it is a close 2nd.
Vinylalbumcovers
Ah am so steel een luv weeth yoo
I'm also on the "A Song For You" bus. The way she ends the song is just amazing. I even love the "reprise" - perhaps because of the images of the movie it evokes for me. That part where Karen smiles after Agnes tells her she loves and Karen disappears beyond the camera never fails to get me.
Anyway, I love the sax solo and the overall "feel" of the track. It's moments like the very end of the song where Karen holds out "Singin' this soooooooong fooooooooooor yooooooooooooooooou" that really remind us that Richard really was the best producer for Karen. The way he arranges that part of the track so that he stays out of her way and it swirls back in just slightly as she releases "you". It's as if he knew what she'd do before he even brought his arrangement into the studio. What amazing chemistry those two had. Nothing quite like working with someone you're related to...
Ed
Anyway, I love the sax solo and the overall "feel" of the track. It's moments like the very end of the song where Karen holds out "Singin' this soooooooong fooooooooooor yooooooooooooooooou" that really remind us that Richard really was the best producer for Karen. The way he arranges that part of the track so that he stays out of her way and it swirls back in just slightly as she releases "you". It's as if he knew what she'd do before he even brought his arrangement into the studio. What amazing chemistry those two had. Nothing quite like working with someone you're related to...
Ed
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