Who Nailed It? -- "We've Only Just Begun"

[Dave]

Yes, Valentine's Day's coming & we're observing the anniversary of Karen's passing...

So, who's "We've Only Just Begun" (Paul Williams, Roger Nichols) is YOUR "#1"????

Andy Williams' version is my fav', by far... It's from his album Love Story (the only original album issued on CD not included in Collectibles 2-fer reissue program) I like how it was included on the 3-CD Andy Williams Sings Songs Of Love... It starts off with an exuberant drum beat & catchy "ooooohhhh" of a chorus, and augmented with some cool saxophone playing & a percussive break between each refrain; Artie Butler surely must get a bounty of credit for that clever arrangement! (What I consider "Definitive, 1st Place"!)

Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere & The Raiders does a sweet take on it, on his Silverbird, coming on almost immediately, as the second song right after the kick-off title track... Also arranged by Artie Butler... (Oh, man, how he must love it!) (My Pick for "2nd Place"!)

I like the soulful treatment Billy Eckstein gives his version... Quite unique & Artie Butler arranged his take on it, too... (Shaking thunder from EVERYONE who'd dun it, so far!) ("3rd Place"!)

Carpenters, as shop-worn as it is, I do still love (as I did buy a '45' of it b/w "For All We Know"--my first 'Carps record...) so it ranks 4th! (Although it ranks w/ "Yesterday Once More", as my definitive favorite Carpenters song...)

Paul Williams seems so wishy-washy, (yes, it's a DEMO!) & Jerry Vale, I thought was just going through the motions (especially w/ that annoying chorus, even if the background singers might have been the same ones hired behind Walter Wanderley's When It Was Done & Jimi Hendrix's Midnight Lightning)

Well, Andy Williams' wife Claudine Longet seems to be a version I have a soft spot for... Oooohhhh's & Aaaaaahhhh's by Nick DeCaro (he arranged hers) & guitar-work in the right spots! (I guess she makes "FIFTH"!!!!)

So what version--WHO'S?--is what turns you on most?


Dave

 

[Harry]

An A&M Forum poll, and no Julius Wechter & The Baja Marimba Band entry?

Harry

 

[Dave]

An A&M Forum poll, and no Julius Wechter & The Baja Marimba Band entry?

Harry

So add it & maybe Claudine Longet (although she recorded it on Barnaby), too...!


Dave

 

[richard_sloat]

Hmmmm, I think Bartra Streisand's version is also worth mentioning Mr. Dave, that would be an "other", I used to dislike it but it has somehow grown on me and now I quite enjoy it. Luckily is a short track, 2:26m long, perhaps I wouldn't have come to like it if it were longer since Streisand's singing can really drain me out after some listenings. It is kinda refreshing to give her version a few plays after the zillion ones I gave to the Carpenters recording.

 

[Dave]

...Hmmmm, I think Bartra Streisand's version is also worth mentioning Mr. Dave; that would be an "other"...

I just listened to it on YouTube... When did she record it? It sounds like it's from her "backed by The Peter Matz Orchestra period", as opposed to when she recorded the two albums I prefer, produced by Richard Perry, Stony End and Barbra Joan Streisand...

Which are the only two records by hers I've ever loved (Songbird & Guilty were two others I temporarily had; the former because my favorite guitarist John Tropea played on it (as revealed in Guitar Player right down to him stating that he sat right with her to play what chords best-suited her voice), but quickly dismissed because it was too treacly & "messily assembled" & the latter because it was a monumental work w/ Bee Gee Barry Gibb... But "Woman In Love" was really all there was there that ever really agreed with me, so I, then after also dismissing, just got the '45'; so, yes, to me, overrated, Guilty was!)...



Dave

 

[kenny]

Curtis Mayfield does a beautiful version of it on "Curtis/Live"

 

[A&Mguyfromwayback]

i had no idea it was recorded by all these other artists....I can't think of the song without hearing Karen's voice....

 

[richard_sloat]

I just listened to it on YouTube... When did she record it? It sounds like it's from her "backed by The Peter Matz Orchestra period", as opposed to when she recorded the two albums I prefer, produced by Richard Perry, Stony End and Barbra Joan Streisand...

I actually don't know when she recorded it, hehe.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Well this is one poll that's easy for me to vote, although I have not heard ALL the versions I can't imagine anybody's being better than the Carpenters' version.

My least fave is Paul Williams'. I know he cowrote the song and all, but he should've never recorded anything the Carpenters had already recorded. (I do think he out-does Three Dog Night on "Out in the Country" though.

 

[Dave]

My least fave is Paul Williams'. I know he co-wrote the song and all, but he should've never recorded anything the Carpenters had already recorded. (I do think he out-does Three Dog Night on "Out in the Country" though.)

Me, too!


Dave

 

[AM Matt]

The late guitarist Tony Mottola instrumental wise also does that song. Matt Clark Sanford, MI P.S. I voted for The Carpenters version!!

 

[Dave]

Actually another version that falls under "Other" would be Barry Manilow... I believe I heard his version while out shopping recently!


Dave

 

[Mike]

I have a Japanese compilation CD titled “Roger Nichols & Paul Williams Songbook”. On this CD Bill Medley performs “We’ve Only Just Begun”.

It’s a nice CD with many A&M artists performing the songs.

Mike

 

[Dave]

Hey, that's right...! Bill Medley recorded it, too! --And on A&M...! --I forgot!

Well, hope it's not too late to add, though it may be a version few are even vaguely familiar with (much like what the poll is showing, so far, outside of either A&M artists (particularly Carpenters) or "Other")...

But as for that album, there, Mike: That to me, somehow suggests "an Abbey Road"...!

What other Paul Williams/Roger Nichols songs are on it?


Dave

 

[Charles H.]

There's no doubt that the Carpenters version is beautiful and they had the big hit, but I voted for the Baja Marimba Band because I really like what they did with everything they ever recorded.

Charles

 

[jeff604]

Paul Williams. Very soulful

 

[A&M Retro]

As Paul Williams has said many times, "We've Only Just Begun" belongs to KAREN.

 

[aaflyer98]

Karen Carpenter's vocal on this is superb and with Richard's arrangements, It's my pick!

 

[NewVistaBrass]

We played an arrangement of this song when I was in High School stage band {1973) that was excellent. I wish I could recall who wrote it.