Why wasn't (Want You) Back In My Life Again a bigger hit?

[BarryT60]

the strength of a woman background singers and music fills during the chorus are like nails on a chalk-board to me.... that said - Karen's delivery on the verses is impeccable. "sometimes I wonder has the cat got your tongue, you seem to be a thousand miles away..."


Equally, the vocal reading on the verses on Uninvited Guest is utter perfection... the close-ness of her voice to the mic and the intimate little cracks that happen... I love listening to that track for the intimacy of the verses alone....


But I totally agree... the tammy wynette 'stand by your man' theme is not a good one for 1980 - or any time for that matter....


BT

 

[newvillefan]

the vocal reading on the verses on Uninvited Guest is utter perfection... the close-ness of her voice to the mic and the intimate little cracks that happen... I love listening to that track for the intimacy of the verses alone....

How that song didn't make it onto MIA is beyond me. Karen's reading is impeccable.

Listen to the line 'just like the old song torn between two lovers'. Her phrasing is out of this world. I've listenened to is loads of times, over and over again.

 

[JAZZ4JEFF]

Just getting back to "I want you back in my life again".

Can you imagine if this song was produced similar to what Richard did on his solo track "Say yeah"?. With that production, this song could have had a completely different fate.

 

[richard_sloat]

I prefer Who do you love?...

 

[goodjeans]

JAZZ4JEFF wrote

Can you imagine if this song was produced similar to what Richard did on his solo track "Say yeah"?. With that production, this song could have had a completely different fate.

Great point. A production with muscle and a lead from Karen that isn't so tentative. If she really wanted him back, she would have been more convincing.

 

[andywithaz]

Just getting back to "I want you back in my life again".

Can you imagine if this song was produced similar to what Richard did on his solo track "Say yeah"?. With that production, this song could have had a completely different fate.

I think that would be utterly disastrous and would be looked upon now as another "Goofus."

 

[davidgra]

I guess I'm of the opinion that "(Want You) Back In My Life Again" wasn't a good song to begin with, so I don't think any style of production would have helped it attain radio success.

One of the things I love about iTunes is the "play count" feature. I can see which songs I listen to most often. Setting aside the fact that MADE IN AMERICA in general has far fewer plays than LOVELINES or CLOSE TO YOU, "(Want You) Back In My Life Again" comes in toward the bottom of the play count. The winner (and this surprised me) was "When You've Got What It Takes." "Strength of a Woman" came in at number two. "Because We Are In Love" has no plays -- I haven't played that song once in the four or so years since I set up iTunes.

 

[Calvin R Murty]

Just out of curiousity, has anyone heard the songwriter's 'brief' version of this song? It was out on one of Chris Christian's albums (a Live album, Live at the 6 flags or something like that) and was part of his 'pop' medley (he did a medley of the pop songs he wrote - he is essentially a contemporary Christian singer/songwriter). I remember it being more energetic than the C's version...not too bad actually. Wonder if other people have covered this song.

 

[Harry]

The other composer on "(Want You) Back In My Life Again" was Kerry Chater. Mr. Chater was co-composer of most songs on Renee Armand's THE RAIN BOOK album. (Ms. Armand recently stopped by A&M Corner, surprised that anyone was discussing her forgotten album). So he co-wrote the fabulous "Raining in L.A." from that album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsJ3npTml2U

Kerry Chater previously played bass for Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. After that band broke up over some financial arrangement disagreements, he left (along with keyboardist Gary Withem) to write songs for A&M/Irving/Rondor Music.

Harry

 

[BarryT60]

"(Want You) Back In My Life Again" comes in toward the bottom of the play count. The winner (and this surprised me) was "When You've Got What It Takes." "Strength of a Woman" came in at number two. "Because We Are In Love" has no plays -- .

As promised, I played MIA a few times this weekend.... Since it has been a while, some of the same feelings came back to me from when I heard it the first time....


Still - always a fan of Karen's vocals and Richard's arrangements - it came back to me that I was concerned that this album wasn't the projection from Passage that I thought it would be. I love the song When You Got Whta It Takes... but - I also remember thinking it could be the track from a Geritol commercial when you get to the "every-day" ending.


All of the songs were well done - but some maybe a bit trite for the times - and frankly a bit trite for our duo... It's like Crystal Lullaby on steroids.


In a "Carpenters Favorites" CD I made for my car, not a single tune from this set made it. But I heard I Just Fall In Love Again yesterday again - and it was almost like hearing it for the first time, complete with goose-bumps. Heading into that last chorus, hike up the volume and surrender to perfection......


Sorry to go a bit OT.... but it kinda relates to where this song and album fits in to their total repertoire for me.... Simply put, liked it - but didn't love it.

BT

 

[Harry]

I love the song When You Got Whta It Takes... but - I also remember thinking it could be the track from a Geritol commercial when you get to the "every-day" ending.

I've often thought exactly the same thing, but have never expressed it. It really does sound like a commercial jingle.

Harry

 

[richard_sloat]

I wonder why All you get from love is a love song wasn't a bigger hit even more than Back in my life!

 

[Vinylalbumcovers]

I wonder why All you get from love is a love song wasn't a bigger hit even more than Back in my life!

To my ears, that song deserved to be huge. It has a nice powerful groove, Tom Scott's sax solo is great, and I love the backgrounds. I love that song and Richard made one heck of a record out of it.

Ed

 

[andywithaz]

That is a great question and I have often though that if it had sounded more 1970s disco at the time, instead of 1960s Quincy Jones, then it might have been a bigger hit. However, I love the song just the way it is. I would not change it.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

I wonder why All you get from love is a love song wasn't a bigger hit even more than Back in my life!

A great record that deserved better. Timing was probably the biggest thing. It had been a while...the momentum was gone. If "All You Get From Love" had been the follow-up to "Only Yesterday", I think it would have been huge.

Two years later, with "Solitaire", "A Kind Of Hush", "I Need To Be In Love" and "Goofus" in between...the number of people who cared had taken a severe dip.

But I still played the hell out of it at my station.

 

[Rumbahbah]

That's exactly what I said about All You Get From Love ... in the discussion on the Passage album in the A&M Forum recently - had it been the lead single from A Kind of Hush rather than Passage, I'm sure it would have performed much better than it did. If There's A Kind of Hush managed to make #12, All You Get From Love ... could surely have gone Top 10.

 

[richard_sloat]

Still I feel the song was GOOD enough to have taken the Carpenters back to the crowds again... unfortunately the crowds haven't agreed!!!! No wonder Karen was upset by the way things were going then, "we gave then a Carpenters-type song, a country tune, a soft-rock song... and we still don't get much feedback, I don't know what are we supposed to do", that's what she said according to Little girl blue, I don't recall her EXACT words but I totally understood her!

 

[Harry]

Maybe we should blame it on 'birds', 'angels,' and 'moondust.'

Those words appear, of course, in the lyrics of arguably Carpenters most iconic song, "(They Long To Be) Close To You". Hal David wrote the lyrics years before and the song languished as an also-ran on several albums. Herb Alpert recorded it and then shelved it, ultimately giving it to Richard Carpenter in an effort to produce a hit record.

It made it, and became the iconic Carpenters song, forever cementing them with the "goody four shoes" image. In the context of the early 1970's, the song seemed appropriate, but by the time "All You Get From Love Is A Love Song" came along, acts in the later '70s were producing hits that were a lot funkier sounding. The thoughts of sprinkling moondust and birds following someone around conjured up images of SNOW WHITE, and even though those lyrics weren't contained in the later hits, they were still iconically Carpenters.

It was a tough thing for them to shake and radio program directors struggled with whether or not to play the tragically un-hip Carpenters or abandon them. Unfortunately for us fans, they began choosing to abandon them.

Harry

 

[Michael Hagerty]

As a program director at the time (who had the luxury of programming Adult Contemporary from 1975 onward), that's only partly the story, Harry.

From "Close To You" onward for five straight years, the Carpenters only missed the Top 10 on two occasions..."It's Going To Take Some Time", which peaked at #12 in Billboard, and "I Won't Last A Day Without You", which made #11. (We'll actually give "Bless The Beasts And The Children", which only made #67 extra credit because it was the B-side of "Superstar", which hit #2).

"Please Mr. Postman" was brilliant...taking them right back to #1 after "I Won't Last A Day". And "Only Yesterday" was so very nearly a perfect record...a ballad, but with an upbeat chorus...it made #4. And the "Horizon" album cover was a good image move...they look as contemporary as K&R could look in 1975...Richard looked serious, Karen looked appealing...and they weren't smiling.

But the buzzkill was "Solitaire". Slow, draggy, long...too long for Top 40 radio, it had their worst showing since "Ticket To Ride"...peaking at #17. Billboard says it made #1 on the AC charts, but I can't think of a single AC station in California that played it like a #1 record.

"A Kind Of Hush" as a song isn't as strong as "Please Mr. Postman" and it smacked of a desperate attempt to go back to what worked a year and a half before. It stalled at #12. "I Need To Be In Love" did worse than "Solitaire"...#25.

And that album cover. K&R smiling out at us through a window where it appeared the album title had been written in the condensation (yes, the folks who thought K&R were "too close" wondered out loud how the window got steamed up in the first place). Virtually the polar opposite of the look and vibe of "Horizon". "Horizon" made #13". "A Kind Of Hush" #33.

Harry, up to this point, radio wasn't ignoring them. A lot of Top 40 stations took a chance on "Solitaire" and even gave "I Need To Be In Love" a few spins. The audience was telling them it was over. The appeal had boiled down to the fan club level.

We can skip over "Goofus", right?

And that brings us to this brilliant gem of a single. "All You Get From Love Is A Love Song". The best material and strongest production since "Only Yesterday". But it was over. #35. And nothing else would get into the Top 30 ever again, save "Touch Me When We're Dancing", which made #16.

Radio PDs weren't tastemakers...at least not the successful ones. We looked to reflect the tastes of the audience. Do that, and find the hidden gems that fit, and you can be a hitmaker...but not a tastemaker.

Fact is, you didn't get to #35 in Billboard without significant Top 40 airplay...AC alone wouldn't get you there. Which means that despite the evidence that it was over, radio was still giving the Carpenters the benefit of the doubt and some spins.

 

[Harry]

Yeah, the early part of the '70s were way different than the latter part. Carpenters had a lot easier time making it through with their sound in the early part of the decade, but time passed them by. It happens to all artists.

Carpenters strongest, best material was what they came up with in the first half of the '70s. THAT was their time. By the latter half, they needed to change their sound a bit, grow with the times, if they were to continue to be relevant.

But that was also the period when in turned out they were both physically at their weakest, be it pills, anorexia, too much touring, and just plain burn-out. Attention from recording was being diverted to TV specials.

Don't get me wrong - I love "All You Get From Love Is A Love Song" and was rooting for it to succeed, but I could see with my own eyes the fact that the Program Directors (at least in Philly) were burying it in dayparted slots where the least number of people would hear it.

I'm not putting the blame totally on the shoulders of programmers - as you say, they weren't tastemakers - they only do what research tells them to do. Back then, there was even a certain amount of "gut feelings" among programmers that's all but gone today.

And hovering above it all was that image of angels sprinkling moondust and birds suddenly appearing.

Harry

 

[JAZZ4JEFF]

I was just re-listening to a Richard Carpenter interview I did back in 1988, and he mentioned that the one record K&R recorded that he thought would be a sure-fire hit was "all you get from love is a love song".

And, the song that was the biggest surprise to him that became a hit was "top of the world".

 

[richard_sloat]

Yeah, the early part of the '70s were way different than the latter part. Carpenters had a lot easier time making it through with their sound in the early part of the decade, but time passed them by. It happens to all artists.

Perhaps counting Madonna out... how does she do it??

 

[Harry]

She reinvents herself every few years.

Harry

 

[Dave]

She reinvents herself every few years.

Harry

"Reinvents herself", as in changing (sometimes "drastically") her image, doing a new film, or a new kind of music, needed for singing a new kind of song as in totally changing her approach...

Karen always did well keeping those things constant...



Dave

 

[richard_sloat]

Karen??? I can't think of a real "reinvention" of hers apart of the solo album...