Would Can't Smile, Masquerade, I Just Fall in Love been Carpenters hits if released earlier?

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I like IGTTST, but it wasn't single material to me with the uplifting but out of touch flute solo. Perhaps that's why A&M/Carpenters passed on Masquerade? Desperado, however, is a Carpenters classic IMHO. Karen sounds amazing and Richard shows great restraint in his arrangement- making ti a winner all around.
 
If 'All You Get From Love is a Love Song' didn't reach the top ten, I don't know if any of these other tracks would've had a chance. I like 'Desperado' and I do think it could've been a big hit for them.

If I live to be 100 I will never understand why they didn't chart as well past 1975. So sad.


Freddie
 
In retrospect, I think Desperado would have been a better choice then Solitaire, even though I think Solitaire is a superior record. Radio programers probably would have embraced this one more - due to the Eagles connection...
I always believed I Just Fall In Love Again would and could have been a blockbuster. It's just a beautiful song - arranged and performed brilliantly. One of the best of their latter-day material.
I still wish a recording like this one would make its way into the hands of one of today's top movie makers and get itself on a current hit soundtrack. Imagine a totally new generation hearing the majesty of this song, with that vocal, and enjoying it for the beauty that it is...
As for Its Going to Take some Time, I have mentioned in another thread, that IWLADWY - - seemed to me to be more single worthy... for 1972, that is....
As for The Masquerade... Hmmm.... I didn't see it as a single.
Finally, on Can't Smile... I've mentioned before, that to me YOU was the biggest missed single opportunity on Hush...
 
I'm in the minority. I love "It's Going To Take Some Time." It's a beautifully-written tune and I love the arrangement. The flute solo is bananas! It's a jazz-fusion'y thing and I think it fits the tune perfectly. I disagree with Richard that it isn't a hit. The melody in the B-section ("After all the tears we spent...") with Richard's vocal arrangement is just insanely cool. Great tune and I feel the instinct to release it as a single was dead on.

Ed
 
I've mentioned before, that to me YOU was the biggest missed single opportunity on Hush...

YES!!! "You" is an absolutely gorgeous tune. I've waxed lovingly about this tune before but I'll do it as often as possible. It has the coolest line I've ever heard in a Carpenters' tune: "You are one of the few things worth remembering." Lovely thought and sung in such a lovely way by Karen. The vocal arrangement is killer and Richard avoids the elevator on this one. Why this wasn't a single totally escapes me.

Ed
 
If 'All You Get From Love is a Love Song' didn't reach the top ten, I don't know if any of these other tracks would've had a chance.

Freddie

I don't know either. Fantastic tune with a great hook that deserved better than it got. They were just too cold commercially by that point. "A Kind Of Hush" is not a dog of an album but it's a tired one and that fact did them no favors.

Ed
 
Carpenters' version of It's Going To Take Some Time--anemic in its arrangement , as far as I am concerned--
surpasses Carole King's s version--which, by the way, I simply do not care for.
(Even she refers to her version as sounding like a 'demo').
Harry, thanks for the elaboration on this issue. Quite insightful to me.
Ed, I thought I was the only one for whom Richard Carpenter's arrangement on Desperado ultimately misfired!
That 1974-1975 period in Carpenters' career seems to portend the upcoming --late 1970's--sales slump.
 
YES!!! "You" is an absolutely gorgeous tune. I've waxed lovingly about this tune before but I'll do it as often as possible. It has the coolest line I've ever heard in a Carpenters' tune: "You are one of the few things worth remembering." Lovely thought and sung in such a lovely way by Karen. The vocal arrangement is killer and Richard avoids the elevator on this one. Why this wasn't a single totally escapes me.

Ed
I also like the line: "You are my heart and my soul, my inspiration" - the second time through where there's just a little echo on the the last syllable that is delicious to hear... Lovely.... :)
 
I like the discussions on individual songs!

Re: It's Gonna Take Some Time, I remember as a kid, loving the tune. I was just getting into drums - so I memorized every lick. I thought it was fresh, and very pretty. In retrospect however, I still think that Won't Last A Day would have been a much better lead single for this album. Hurting was already up and down the charts - and Time was the album introduction single... but I feel Won't was a better bridge from the tan album to the red one...

Sidebar: Anyone else hate those crummy graphics on the A Song For You liner notes? They always bugged me - but unlike Richard, I was always enamored by the red cover.
 
If you haven't heard my "phased" version of "You", check it out. I replicated an accident I had when A KIND OF HUSH first came out and I had two copies and two turntables running. One was slightly faster, and as it got to "...beyond your eyes...", the phasing reached its peak.

Using today's easier techniques, I was finally able to duplicate it:



Harry
 
I'd like to discuss them in order of their recordings. Or the singles in order of release. Or the singles corresponding time/chartwise to todays date. Or pick one fave track...just one from ea. album and detail your appreciation thru-out. I've always been fascinated by the tech end as in engineering, mixing, re-mixing, love Chris May's insight into overdubs and multi-tracking.

On topic: I think anything released earlier...ahem...as menial as the aforementioned studio D fart would've hit during CarpenterS peak world domination. Who gets a multi-platinum Singles package in the span of less than 4 years containing no filler and all chart toppers as it were. This should've been followed with another album...even the earliest considered Xmas collection. The wait between Singles and HORIZON was over-long. Perhaps the listeners grew fatigued spinning the same hits they had heard unceasingly prior to SINGLES 69-73 and even wearier tacking another year and 1/2 until something fresh. I get the touring thing but here was a sorely missed opportunity. I WON'T LAST A DAY is a nice tune but the chorus could be punched with a quad K lead same as mentioned at my I NEED TO BE IN LOVE chorus comment. BLESS THE BEASTS, SOLITAIRE, DESPERADO...these are a few where the chorus is more pronounced and effective to my ear. Still WON'T LAST was a poor choice for me. For the rampant CarpenterS fan who had spun A SONG FOR YOU to death, WON'T LAST was a ho hum what's with that kinda thing? I've heard fans cried out for its release. I just cried. Something new or at least newer and here topically THIS MASQUERADE. TM and its sultry, smoky delivery introduce us to Karen's maturing vocal command, styling, technique, phrasing and mastering. Definitely the preface to tackling SOLITAIRE and all the 'basement' work on HORIZON. This is the lasting impression I take from the HORIZON sessions. Karen's voice as heard for the first time. TICKET and before, the birth of a singer leads to HORIZON the arrival of an artist. You can't help but hear it. See it on the charts. Maybe skipping the lazy HUSH takes and diving into PASSAGE '76 style would've kept momentum. Things a little edgier. On this side of STAR WARS, BWANA's jazz fusion ala Michael Frank's and his POPSICLE TOES. Then skipped '77 in studio and toured here instead of '74. Now embracing '78 and a move toward the divine and celebrated XMAS PORTRAIT. Then drug rehab n KAREN CARPENTER releasing in '79 a year plus earlier than scheduled. Tour With CarpenterS and the rest...Just a little reformulating. Image aside. Recording talents never boring. This is my fix-all.

Ahhh, in my perfect world...

Jeff
 
Among instrumental versions, of "...Masquerade", there's Gap Mangione (She And I; A&M SP 3407) and Lenny Dee Misty Blue (MCA 2236)...

Lenny's album features organ-based covers of songs like "This Masquerade", "Funny How Time Slips Away", Eric Carmen's "Sunrise", John Denver's "Like A Sad Song", and even Lou Rawl's "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine", w/ some disembodied female vocals, going from oooh-ing & aaah-ing the chorus to singing out "You're Gonna Miss My Lovin'"...

Can't get the Rawls original of "You'll Never Find..." out of my head now...! (Ray Conniff Singers also did it w/ vocals, singing the entire song, and Stanley Turrentine covered it as an instrumental, as well...)

Feel like gettin' a MISTY BLUE '75-'76 4 door Caddy w/ an EIGHT-TRACK!!!! :b-boogie:


-- Dave
 
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