Yahoo!/entertainment article (Feb 14) - Carpenters/Ed Sullivan

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Watch The Carpenters’ ‘Ed Sullivan Show’ Performance Of Bacharach-David Gems​


Paul Sexton
Tue, February 14, 2023 at 4:50 AM PST·2 min read

A vintage television performance by the Carpenters is newly featured from the archives of The Ed Sullivan Show as a tribute to Burt Bacharach, the master composer-arranger who died last Wednesday (8) at the age of 94.

The six-minute clip is now available on the official YouTube channel of the famed variety series, with Richard and Karen Carpenter captured in an outdoor performance in front of an admiring audience singing and playing a medley of Bacharach and David songs. It was first broadcast on the November 8, 1970 edition of the show.

With Richard on keyboards and Karen at the drums, accompanied by a band, they offer excerpts of “(They Long To Be) Close To You,” “Knowing When To Leave,” “Make It Easy On Yourself,” “(There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me,” “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again,” “Walk On By,” and “Do You Know The Way To San José.”

The entire show was filmed at the Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC for injured soldiers, and also featured appearances by the Four Tops, Freda Payne, Hank Williams Jr., and comedy duo Skiles & Henderson. They would later be an opening act at Carpenters shows.

The Carpenters, then enjoying a major commercial breakthrough, had been on Sullivan only three weeks earlier performing “Close To You” and Paul Williams and Roger Nichols’ “We’ve Only Just Begun” in the studio. The duo’s version of “Close To You” had spent four weeks at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July and August 1970, and reached No.6 in the UK in October, among other international success. In the week of the Sullivan broadcast, they were in the second of four weeks at No.2 on the US chart with “We’ve Only Just Begun.”

The Carpenters’ self-titled third LP, released in May 1971, would reprise the live performance, in a penultimate track that included all of the songs in the medley apart from “Close To You,” which had featured on the previous album of the same name.

Watch all the latest archival videos from The Ed Sullivan Show on the program’s official YouTube channel.

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^ I agree. But most in the audience were wounded combat veterans who spent time in Vietnam listening to CCR, Marvin Gaye, The Rolling Stones, The Guess Who, The Doors and other counterculture acts of the late sixties. Was surprised the Carpenters did not perform "Close To You" in its entirety along with "We've Only Just Begun" which was climbing the charts at the time. The crowd became more appreciative as the the performance progressed and they recognized some of the Bacharach/David hits. An amazing display of talent during a period when the band was probably still packing their gear in a Ryder truck!

As much as I like it and admire Richard's arrangement, I've always felt the Bacharach Medley was over done and was their safety net on numerous TV appearances including Music, Music, Music over a decade later in 1980. Same for Karen's drum solo, I wish she would have come up with another one that was original and hers only instead of performing "Fascinatin' Rhythm" / "Strike Up The Band" over and over again. Health issues, excessive touring, and relentless studio commitments did not allow Karen and Richard the time to further explore their amazing creativity.
 
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Same thing about the audience, @newvillefan @Portlander. It was a different time. This Sullivan show was broadcast 11/8/1970. I remember that year and Carpenters emerged at a time that was definitely outside of what was going on in the country. They were the arrival of Soft Rock. I would imagine that the initial reaction hearing CTY for the first time for some folks may have been similar to mine when I first heard CTY….what is that? Although they had me at the first waaaaaaaa. The opening CTY does get a fairly nice crowd reaction here, though. I am a big fan of Richards’ arrangement of the Burt Bacharach medley. Overdone? Eh not for me but maybe it was a label thing. What’s good for Herb is good for Burt is good for Richard and Karen. Six months later it was on the Tan Album so from then it was kind of in their repertoire and became part of their stage act. In MMM, the show was focusing on music and songwriters so it seems like doing Bacharach here was a no brainer, although one thing. The recording that was used in the medley on MMM sounds a lot like husky Karen and not 1980 Karen. Maybe one of you can confirm that. It seems strange that they would use a 10 year old recording. About Karen’s drumming, to me, I think you nailed it. They quickly went on auto-pilot and there was just no time for exploring their “amazing” creativity. What they did accomplish in a short period of time is eternal and beloved.
 
What struck me when I first ever saw that clip of them performing the medley was how utterly miserable the entire audience looked throughout the performance.
Agree - miserable and hurting - physically and psychologically. But also a little hesitant about the new band they were hearing probably for the first time for many of them, and waiting to hear what this new "soft" sound was all about (as opposed to the music of the bands @Portlander mentioned) -- they did warm up to it as the music continued and gave a nice round of applause at the end - the Carpenters' music in general, and Karen's voice in particular, has as we all know so well a soothing or calming effect, and this is something that an audience like that - in pain and some suffering with PTSD - would certainly appreciate, and benefit from.
 
...!

As much as I like it and admire Richard's arrangement, I've always felt the Bacharach Medley was over done and was their safety net on numerous TV appearances including Music, Music, Music over a decade later in 1980. Same for Karen's drum solo, I wish she would have come up with another one that was original and hers only instead of performing "Fascinatin' Rhythm" / "Strike Up The Band" over and over again. Health issues, excessive touring, and relentless studio commitments did not allow Karen and Richard the time to further explore their amazing creativity.
I'm a big admirer of the Medley - at one point early in their touring it had expanded by several songs, including BABY, IT'S YOU, and ran to over 14 minutes...it's really a masterful musical achievement, both from the creative arranging standpoint and from the time and energy put into perfecting it's performance.

And there's a lot of truth in your statement about "health issues and excessive touring", although it was the excessive touring that was the worst part - to a large extent it was the primary cause of the health issues, and the lack of creative studio output. They didn't need to tour - their records were selling in the millions, and they were making millions. They should have been "locked" in the studio most of the time and turned loose to do their amazing musical thing. If they wanted to perform live they could have done that too - on a select and limited basis.
 
Just came across this from Wings of Pegasus (Fil) on YouTube - excellent analysis (as usual) with some really nice things to say about Karen & Richard and about the great and prolific Bacharach/David songwriting team (see also his separate, detailed video analyzing Karen's pitch perfection):


 
The recording that was used in the medley on MMM sounds a lot like husky Karen and not 1980 Karen. Maybe one of you can confirm that. It seems strange that they would use a 10 year old recording.

Karen’s vocals for all of the MMM tracks, including this medley, were recorded during February and into early March 1980, with final sessions taking place right up to her birthday on March 2nd, when she recorded the other medley with Ella Fitzgerald. The special itself was filmed just days later on March 7th, 8th and 9th.
 
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