sonic youth superstar other recordings of this song

A truly intimate view of her beautiful voice. This is Karen’s vocal track only, isolated. Without A Song – A Capella version (or “Full Version”). In fact the sheer perfection of her voice quality, diction, phrasing, intonation etc always blow my mind.Īnyone feeling in a Carpenter’s phase, may I suggest you do a quick search for these: Richard’s writing and arrangements were beautiful and Karen’s voice never fails to amaze me: the aural equivalent of rich, smooth caramel, often singing in a register many female singers rarely used, but able to hit any note perfectly.

But after buying a Best Of collection in the 90’s I re-discovered them and have been in a Carpenter’s phase ever since. When I’d hear Carpenters on the radio afterwards I thought it was only nostalgia that helped me enjoy the music so much. The Carpenters were the ambience of my youth, as my mother used to play their records. My rescue fantasy is that I could have saved her.Īgree about your assessment of Karen Carpenter! I can’t really understand them, but I just tried to feel empathy and I guess that’s what came across in the song.” In truth, Karen struggled with loneliness herself, and the personal implications of the song made it one of the three she found most emotionally difficult to sing, the other two being the previous “ Rainy Days and Mondays” and the subsequent “ I Need to Be in Love.” When asked in a 1972 interview how she could communicate the heart of the song while lacking the personal experience it depicted, Karen replied, “I’ve seen enough groupies hanging around to sense their loneliness, even though they usually don’t show it.

Karen’s vocal was praised for its intensity and emotional nature. The Carpenters’s treatment of the song underscored the deep loneliness and sense of loss intended in the lyric, and established the song as a standard for years to come. The Carpenters’ version of the lyric, “And I can hardly wait to be with you again” is “And I can hardly wait to sleep with you again” in the original version. This is a live version from the Carpenters’ BBC concert (1971), which, like many BBC music shows, was great (you can see the whole thing here).Ī line in the second verse was considered too lyrically risqué at the time, and was changed by Richard Carpenter to better fit the duo’s image.

There is no voice that sounds anything like it no voice more beautiful. Within one or two words after she begins singing, you instantly recognize the voice as hers. Released in 1971, this song went to #2 on the American charts, and, despite the existence of covers by others (e.g., Sonic Youth, Cher), this is by far the best version.Īfter listening to a bit of the Carpenters recently, I decided that Karen had the best voice of any woman pop singer of our time (Barbra Streisand was second). When Bette Midler performed this on the Tonight Show, Richard Carpenter heard it, arranged it, and the rest was history. This song was written in 1969 by Leon Russell and Bonnie Bramlett, and first recorded by Delaney & Bonnie. But the definitive version was by Karen Carpenter, and so I’ll show this as a second tribute to Leon Russell, who died exactly a year ago after a heart attack.

Sonic youth superstar other recordings of this song