Post Your Favorite Carpenters Song

I Won't Last a Day without You

Superstar

Good choices. I also like "Top of the World" and "Mr Postman" and "I Know I Need to Be in Love".

But my favorite is probably this:

For All We Know, from Lovers and Other Strangers, featuring DL fave Beatrice Arthur.

Get off the balcony, Madge.

Ava Maria

Before Richard got ahold and ruined it.

our day will come

Agree with OP. Followed by “We’ve Only just Begun,” a beautifully crafted pop song.

"Merry Christmas, Darling" by the Carpenters is on the December 1994 GapIn-Store Playlist!

Top of the World, but only as a cover by Shonen Knife.

Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft

R12: thank you, I was just to post the same.

And the topic has become so timely again, after, what, more than 40 years

Bitter as I may be, I adore We've Only Just Begun.

We’ve Only Just Begun actually began life as a bank jingle.

R15: then it’s even more true to life

R12 I forgot all about that one. That was weird. I assume it was an attempt to get on the “star wars” craze of the time.

Was there anyone in the US who got married between the years of 1970 - 1975 that didn't have at least one Carpenters song during the ceremony?

I like big butts and I can’t deny….

The reprise of For All We Know gives me goosebumps.

Staring at their faces next to one another, I wish Richard was the one to suffer and leave, and hope that their mother lived the rest of her life knowing she was a miserable cunt who damaged her daughter.

R20 So the first part of the song was for walking down the aisle and the reprise for after the vows were said and them leaving the alter?

Here's a video of Karen playing softball.

It's Going to Take Some Time This Time

By the way, "If I Were a Carpenter" is an amazing album of Carpenters covers for any hardcore fans. Here is Dishwalla's cover of "It's Going To Take Some Time".

If I Had a Hammer.

Oh, wait -- I don't think I understood this thhread.

Solitaire

This one always makes me weep. I have tears in my eyes as I type, but I must share this.

I love the Carpenters. This one always get me into my feels for some reason.

I was typing my response when you posted, r26.

Apparently Karen wasn’t a fan of the song but her version of Neil Sedaka’s Solitaire is one of my favorites. Heartbreaking lyric and vocal. I can see that it’s a kind of corny, overwrought song but damn if I don’t cry every time I hear her voice

[quote] hope that their mother lived the rest of her life knowing she was a miserable cunt who damaged her daughter.

Well, she was a nice enough girl. A little porky, but fine.

I visited my kin in Pennsylvania when Goodbye to Love was climbing the charts and they were scandalized that the Carpenters had gone acid rock.

Their version of this song, which surpasses the Barry Manilow hit.

That song is so amazing R32. Can you believe it's only a test rack and the first time Karen ever sang it? If you listen closely you can hear her shuffling the pages the lyrics are written on. Flawless in every way. Can you imagine toady's America Idol screamers and auto tune addicts singing like that?

Not a huge fan, but their songs were all over the radio during my childhood, so they do evoke a warm feeling of nostalgia when I hear them.

This probably isn't their best (I'd say that would be Superstar, Rainy Days and Mondays, or Solitaire), but it's the one that brings up the best coming-of-age memories for me. It really takes me back to a great time in my life, when I was 13, happy and innocent.

"Only Yesterday"

There ain’t no such thing.

I've never heard this but I like it. I bet Karen could have done of those James Bond movie themes.

R35 has a soul that is not unlike a diseased o'possum that wandered onto a super highway and was run over multiple times by large cement trucks.

It is literally a rainy Monday. No one else feeling it?

She could certainly pull off the live performance.

It's a dirty old shame when all you get from love is a love song....

Corny as hell, but it's the one I never tire of hearing . . .

For me it’s Goodbye to Love. Didn’t even know it was a Beatles cover!

r41, where did you hear it was a Beatles cover? "Goodbye To Love" was written by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis in 1971/72, after the Beatles had broken up.

NOTHING , they are the most overrated 'group' ever. I don't understand their bizarre fandom.

Such MOR, treacly music.

Why are there such rabid Carpenters fans at DL?

Let me be the one. I have so many favorites and cycle through which one. This was a favorite for while. On four cd thing they used a track where she stops singing at the end and has a cute flub.

R43 I'm sorry about your lack of taste.

Covid after effect^

R42 oops I meant to post Tickrt to Ride!!

Of their non-singles I always loved this one.

I love this one.

Better than versions from The Eagles and Linda Ronstadt.

I generally detested the sappy, treacly music of the Carpenters but I did like "Superstar" and "Goodbye to Love" and "Rainy Days and Mondays." Karen Carpenter was always in her element singing songs like that; they perfectly suited her mournful, melancholic vocals. She always sounded silly singing up tempo tunes like "Top of the World" and "Please Mr. Postman."

Goodbye to Love

Someday. My favourite. In a world of high pitched girl singers Karen’s voice stands alone. Just beautiful.

[quote][R43] I'm sorry about your lack of taste.

Doll, I listen to all sorts of music, I have great taste. The Carpenters are essentially Muzak. Their 'music' is treacly, sappy and depressing schlock.

I grew up around working musicians in my family, several were actually session and touring musicians. Growing up I was exposed to all sorts of music. I listen to classical, rock, R'n'B, pop, jazz, avant-garde jazz, English folk music, punk, blues and basically everything, but these Carpenters characters, they were awful.

I cannot understand why they are so loved, especially on DL. They need to be grouped in with DL's Golden Girls obsession. which is something else I simply cannot comprehend.

Please don't ask me to turn in my gay card. In the same way, all gay men aren't into dance music, don't assume all gay men listen to this dreck.

The Carpenters had a song called 'I Can't Make Music'?

They sure got that right! 😂 🤣

Now…

R4: That's my favorite Carpenter's recording, too.

She did a decent Don't Cry for Me Argentina.

Totally agree with #27 and Crescent Noon. Love it ... its depressing as hell, but the low notes that Karen hits are visceral and lasting. And as much as I hate to give Richard's ego any more props, its a great riff on Satie. And I am a sucker for For All We Know. When Karen's voice went into the minor keys, just magnificent.

In case there are some very clueless people in this thread, the late great Leon Russell, guitarist/singer Delaney Bramlett and his wife singer Bonnie Bramlett (also an actress, she was on "Roseanne") wrote the Carpenters song "Superstar". I bet some here think the Carpenters wrote that song.

Karen Carpenter was an extraordinary talent, one of the greatest female vocalists of the 20th Century.

1970 to 1973 they practically owned the airwaves. By the end of the decade, people would deny ever having owned their records. Then they had a huge resurgence in popularity in the early 90s. With the pandemic, they have become bigger than ever - people with those "reaction" channels on Youtube are crazy about them - especially black Youtubers. Insane - I don't think they had much of a black audience anytime before and certainly not while Karen was still alive.

I’ve always loved them despite how it became cool to hate their music and dismiss them as overrated and schlocky.

this is a great song

"Karen Carpenter was an extraordinary talent, one of the greatest female vocalists of the 20th Century."

Not really. She was a very limited vocalist. And she had a distinctive voice, not a great one. There's a big difference.

I think one of the marks of a 'great' voice is if you know in a handful of notes who's singing. Karen certainly had that.

"We've Only Just Begun" started as a commercial for Crocker National Bank in California. The advertising agency had commissioned the song as part of the bank's campaign to appeal to younger customers. Richard Carpenter loved it and asked Paul Williams (lyricist of the song) if a longer version was available. Williams delivered, and the song became a hit single for the Carpenters.

The song "Close to You" was a massive hit and the Carpenters rushed out an album of songs to capitalize on it. The "Close to You" album also became a huge seller and is filled with gems, like this one for example:

Miss Warwick, of course, was the first artist to sing Close To You. But she never seemed to have any hard feelings about the fact that Karen's version was a monster hit and her version went nowhere.

Miss Warwick can rest secure in her catalogue.

Did these two schlockmeisters write any of their Muzak?

They also seemed to do a lot of covers of others great songs.

[quote]I wish Richard was the one to suffer and leave.

Karen was the voice. Richard was the brains behind their music being record producer, arranger, pianist, keyboardist, lyricist, and composer, as well as joining with Karen on harmony vocals..

I do remember those awful specials where Richard would spend half of it showcasing his musical talent as a composer, pianist, etc. I think there was a degree of professional jealousy when it came to his sister, since she kind of eclipsed him with her vocal talent.

I also remember talking to a member of their band once and him telling me about a time back in the 70s during a warmup before a show they changed the lyrics to a bawdy parody version of one of the Carpenters songs that he composed. I guess Richard heard it and came in and flew into a rage about it. He didn’t find it funny.

r65 Karen Carpenter is lauded today for her talent.

Richard was definitely jealous of Karen's popularity.

I ain’t got one!

R32 there was a thread last year about that cover. "Trying to Get the Feeling Again" is a TERRIBLE song.

Their version of Rainbow Connection is nice. The 70s burned me out on this song, but I actually like this. It’s very similar to the Jason Mraz version.

I don't know why the Carpenters are beloved on Datalounge. They were both conservative Republicans, and most likely, homophobes. They hated the flamboyant glitter rock stars. They once referred to Ian Hunter of Mott the Hoople as "that thing with the boots and the shades." Karen and Richard were both assholes.