K-Chuck Radio: Were the Carpenters just a great cover band?

How could anyone not love the Carpenters? Karen and Richard Carpenter were all over pop radio in the 1970’s, and their music is still a main ingredient in oldies radio today. Fantastic harmonies, incredible orchestrations, and Karen Carpenter’s solo voice that just warmed your heart and broke it at the same time.

But what if I showed you that the bulk of the Carpenters’ music catalog were cover songs of other tracks by other artists? And that the Carpenters were so good at their craft, that you would never know that these songs had previous lives?

Let’s start with their signature hit, “(They Long To Be) Close To You.” A major hit in 1970.

Except … it was recorded first in 1963 by actor/singer Richard Chamberlain in a seriously slow, slow, slow rendition.

Okay. One instance does not prove a theory. It only promotes a hypothesis.

So their next big hit, “We’ve Only Just Begun” – such an incredible song.

Which originally came from a bank commercial. No kidding.

Okay. Two instances are a coincidence.

Certainly they couldn’t do this for their third hit, “For All We Know,” right?

You mean the one from the film Lovers and Other Strangers, which was recorded first (and won an Oscar for Best Song) by Larry Meredith, one of the members of Bread?

Hey, here’s another one. The Carpenters had a big hit with a song called “Superstar.”

Which was originally recorded by Bette Midler.

I mean, by 1972, the Carpenters weren’t even trying to hide this. Their version of “Hurting Each Other” –

Versus the original from 1965 by Jimmy Clanton.

Hey, here’s the Carpenters performing “It’s Going To Take Some Time” –

And you can hear the influence of Carole King on that track. Oh, wait – it’s because Carole King originally recorded this song in 1971.

Listen, the Carpenters could borrow from anywhere and anything. Because they took this song, “Sing,” to the Top 10 in 1973.

Which originally came from an episode of Sesame Street. No kidding.

By the mid-1970’s, the Carpenters had an entire album, Yesterday Once More, full of cover tracks. I mean, they covered Hank Williams –

They dove into the Motown catalog …

Hey, here’s an easy listening version of a Herman’s Hermits hit. And if you can create “easy listening” out of a Herman’s Hermits song, good on you.

That being said, they could still pull a previously obscure track from the Neil Sedaka catalog and make it a hit of their own. That’s just how good they were.

That being said, the Carpenters’ success at pulling diamonds out of the rough didn’t always have a perfect return. There were some clunkers in the mix, including their attempt to resurrect this old big band track “Goofus,” which was a hit for bandleader Phil Harris.

And to be totally honest, the Carpenters were NOT the first band I would have selected to cover Klaatu’s “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft.”

Now to be fair, the Carpenters did have some incredible original or “they were the first to do these” recordings, including “Top of the World,” “Rainy Days and Mondays,” and “Merry Christmas, Darling,” but even into their later years, they were still mining other artists to create some Carpenters-specific hits. Including their last Top 40 hit, “Touch Me When We’re Dancing,” which was originally a hit for a country music band called Bama.

So what does this prove?

Hey, as far as I’m concerned, the Carpenters could sing a grocery list and make it sound incredible. Even with the groaners like “Goofus” and “Calling Occupants,” you associate those other tracks with Karen Carpenter’s voice more than you would anybody else’s vocals.

And it’s a nice Friday deep dive into one of the best duos of the 1970’s.

I mean, it’s not like they were the only male-female duo on A&M Records that covered a Neil Sedaka song and made it a hit of their own …

It’s not like they were the only male-female duo on A&M Records that covered a Motown song and made it a hit of their own.

This is the kind of fun we can have here on K-Chuck Radio!