Sunday, April 10, 2022

Sunday Music: Close To You/We've Only Just Begun


In looking back over two-plus years of selections, we seem to have left out this brother/sister duo. Richard was a piano prodigy, Karen was a very skilled drummer, and both those talents were overshadowed by Karen's unbelievably rich singing voice. Which talents all combined for them to basically crush all pop charts from about '70-'75. They were one of the first fledgling discoveries of Herb Alpert (the "A" in A&M Records) when Karen was only 19, and who had one of the most phenomenal, unique, and recognizable singing voices of all time. To make up for the oversight, we go with two selections from among their first of many, many hits, both winning Grammy awards, and both going all the way to #1, in May and August of 1970. Over fifty years later, she still sounds like she's singing just to you, from right next to your ear, and the songs still resonate with the same power they did the first time we heard them.*




*FWIW, we spent a couple of days digging through the vaults, and true to today's second selection, we've got another two years of Sunday Music choices already teed up. And we're just getting warmed up.

10 comments:

  1. My mother listened to them not only in the day but for years afterwards. Some very happy memories. Thanks Aesop.

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  2. you & me are OLD, dude, to remember the Carpenters!

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  3. Thanks for this.
    Really miss her.
    .
    NSF

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  4. 104 more . . . looking forward to them! I get stuck on binges sometimes, this helps change it up . . .

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  5. I always figured if you heard Karen Carpenter sing, you knew what angels sounded like. Made quite a few young Marines even more homesick, but it was kinda like a good sort of homesick, the good wholesome kind; before all these fucktards screwed it up.

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  6. Over fifty years later, she still sounds like she's singing just to you, from right next to your ear,

    Wow so true. True voice from heaven.

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  7. https://9gag.com/gag/a91mBrL

    Karen Carpenter @ 18

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