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Arguably our finest album, and not just because of the many strong songs; but the arrangements, vocal work, diversity of tunes and the presentation. After being pressed for time while making “Carpenters”, I made sure enough time was set aside for its successor. I’d like to touch on the history of two of the songs from an album that produced quite a number of hit singles. “Goodbye To Love” I was inspired to write the opening lines of this song while watching a 1940 Bing Crosby film: “Rhythm On The River”, in which a song named “Goodbye To Love” is mentioned, but never heard. I wrote the choral ending of this piece while visiting London in late 1971, and completed the middle of the song in early 1972, at which time John wrote the lyrics. While constructing the arrangement I pictured a melodic fuzz guitar solo and knew the guitarist I wanted use. In ’71 one of our early tours featured Mark Lindsay opening the show. His backing group was called “Instant Joy” and was led by a young guitarist named Tony Peluso, whose playing caught our ears. We asked Tony to play on “Goodbye to Love”. The result, in my opinion, is one of the all-time great recorded guitar solos. We subsequently asked Tony to join our road group, and he was with us for many years. This recording caused quite a bit of comment by people of all stripes. Our detractors heard that solo and rather bombastic ending and thought maybe we possessed a little more talent and adventure than they had previously thought. Conversely, some of our fans were outraged and thought we had “sold out”. When the dust settled, however, the record became a solid hit, landing in the Top 10 in both the United States and United Kingdom. “Top Of The World” I have to admit we miscalled this one. After completing the song, we felt it was a nice album cut. It didn’t take long however, to learn otherwise. The response to it in concert was overwhelming. It was culled from the album in Japan and went gold. Lynn Anderson covered it using my arrangement and it went to No.2 on the country charts. Certain Top 40 stations in the U.S. were charting it based on requests alone. Finally we released the record, with a few revisions, in late 1973. It went to No.1.
1. A Song For You 4:42 2. Top Of The World 2.58 3. Hurting Each Other 2:47 4. It's Going To Take Some Time 2:54 5. Goodbye To Love 3:51 6. Intermission :23 7. Bless The Beasts And Children 3:07 8. Flat Baroque 1:46 9. Piano Picker 1:59 10. I Won't Last A Day Without You 11. Crystal Lullaby 3:55 12. Road Ode 3:45 13. A Song For You (Reprise) :56
Arranged and Orchestrated by: Richard Carpenter All Vocals: Karen and Richard Carpenter Keyboards: Richard Carpenter Bass: Joe Osborn Drums: Hal Blaine and Karen Carpenter Tenor Sax, Flute, and Alto Flute: Bob Messenger Bass Flute: Tim Weisberg Guitar: Louie Shelton Lead Guitar: Tony Peluso Steel Guitar: Red Rhodes Oboe and English Horn: Earl Dumler Bassoon: Norm Herzberg Engineered by Ray Gerhardt, Assistant: Roger Young Special Thanks to Ron Gorow *Tim Weisberg appears through the courtesy of A&M Records Intermission inspired by Crucifixus - Antonio Lotti ca. 1667-1740 Baldwin Piano, Ludwig Drums, Wurlitzer Electric Piano Art Direction: Roland Young Photography: Jim McCrary Produced by Jack Daugherty Productions
Click on an underlined Song Title to go to Song Notes
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Last Updated June 4, 2008May 2004 © Richard Carpenter
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