Carpenters
Close To You

A&M 4271 Aug 28 1970
1976: album packaging revised (no details)

1. We've Only Just Begun 3:04 (Paul Williams / Roger Nichols)
2. Love is Surrender 1:59 (Ralph Carmichael)
3. Maybe It's You 3:09 (Richard Carpenter)
4. Reason To Believe 3:02 (Tim Hardin)
5. Help 3:02 (John Lennon / Paul McCartney)
6. (They Long To Be) Close To You 4:34 (Hal David / Burt Bacharach)
7. Baby It's You 2:50 (Mack David / Burt Bacharach / Barney Williams)
8. I'll Never Fall In Love Again 2:56 (Burt Bacharach / Hal David)
9. Crescent Noon 4:09 (Richard Carpenter)
10. Mr. Guder 3:17 (Richard Carpenter)
11. I Kept On Loving You 2:13 (Roger Nichols / Paul Williams)
12. Another Song 4:22 (Richard Carpenter / John Bettis)

Credits

• Producer: Jack Daugherty
• Arrangements & Orchestration: Richard Carpenter
• All vocals: Karen and Richard Carpenter
• Drums: Karen Carpenter and Hal Blaine
• Keyboards: Richard Carpenter
• Bass: Joe Osborn and Danny Woodhams
• Woodwinds: Jim Horn, Bob Messenger, Doug Strawn
• Engineer: Ray Gerhardt and Dick Bogert
• Art Direction: Tom Wilkes
• Photography: Kessel / Brehm Photography
• Ludwig drums and Wurlitzer pianos

• 1970 Grammy Award - Album of the Year: Close To You (Produced by Jack Daugherty)

Other Notes

In the notes to the Carpenters: The Compact Disc Collection, Richard Carpenter wrote:

Our debut single Ticket To Ride stayed on the charts for several months and ultimately peaked at 54. This showed some promise for us but did not move many Offering albums. Nevertheless, Herb continued to "keep the faith" and we started recording a second album. In late 1969 Burt Bacharach heard our version of Ticket To Ride.

This led to our being asked by Burt to open a benefit show he would be doing in February of 1970 and performing a medley of his songs. Herb brought an obscure Bacharach/David song to my attention during this time entitled They Long To Be Close To You. It didn't quite fit the medley but Herb felt we should include it in the new album. Close To You was released in late May of 1970 and within six weeks was Number one. The Close To You album also contains We've Only Just Begun. Written by Roger Nichols and Paul Williams for a "soft sell" TV bank commercial, Begun caught my ear after seeing the commercial a few times. It became our third single and ultimately our signature song. Also featured in this album are Help (which was slated to be our second single until Close To You came along) and four songs John Bettis and I wrote while still in college: Crescent Noon, Mr. Guder, Maybe It's You and Another Song.

MOJO Magazine's book "MOJO's Greatest Records Of All Time" includes the Close To You album as one of the selections. Richard Carpenter is quoted:

• Talking about the "other" versions of Close To You that they cut, Richard says that in the second version, Karen purposely sang it "like [Harry] Nilsson." And that Herb Alpert really "hated" that one!
• That they brought in Hal Blaine for Close To You, because "as good a drummer as Karen was, a woman just can't lay into them like a man". He admits that he sounds like a "sexist pig".
• That Karen was a wonderful vocalist in the studio! She didn't need to "warm" up her voice. That she could sing at ANY time of day. AND, she didn't NEED any "special mixes into the headphones" either!

Buy: Carpenters - Close To You CD		Buy: Carpenters - Close To You CD

Last changed: Sun Jul 8 10:42:34 EDT 2007