Buried Treasures List Expands

[Rick Henry]

With Tim's recent finding of the fact that Carpenters did record a demo of "Box Office Movie King" (written by Palma Pascale) we can now add that one to the famous Carpenters "Buried Treasures" list. Knowing Carpenters acutally recorded a version of this song makes me wonder just how many other demos (and outakes) there are from each of the studio albums. There must be more than we realize. I've also heard throughout the years that either Karen (solo) or Carpenters recorded "You're No Good" (the song made famous by Linda Ronstadt).

Here's the updated buried treasures list with "Box Office Movie King" added in. I put 1976 as it's recording date - but it could have possibly been 1975.

All My Life - 81
Ain't Misbehavin - 83
All The Way - 79
All Good Things I Remember - 81
And When He Smiles - 71 - Live At The BBC
And When I Die(Long Beach State College recording)
Auld Lang Syne - 79
Basket Case (Karen solo)
Better World - 79
Box Office Movie King - 76
Can't Buy Me Love(*Your Navy Presents*)
Christmas Alphabet(Duet with Kristy McNichol)- 78 - A Christmas Portrait, TV Special
Church Choir(Wild) (Karen solo)
Cinderella Rockefella(duet with Doug Strawn)
Close To You(Spike Jones style) - 76 - The Carpenters Very First Television Special
Come And Be Kind - 77
Crescent Noon (Cal State Long Beach recording)
Dancing In The Street (full length studio recording done during "Christmas Portrait" sessions)
Don't Leave Me -
Don't Try To Win Me Back Again (Karen solo)
Fallin' For Love - 82
Fool Me - 82 - Richard on vocals
For The Minute
Funny Faces - 79
Good Vibrations - 76 - Karen and John Denver duet
How High The Moon - 83
Hurting - 75
I Believe In You
I Can't Smile - 77
I Can't Stay Mad At You - 77
I Do It for Your Love (Karen solo)
I Don't Need You - 79
I Don't want My Arms Around You - 80
I Fell In Love With You (from "Your Navy Presents)
I Finally Got It Right This Time - 77
I'll Be Seeing You - 79
It's Really You (Karen solo)
Jimmy Mack (Karen solo)
Just Fall In Love - 78
Just Somebody
Keep The Love Light Burning (Karen solo)
Last of the Romantics
Lately - 79
Lord's Prayer - 83
Love As Old As The Heart - 83 - (RC)
Love Is Coming Back - 75
Love Making Love To You (Karen solo)
Love Me Like The First Time - 79
Love Song - 78
Love You Through and Though - 82
Mad - 79
Magic In The Music - 76
Man Smart, Woman Smarter(duet with Suzanne Somers) - 78 - Space Encounters, TV Special
Midnight (Karen solo)
Once In A Lifetime - 81
Play A Simple Melody - 80
Peter Pan Moon - 80
Rainbows In Your Eyes - 79
Real Love - 77
Runaway - 77
Savin' It Up For The Minute - 77
Sebastian
Second Thoughts - 77
Slaughter On 10th Ave - 83
Slow Dance - 79
Some Guys Have All The Luck - 82
Something's Missing (Karen solo)
Stay Young - 77
Stop Me - 82
Strike Up The Band(Karen's drum solo) - 76 - The Carpenters Very First Television Special
Sunday Afternoon
Sweet Talkin' Guy - 80
Thank You For The Music(studio recording) - 78
Thank You For The Music(live recording) - 78 - The Tonight Show(with John Davidson)
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - 80
These Are The Jokes Folks - 76 - The Carpenters very First Television Special
Truly You (Karen solo)
Try To Win A Friend - 75
A Wedding Prayer - 83
We Won't Be Back Tomorrow - 77
What Are You Doing For Love - 79
Where Is Love - 75
Why Don't They Understand
You Made Me Feel Love - 80
You're Just In Love - 80
You'll Never Know - 83
Yours Sincerely - 79[/b]

[YesterdayOnceMore]

Wow, what a list. Thanks so much for posting it for us, Rick.

I'd give a lot to hear some of these tunes - like "I'll Be Seeing You." Great song that I'm sure Karen does exquisitely, much the same as "I Can Dream, Can't I?" I can also imagine how beautifully sweet she sings the song "Where Is Love" from the musical Oliver. "How High The Moon" can have some of the most wonderful harmony parts to it (I arranged this for my band at one point, and have heard Manhattan Transfer and PM Singers do this one in multi-part harmonies) and I bet Carpenters did this one QUITE well. And, though I have heard it, and watch it repeatedly, and have the Live at the Palladium on vinyl, I would truly love to have a crisp recording of Karen playing Strike Up The Band. Awesome drum solo here.

So many tracks - and yes, of course, Carpenter's demo of Box Office Movie King would be another great one. One day I'll ask Richard if any of these will EVER be released for those of us who would just love to have more unreleased Carpenters gems, which I'm sure any/all of these are.

Thanks again, Rick, for the list. I don't think I've seen one so comprehensive.
Tim

[Rick Henry]

I believe the songs listed as 1983 (How High The Moon and Ain't Misbehaving) are instrumentals only.

I'm sure this list could be much bigger as most of these songs are from the late seventies to early eighties. I just feel there has to be more demos and outakes from 1969 to 1976.

[enigma]

admin said:

I believe the songs listed as 1983 (How High The Moon and Ain't Misbehaving) are instrumentals only.

I'm sure this list could be much bigger as most of these songs are from the late seventies to early eighties. I just feel there has to be more demos and outakes from 1969 to 1976.

Yes I found that strange as well but there may not have been all that many due to the fact that the Carpenters were touring so much. Richard has stated that there was little time to even finish the records to his satisfaction let alone record a whole lot of extra tracks. Case in point is Now and Then where they had to use an earlier track Jambalaya (On The Bayou) to complete the record they did not even have time to rerecord the drum parts. If there are song demos or unreleased tracks from the 1969 (or earlier) to 1976 period that would be just so cool for me as I love Karens early vocal work lets hope some will be unearthed someday. I still hope one day all the mentioned songs see the light of day for now all I can do is wait like all the rest of us.

[smoothie2]

???Very impressive list...Maybe some will come out some day. I'm not familiar w/ many of them, but that's fine too...it surely would be new to our ears if they came out some day.
Thanks for listing them Rick.

[GoodOldDreams]

Wow! This is an impressive list! I remember a few of these tunes from the C's television specials. Let's hope that if enough public interest were shown and if Richard were able to secure all the copyrights and can remix some of these recordings from monoaural TV to stereo to meet his exacting standards, he might just do it and release them...

[Rick Henry]

goodolddreams said:

Wow! This is an impressive list! I remember a few of these tunes from the C's television specials. Let's hope that if enough public interest were shown and if Richard were able to secure all the copyrights and can remix some of these recordings from monoaural TV to stereo to meet his exacting standards, he might just do it and release them...

Yes, it truly is an impressive list. Only about fourteen of the songs listed were either from Tv specials or live in concert. The rest of these titles are actual studio demos or studio outakes from album recording sessions. As stated earlier I feel there must be more demos and outtakes from 1969 - 1976. Someone else mentioned maybe not because they were very hectic with touring and did not have as much time to record. but I still get this feeling that there must be a few from that time period that have yet to see the light. Look at "Ordinary Fool", "Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again" and now the latest (and hopefully released some day) "Box Office Movie King". There must be atleast a dozen from 69-76.

just a few thoughts...

[Ming]

Thank you for the list, Rick. I am sure Richard will release them.

Ming

[BethMosior]

Thanx Rick WOOOOOOW we could have 2 new CD if it ever does get out COOOOOOOOOOL

[mrbillis4u]

Hi to all,
I just have to add that there are enough finished songs out there that have not been officially released. I know because I have some of them. A few years ago I got my hands on some beautiful recordings. What truely is odd to me is why Richard won't release them. On some of these tracks they still need to be mixed etc., but they are perfect actually. If Richard would do some new music to some of them or just add some more music to them, trust me there is enough for an entire cd.
So I guess at this point in time I can only hope Richard will release some more material for us fans to have...
This would be the year to have a beatiful new release.
Thanks for reading my long post.
Mr Bill

[enigma]

mrbillis4u said:

Hi to all,
I just have to add that there are enough finished songs out there that have not been officially released. I know because I have some of them. A few years ago I got my hands on some beautiful recordings. What truely is odd to me is why Richard won't release them. On some of these tracks they still need to be mixed etc., but they are perfect actually. If Richard would do some new music to some of them or just add some more music to them, trust me there is enough for an entire cd.
So I guess at this point in time I can only hope Richard will release some more material for us fans to have...
This would be the year to have a beatiful new release.
Thanks for reading my long post.
Mr Bill

Mrbill you care to share what titles you know of that are finished but not released whether you own them or not?

[YesterdayOnceMore]

Yes Mr. Bills, that would be awesome.

Nice new avatar, Ming.

Tim

[Dave]

We have to remember that what is perfectly fine to most of us is simply not acceptable to Richard. Look at his liner notes for "The Rainbow Connection". To him, it's raw, unfinished, but to most of us, it's fantastic. Like Peanuts' Schroeder, Richard makes a child's toy piano into a real instrument. But the flip side of the liner notes is that he included the track because people have been asking for it for years. So, maybe he'll see the light, and crack the lid on the vault for us...we'd really be OK with that.

[Rick Henry]

dave said:

We have to remember that what is perfectly fine to most of us is simply not acceptable to Richard. Look at his liner notes for "The Rainbow Connection". To him, it's raw, unfinished, but to most of us, it's fantastic. Like Peanuts' Schroeder, Richard makes a child's toy piano into a real instrument. But the flip side of the liner notes is that he included the track because people have been asking for it for years. So, maybe he'll see the light, and crack the lid on the vault for us...we'd really be OK with that.

That would be great if Richard were to release more of these unreleased gems. At the top of my list would be the release the studio recordings of "Dancing In The Street", "Thank You For The Music" and "Box Office Movie King" as well as the Richard Carpenter trio recordings and Karen's unreleased solo recordings.

[YesterdayOnceMore]

Well said, Dave.

[makapip]

It would be great to hear some of the early recordings when they were called

Summerchimes

for 3 months and which they recorded 9 tracks at a studio.

[BethMosior]

I agree whole heartedly with all you all BRAVOOOO ' but we can dream can't we ' it really would be great to hear them

[YesterdayOnceMore]

Now, if we can just talk Rich into releasing Box Office Movie King, and a few more of these gems.......Hmmmm....wonder how we can do this?

Tim