70s songs that they Carpenters should have done

[DJLOVETRAIN]

which 1970s songs do you think should have been done by the Carpenters? Me-I Write the Songs, Love So Right and I Go Crazy

[smoothie2]

This will be an enduring thread, grand!
there are a lot that they could've done...
For now, I think of : SEND IN THE CLOWNS
SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW
LOVE HURTS
bLUE bAYOU
Gotta hit the hay, will think of more perhaps later... ;DOops!...true enough, these songs I listed, I'd love to hear from the C's, but, S. in Clowns, and the others I think, more or less, are not specifically '70's songs,...I think of
J. Collins ...60's , and maybe even Blue Bayou and the others
were recorded first in the 60's or prior to 70's.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANYWaY!...
I love songs mentioned thusfar...Cherish is great,
but I also think of "IF"
"GOIN' OUT OF MY HEAD"
"jUST ANOTHER WOMAN IN LOVE" (recorded by Anne Murray)
"LAUGHTER IN THE RAIN" (recorded by N. Sedaka)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ img.photobucket.com/albums/v468/folder/

[beaner]

oooh "I Write the Songs" is a very good choice. I would have loved to hear "Precious and Few" and "Cherish" sung by Karen and Richard myself.

[DJLOVETRAIN]

Here are 2 more-Have You Been Mellow and I Honestly Love You!

[enigma]

I would not mind hearing Karens versions of Without You, Killing Me Softly With His Song, Midnight Blue, The Right Time Of The Night, Torn Between Two Lovers, Loving You and/or You Don't Know What Love Is to name a few.

[YesterdayOnceMore]

I would have loved to have heard Karen sing to Richard's arrangement of "Bridge Over Troubled Water." This would have been awesome, in my opinion....beautiful song I think Karen could have sung so passionately.

I'd have rather heard Karen sing "Evergreen" than Streisand.

I'd love to have heard Karen cover Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." A gutsy number Karen would have done with gusto, I'm sure. I agree with Enigma - Roberta Flack's Killing Me Softly would have been an awesome tune to hear Karen do.

Wouldn't the Carpenters have done a great job with Don McLLean's "American Pie?"

How about Gladys Knight's "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me."

And, for now, my final selection would be Billy Joel's BIG SHOT! "...Well, it's no big sin to stick your two cents in if you know when to leave it alone - but you went over the line, you couldn't see it was time to go home...no, no, no, no, no, no you had to be a BIG SHOT, didn't cha?..." Karen could have gotten down and funky with this one.

More to come.
Tim

[GoodOldDreams]

Great topic, djlovetrain!

I think the following songs from the 1970's (or re-popularized in the 1970's) would have been perfect for the Carpenters in terms of the melody, lyrics and vocal range:

"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"

"Morning Has Broken"

"Laughter In The Rain"

"The Hungry Years"

"You Light Up My Life"

"We're All alone"

"Color My World"

"That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be"

"Come Saturday Morning"

"Broken Hearted Me"

"Betcha By Golly, Wow"

"One Less Bell to Answer"

"Always and Forever"

I agree that "Blue Bayou" and "Precious and Few" would be excellent choices also.

[DJLOVETRAIN]

Thanks Good Old Dreams! I just wanted to read the opinions of the nice Carpenters Fans on this forum!

[Dave]

Anything by The Fifth Dimension. Marilyn McCoo's voice is clearly in the "basement", and I have wondered if somewhere in the transition between "Ticket to Ride" and "We've Only Just Begun" she listened to Marilyn's style.

[cam83]

Hi All,
I would have chosen...

You Needed Me

God Knows

When The Lovelight Came Thru(done by Debby Boone and the Boones)

Gimme Gimme Gimme

Copa Cabana

Do You Know Where You're Going To?

Torn Between Two Lovers

Make Your Own Kind of Music(full Version)

You and Me Against The World

Make Love To Me(from Helen Reddy album)

It's My Turn

Remember Me

Do you know what you're doing the rest of your life?

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

Laughter In The Rain

The Wedding Song, There Is Love


These are just some of my choices,

Cameron

[Rick Henry]

Wow, a lot of people have come up with some really good choices. I've included quotes with some of the choices I like in particular and I would also chose myself. Then in the next post I have listed my own choices - some are repeats - but are worthy of repeating.

djlovetrain said:

Love So Right and I Go Crazy

smoothie2 said:

LOVE HURTS
bLUE bAYOU
Gotta hit the hay, will think of more perhaps later...

beaner said:

I would have loved to hear "Precious and Few" and "Cherish" sung by Karen and Richard myself.

enigma said:

I would not mind hearing Karens versions of Without You, Killing Me Softly With His Song, Midnight Blue, The Right Time Of The Night, Torn Between Two Lovers, Loving You and/or You Don't Know What Love Is to name a few.

yesterdayoncemore said:

I would have loved to have heard Karen sing to Richard's arrangement of "Bridge Over Troubled Water." This would have been awesome, in my opinion....beautiful song I think Karen could have sung so passionately.

I'd have rather heard Karen sing "Evergreen" than Streisand.

I'd love to have heard Karen cover Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." A gutsy number Karen would have done with gusto, I'm sure. I agree with Enigma - Roberta Flack's Killing Me Softly would have been an awesome tune to hear Karen do.

Wouldn't the Carpenters have done a great job with Don McLLean's "American Pie?"

How about Gladys Knight's "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me."

And, for now, my final selection would be Billy Joel's BIG SHOT! "...Well, it's no big sin to stick your two cents in if you know when to leave it alone - but you went over the line, you couldn't see it was time to go home...no, no, no, no, no, no you had to be a BIG SHOT, didn't cha?..." Karen could have gotten down and funky with this one.

More to come.
Tim

goodolddreams said:

"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"

"Morning Has Broken"

"Laughter In The Rain"

"We're All alone"

"Color My World"

"That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be"

"Come Saturday Morning"

"Betcha By Golly, Wow"

"One Less Bell to Answer"

"Always and Forever"

cam83 said:

Make Your Own Kind of Music(full Version)

You and Me Against The World

Remember Me

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

Laughter In The Rain

Cameron

[Rick Henry]

Here are my choices. I know that it's all over the map - but I tried to keep in mind that Carpenters were more than just singers of love songs. I always try to keep this in mind as many people do not realize just how versatile Carpenters were in the styles of music they actually did.

"I'm Dreamin" by Jennifer Warnes - "Right Time Of The Night" was mentioned also which Carpenters could have done quite well. "I'm Dreamin" would have been one of those monumental ballads akin to "I JUst Fall In Love Again".

"The Look Of Love" - perfect for Karen's voice - it wasn't 70's - but still great anyway.

Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head

"New Kid In Town" by the Eagles. Carpenters did a chillingly outstanding job with the Eagles' "Desperado" that I'm certain they would have done a great job with "New Kid..."

"It Keeps You Runnin" and "You Belong To Me" - both songs originally recorded by Doobie Brothers and both later covered by Carly Simon. These songs would have been great on "Passage" or Karen's solo.

Whenever I Call You Friend by Kenny Loggins

Thinking Of You - Loggins and Messina

I'd Love You To Want Me - Lobo

Don't Stop - Fleetwood Mac

If You Could Read My Mind - Gordon Lightfoot - this would be outstanding if sung by Karen.

If I Could Reach You - Fifth Dimension

Time Passages - Al Stewart - could have been done for "Passage" with orchestration by the one and only Peter Knight.

If You Really Love Me - Stevie Wonder

Dim All The Lights - Donna Summer - great for Karen's solo

"So Far Away" and "Jazzman" by Carole King - I always felt Carpenters and Carole King were a perfect merger.

"Colour My World" and "Just You And Me" by Chicago - another perfect merger.

"Your Song" by Elton John

"Don't Go Breakin' My Heart" duet by Karen and Elton - WOW!

You've Got A Friend - written by Carole King and made a hit by James Taylor.

Can't Get It Out Of My Head by ELO - this is another for "Passage" and would be outstanding with orchestration by Peter Knight - can you just imagine this - it would be chllingly beautiful - so would ELO's "Telephone Line".

"Easy" by the Commodores - another one Carpenters could do beautifully.

[DJLOVETRAIN]

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my topic!

[ps11932]

These are all great choices; the ones that stand out are the selections by the great Carole King, and "Betcha By Golly Wow" and "I Am Music", two of the prettiest songs I've heard. Jim Croce had some great hits in the 70's that I can in my imagination hear by Carpenters. (But probably not "Leroy Brown"). And I don't think it was 70's, but correct me if I'm wrong: I could almost swear having heard on the radio (years ago obviously) a C's rendition of "Old Cape Cod"- if I recall, it was great!- (just like everything The Carpenters did.)

[Rick Henry]

ps11932 said:

These are all great choices; the ones that stand out are the selections by the great Carole King, and "Betcha By Golly Wow" and "I Am Music", two of the prettiest songs I've heard. Jim Croce had some great hits in the 70's that I can in my imagination hear by Carpenters. (But probably not "Leroy Brown"). And I don't think it was 70's, but correct me if I'm wrong: I could almost swear having heard on the radio (years ago obviously) a C's rendition of "Old Cape Cod"- if I recall, it was great!- (just like everything The Carpenters did.)

Hi O.E., Yes I can hear Carpenters doing Croce - that would've been great.

Carpenters, though, never recorded "Old Cape Cod". The closest they came to that was the 1975 recording of "I Can Dream Can't I?" which was on the album "Horizon" - the Andrews Sisters originally recorded this song in 1939.

[ps11932]

Man, I love "I Can Dream Can't I"- I've come, in recent weeks, to agree with many of you that "Horizon" is probably the overall best C's album (that I've heard, at least) and I regard "I Can Dream Can't I" as my favorite of the 10 outstanding selections. This is just me, bit I think the 3 "hit songs" ("Only Yesterday", "Please Mr. Postman", "Solitaire') are just 1/16 notch below the other 7 songs- but still outstanding and great!

[Moe]

Great topic! I had a few songs in mind, but were already listed by others. I guess great minds do think alike!

How about:

My heart belongs to me
Even Now
Weekend in New England
Seasons in the sun

(If I missed these in post's above, forgive me)

[wisejester7]

Talking In Your Sleep (the Crystal Gayle version)