Santa Claus Is Coming To Town & Please Mr. Postman

[Rick Henry]

Here is a thought I really never thought of...

The Carpenters' original recording of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" (you know the nice long jazz influenced rendition with the great sax solo) and "Please Mr. Postman" were both released in November 1974.

This leads me to believe that both songs must have been recorded during the same recording session.

What are (if any) the similarities in both of these songs?

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

[GoodOldDreams]

Hmmm... interesting theory.

While the singles "Please Mr. Postman" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" were both released on November 8, 1974, they were paired with previously released materials on the B-Sides, namely "This Masquerade" and "Merry Christmas Darling" respectively. Rather than releasing "Please Mr. Postman" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" on the same single, it seems to make better sense that the A-Sides and their respective B-Sides are made to be thematically-related, as "Please Mr. Postman" and "This Masquerade" are about the lack of communications while "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and "Merry Christmas Darling" are about the holidays. The previously released songs were also strong on their own merits, especially with the prior success of "Merry Christmas Darling", and would have helped the sales of the then-newly released songs.

In terms of any similarities between "Please Mr. Postman" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", Karen's lead vocals and the saxophone passages stand out. In terms of differences, the overall acoustics and engineering of "Please Mr. Postman" sound cleaner and crisper (at least to me) than "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (perhaps due to the improved audio technology Richard was implementing in 1974).

According to the official Carpenters website:
Karen and Richard recorded the basic track and the lead vocal for "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" in 1972, and added brass, strings, the sax solo and background vocals two years later.

Thus, we may conclude that the recording of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" started a couple of years before "Please Mr. Postman", but ended in the same year.

[enigma]

Yes I would tend to believe they were recorded at different times Karens voice does seem to be different in both songs indicating a different maturity level in her voice for Santa Clause iIs Coming To Town and Postman. The Chistmas song just like before was probably the result of the time at which Postman was released ie during the Chrismas season and was an appropriate B-side to the song. Just my take on this single release.

[wisejester7]

Good topic.

[Rick Henry]

Yes, Dreams the vocal was recorded at an earlier stage... although as you stated the music itself and the production was completed at the same time as "Please Mr. Postman".

You also mentioned the differences in the acoustics of both songs. I feel they are fairly close... but I get that from listening to the original 45's... which I have both. The original 45 of "Postman" is different from the rerecorded version which ended up on "Horizon". The "Horizon" rerecording is mastered and mixed with more clarity and dynamics.

My first impression in similarities of sound is the use of saxophone. The sax sounds very similar in clarity in both songs.

Enigma... you mentioned that the Christmas song was an appropriate b-side... I'm not sure if you're stating that "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" was the b-side of "Postman"... but in actuality the b-side of "Postman" was the exquisite "This Masquerade" and the b-side of "Santa Claus" was "Merry Christmas Darling".

Dreams... I like your comparison of b-sides... I'm certain using "Merry Christmas Darling" as the b-side to "Santa Claus" definitely helped the sales for that one. "Masquerade" on the other side of "Postman" must have helped some... although "Postman" on it's own was such a super-strong song that it would have still been a major hit even if they were to have "Saturday" or "Druscilla Penny" on the flip.

[Rick Henry]

I just went and reworded my previous post as I just noticed several typos and mis-worded thoughts.