Part 10: Tracking "If I Had You"

[Rick Henry]

TUESDAY APRIL 3, 1979

Today "If I Had You" was released on A&M Records with "Truly You" as the b-side.

It was also announced today that the song entered the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart at #84. The song entered only on merits of airplay due to a single sided promo single which was distributed to over 3,000 U.S. radio stations last week. Most of them began playing the song immediately and about 500 hundred stations automatically put it into heavy rotation.

Now that the single is on the market it's expected to leap into the top 40 next week with airplay and sales combined. Quite a few critics and industry insiders are expecting the song to reach #1. Billboard magazine gave it an outstanding review which ended with saying "Look out for #1".


WEDNESDAY APRIL 4, 1979

The Karen Carpenter group has just finished completed recording "All Because Of You" and put some extra studio sheen on "Truly You". Now there are three songs complete for the album. Karen is so ecstatic that she can hardly sleep at night. She always thinking of different sounds and techniques she wants to experiment with. Again Karen brought up the idea of recording "Boogie Nights". Again everybody was against it. This time Rod Temperton asked her why she is so bent on recording this song.

"I want to record a disco song Rod," Karen answered, "and 'Boogie Nights' is the greatest disco song ever written."

"Thank you Karen, that is sweet of you," Temperton humbly replies, "But 'Boogie Nights' just doesn't seem to fit the direction of the album. Though I have been working on a song that may suit you well. It's called "Lovelines".

"But is it disco?" Karen asks, "I don't want to record any mushy love songs. I want the world to see that I can have fun too."

"Definitely, it's disco," Rod answers.

"I want to hear it," Karen says, "do you have a recording?"

[Rick Henry]

With in the next few days the band begins working on "Lovelines" and Russell Javors' "Still In Love With You" - which bring the total to three Javors tunes for the album.

During the recording of "Still In Love With You" Karen had Russell join her in the vocal booth. She wanted to copy his original vocal phrasing of the song so she had him lip sync the words as she recorded her. Javors was completely impressed at how hard Karen worked to put her stamp on it.

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine Javors said, "I was surprised at how softly she sang. Karen's voice was so rich and textured. Her voice was powerful without having to belt it out".

"Lovelines" has ended up being a much larger undertaking than expected. Once again Temperton went all out on the vocal arrangement as well as the fantastic multi-layered musical arrangement, which includes the fantastic orchestration by Bob James. Karen could not believe she was recording this disco song. Especially after Richard asked her not to. She justified it by saying atleast it's a classy disco song. But she kept saying she wanted to do something risque or trashy.

At this comment Temperton once again speaks up.

"Karen, your voice is so refined. No matter what you record it's never going to sound trashy. Like a fine wine. you can pour it in a paper cup and it's still going to be a fine wine." Temperton jolts as he flicks his cigarette and a hot red ash hits him on his hand, "At best Karen we can get some attitude out of you."

"Okay, well that's what I want Rod," Karen says, "I want to exude some of that East Coast attitude. Now keep away from me with that cigarette it's irritating my throat."

Karen played a demo of "Keep My Lovelight burning" for the guys and told them that this would be the next song she wanted to record. She was expecting to meet up with some disapproval. But surprisingly everyone agreed this would be a good song to work on.

By Monday April 9, 1979 "Still In Love With You" and "Keep My Lovelight Burning" are complete bringing the song total to five. Work on "Lovelines" continues. Temperton is considering this one to be his baby. They're really putting a lot of extra effort into this one.

[Ming]

admin said:

Work on "Lovelines" sontinues.

Hi Rick,
You have a typing mistake.

Cheers,
Ming

[Rick Henry]

Thank you Ming for pointing out the typo. I went back and fixed it.