Interpretations should have been completely different than what it was

[arthowson]

I wish that Interpretations, even the Canadian one with 21 tracks was better than it was touted to be. Songs written by others? Passage was written by others.

I thought Interpretations was supposed to be about how the Carpenters interpreted songs that are known better from the artist famous for delivering it to the public.

My hypothetical list of songs would be…. and please add or delete as necessary.
1. Where Do I Go From Here?
2. A Kind of Hush
3. Masquerade
4. Ticket to Ride
5. Bacharach '74 Medley (Live)
6. Breaking up is hard to do
7. Tryin to get the Feeling again
8. Postman
9. Desperado
10. Solitaire
11. Just fall in love again
12. Beachwood
13. Still Crazy after all these years
14. A Song for you
15. Can't smile without you
16. Help! (maybe without the voice double)
17. Rainbow Connection
18. When I Fall in love
19. Our Day will come
20. **Bonus** Don't Cry For Me Argentina

 

[Harry]

Your list has only one big hit. I don't think that would be enough to get a casual buyer to spring for that new CD. Oh, I'm sure the dedicated fans would have bought it, but records companies don't market to just die-hard fans. They need the casual buyers to make it worthwhile.

But it's an interesting idea. Perhaps the older comp just needed a different title.

Harry

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I think an even better idea would have been to make an Interpretations I and II. They should have not included so many of their hits on the I and spread them out over a II CD....then they could have included Arthowson's list above to fill in the list. Then of course, we could have had 2 DVD's of Interpretations. How about a video of "Tryin To Get The Feeling Again" with a collection of rare photos of Karen from Richard's personal collection (we know he has more) against the audio playing.

 

[arthowson]

Your list has only one big hit. I don't think that would be enough to get a casual buyer to spring for that new CD. Oh, I'm sure the dedicated fans would have bought it, but records companies don't market to just die-hard fans. They need the casual buyers to make it worthwhile.

But it's an interesting idea. Perhaps the older comp just needed a different title.

Harry

good point. hadn't thought of that.

 

[GaryAlan]

DVD Interpretations, 1995:
" A&M and I proudly present this video compilation of eleven Carpenters' tracks, never before available on DVD.
All have been digitally enhanced and feature remastered stereo audio."
"The tracks were videotaped during the ten years spanning September 1970 to March 1980."
Richard Carpenter, June 2003

Now, for those who would ask why do I continually bring up new questions ?
Notice that in two of these videos-- Reason To Believe and Close To You---
Karen Carpenter is drumming.
A casual viewer--in 1995 (VHS),
or, 2003 (DVD)---
would assume that the audio of those songs featured Karen's drumming.
Fans, of course, know the particulars.
But, nowhere on the credits to this collection is it mentioned otherwise---
One would never know from the collection's notes or end-credits, that it was not
Karen Carpenter drumming to those songs as presented here.
And, only Cubby O'brien is mentioned, at that.
Just an observation.

 

[Rumbahbah]

I have to agree about the premise behind Interpretations being a rather dubious one. It was very exciting back in 1994 to have another compilation released, particularly with some unreleased tracks included, but the tracklist just doesn't feel like it has any consistent theme. You've got a weird mix of 'standard' covers like 'Little Girl Blue' and 'When I Fall in Love', some downbeat album tracks like 'Desperado' and 'When It's Gone', but also plenty of singles ranging from the sombre ('Superstar') to the cheery ('Sing', 'Please Mr Postman') and the bizarre ('Calling Occupants') and then also Karen solo on 'If I Had You'! Sure, they are all other people's songs, but so was most of their recorded output, and they're in such different styles and from such different eras that it seems completely random, more like a lucky dip from their back catalogue than anything cohesive enough to be a collection in its own right.

Even the unreleased tracks don't really save things. 'Tryin' to Get the Feeling Again' is lovely but 'Without a Song' is just a snippet (why they couldn't have included the fuller version that ended up on As Time Goes By I have no idea) and 'From This Moment On' is inferior to the already-released live version on the Palladium album. I haven't listened to this compilation in years because it just doesn't hang together well.

I wonder if they were originally intending to have a more standards-like theme and then worried about it sounding too depressing (which I suspect it would have done) and not being appealing enough to casual buyers, and so padded it out with some more commercial hits and brighter tracks to try and alleviate this.

 

[Aaron Moyer]

I make my own compilations and reimagine a lot of the post-apocalyptic albums. Kind of an armchair quarter-back type of thing.

 

[newvillefan]

I have to agree about the premise behind Interpretations being a rather dubious one. It was very exciting back in 1994 to have another compilation released, particularly with some unreleased tracks included, but the tracklist just doesn't feel like it has any consistent theme. You've got a weird mix of 'standard' covers like 'Little Girl Blue' and 'When I Fall in Love', some downbeat album tracks like 'Desperado' and 'When It's Gone', but also plenty of singles ranging from the sombre ('Superstar') to the cheery ('Sing', 'Please Mr Postman') and the bizarre ('Calling Occupants') and then also Karen solo on 'If I Had You'! Sure, they are all other people's songs, but so was most of their recorded output, and they're in such different styles and from such different eras that it seems completely random, more like a lucky dip from their back catalogue than anything cohesive enough to be a collection in its own right.

I agree with you there - in interviews, Richard said it was made up of their interpretation of tracks by other artists but that term was used too loosely and many tracks known to the general public primarily (or in some cases, only) as Carpenters' tracks are included. I always thought it would have been better served if they'd gone with the formula of it being tracks by other artists that were already well known. In reality, I've never heard any versions of 'Bless The Beasts and Children', 'When It's Gone', 'I Believe You', 'Sing' and 'If I Had You' by anyone other than the Carpenters. Using the above formula, they could/should have included tracks made famous by others such as 'Baby It's You', 'Help', 'Beechwood 4-5789', 'There's A Kind Of Hush', tracks from the Oldies medley (without the segues and DJ chatter - they do exist) and definitely 'Still Crazy After All These Years' and 'A Song For You'.

'Without a Song' is just a snippet (why they couldn't have included the fuller version that ended up on As Time Goes By I have no idea)

At the time 'Interpretations' was released, Richard couldn't get clearance from Ella Fitzgerald's estate to use her vocals, so he had to edit it down to just the acapella intro that featured Richard and Karen only. He succeeded five years later when preparing that track and the Karen/Ella Medley for inclusion on 'As Time Goes By'.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

At the time 'Interpretations' was released, Richard couldn't get clearance from Ella Fitzgerald's estate to use her vocals, so he had to edit it down to just the acapella intro that featured Richard and Karen only. He succeeded five years later when preparing that track and the Karen/Ella Medley for inclusion on 'As Time Goes By'.

Didn't Richard later say after As Time Goes By that all the work he had to go through to get this CD released, if he had to do it over again he wouldn't have done it or something like that or maybe I'm thinking of how the CD was released in one country vs another? I can't remember. I imagine it would be this same red tape to get clearance for those Christmas Specials for DVD release. We think it should just be easy peasy but in reality there is a lot of clearance to be had.