THE OFFICIAL REVIEW: "CLOSE TO YOU" (SP-4271)

[Chris May]

“CLOSE TO YOU”​

​

Catalogue Number: A&M SP-4271
Date of Release: 08/28/70
Chart Position- U.S.: #2; U.K.: #23; JAPAN: #53
Album Singles: “(They Long To Be) Close To You”/"I Kept On Loving You"
"We've Only Just Begun"/"All Of My Life"
Medium: Reel/Vinyl/8-track/Cassette/CD​

Track Listing:

1.) We've Only Just Begun 3:04 (Williams/Nichols)
2.) Love Is Surrender 1:59 (Ralph Carmichael)
3.) Maybe It's You 3:09 (Richard Carpenter)
4.) Reason To Believe 3:02 (Tim Hardin)
5.) Help 3:02 (Lennon/McCartney)
6.) (They Long To Be) Close To You 4:34 (Bacharach/David)
7.) Baby It's You 2:50 (Bacharach/David/Williams)
8.) I'll Never Fall In Love Again 2:56 (Bacharach/David)
9.) Crescent Noon 4:09 (Richard Carpenter)
10.) Mr. Guder 3:17 (Richard Carpenter)
11.) I Kept On Loving You 2:13 (Williams/Nichols)
12.) Another Song 4:22 (Carpenter/Bettis)

Album Credits:

Producer: Jack Daugherty
Arrangements and Orchestrations: Richard Carpenter
All Vocals: Karen and Richard Carpenter
Drums: Karen Carpenter and Hal Blaine
Keyboards: Richard Carpenter
Bass: Joe Osborn and Danny Woodhams
Woodwinds: Jim Horn, Bob Messenger and Doug Strawn
Engineer: Ray Gerhardt and Dick Bogert
Art Direction: Tom Wilkes
Photography: Kessel/Brehm Photography
Ludwig Drums and Wurlitzer Pianos

 

[A&M Retro]

How can you go wrong with this release? While it holds a special place in my mind because it was the FIRST Carpenters album I owned (Christmas gift, 1970, age eight), it still holds up extremely well.

I have a 29 year old rock musician friend who wanted me to help her pick out a vintage turntable, speakers and receiver. While we drove around Chicago last weekend looking for the best components for her sound system, I played her the "Close to You" album. She was blown away, and said, "It's like an explosion of harmony!" I couldn't agree more. She asked to hear "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" three times and "Help!" twice.

To my ears, there isn't a weak link on the entire record. Karen's voice was just entering its prime, and the arrangements and energy are top notch from start to finish. It's also a very unique listen compared to other Carpenters albums. Each tune stands by itself with its own style, and they pull off each with ease.

"Crescent Noon" and "Another Song" are so different from anything else they ever did, and "Baby It's You" is simply one of their best ever performances. Karen and Richard's voices blended so well and so powerfully.

I've gone back and forth between "A Song For You", "Horizon" and "Close to You" as my favorite Carpenters album, but this is the one I listen to more than any other. So it gets my vote as the best and coolest of all.

 

[Rudy]

No comment on the content for now, but I own this on a rare dbx-encoded LP, even more unusual since it appears to have been released by A&M. (It was not uncommon for audiophile labels, such as Nautilus, to release dbx LPs.)

 

[Mike Blakesley]

This is my second favorite Carpenters LP, after A Song For You. It's just amazing, to me, the amount of "growth" in the Carpenters sound between their first album and this one.

I always thought it was kind of strange that they put the big #1 hit song, and the album title track, at the END of side 1. It would have made more sense at the top of side 2 if it didn't have that extended ending...but with the extended ending, it makes a perfect fadeout for side one.

The range of styles on this album is what makes it a favorite of mine. I think they were wise to reach out to other songwriters' material, which is what made them start having hit singles. If they hadn't done that, it might have never led to their later hits.

Not a bad track on it really, but my favorites are the two hits, plus the Richard vocal tracks, and "Another Song," "Help" and "Crescent Noon."

 

[Rudy]

This is my second favorite Carpenters LP, after A Song For You. It's just amazing, to me, the amount of "growth" in the Carpenters sound between their first album and this one.

In my case, I feel this is their true debut album; the first comes off more like a collection of demo tapes to me, and I rarely spin it. Similar to how the first pop-oriented Genesis album, From Genesis To Revelation, is the odd stepchild compared to the real prog-rock Genesis that recorded Trespass. Both found their niche with their second albums.

Close To You is a solid album, although I'd say I really only listen to about half of the songs on it. The two hits really knocked this one out of the ballpark! Favorite album cuts would be "Love Is Surrender," "Crescent Noon," "Mr. Guder" and "I Kept On Loving You" (great RC vocal on that one IMHO).

 

[Chris May]

I actually gave this album a "4". I had to think back to first few times I played it, and I'm with Mike on this one - all of the songs he mentioned are really my favorites as well. What I like about the overall layout of the album musically, is that even though there is a bit of diversity with the songs, arrangements etc., there is a real "mood" aspect to it for me, which is a huge plus.

-Chris

 

[Harry]

Just a great, great album - start to finish, with no weaknesses anywhere. I bought the album when it first came out. I'd eagerly awaited it after buying the "(They Long To Be) Close To You" single that summer, and when I heard selections from it on the radio, it was a instant trip to the record store to buy a copy for my very own.

I remember being a little miffed that "Ticket To Ride" was nowhere to be found. I'd heard that track on the radio before and wanted to own it, but I never saw the album or single for sale anywhere. That's when my sister tracked down a copy of OFFERING for me for Christmas, so I received that one after CLOSE TO YOU was already familiar.

According to my notes, only four tracks on this album have *not* ever been remixed to this point in time. They are:

Help!
I'll Never Fall In Love Again
Crescent Noon
I Kept On Loving You

All of the rest have gotten the remix treatment somewhere along the line.

I voted 4*'s. Just the best.

Harry

 

[Toolman]

I bought this one at the same time as "Bridge Over Troubled Water". They were side by side on an endcap at a music store where I was taking drum lessons. BOTW was the planned purchase, CTY sort of an impulse, but I've never stopped listening to either one. One act making its farewell, another just beginning...two classic LPs.

CTY easily shows their most creative and ambitious use of the overdubbing technique. Only track I routinely skip is "Help". Not that it's bad, but they'd already done a Beatles song and brought something really special to it. Quite a few covers on CTY..."Help", to my ears, is the least successful of them.

Almost want to deduct a star for that truly horrible jacket art. What was A&M thinking? "I know! Let's make it GRAY. And photograph the kids like they're attending prom at Alcatraz!"

 

[Rudy]

I know Richard hates those album covers. This one has KC in her dress, getting wet around the ankles...truly a disaster. And quite sappy as a brother/sister photo.

I always thought Richard looked like Luke Skywalker on the cover of Offering.

 

[Harry]

"I know! Let's make it GRAY.

The earliest first pressings of the LP had more of what I'd call an attempt at silver on the thick border of the photo on CLOSE TO YOU. By the time they did the cheaper later pressings, it was pretty much a dull, gray color, which has carried into the CD era.

Harry

 

[Dave]

It's funny, how the few cover songs on their previous album, Offering/Ticket To Ride, didn't seem to work... (Well, "Ticket", did, actually...) And the originals were a fairly mixed-bag... A few seemed OK, but while establishing a fairly well-crafted sound, just sounded like Karen & Richard didn't know what to do with it...

However, with better material and more integral arrangements, the second LP made up for the short-comings of the first...

That is, thanks to the maturity, confidence, and a few good hooks invested in this effort, the Carpenters could add life to the original compositions by the then-current catalog of Paul Williams/Roger Nichols, Burt Bacharach/Hal David, Tim Hardin, John Lennon/Paul McCartney, realizing the potential of their songs a bit better than they could, setting the pattern for things to come, while reflecting a welcoming trend... Many artists, those established as well as the up-and coming talent in this new decade could surely interpret others' catalogs in this delightful manner, too...

Even the few self-penned compositions sound well-delivered... Close to You is the Carpenters' breakthrough... Achieving whatever techniques Karen & Richard have quickly mastered and setting the pattern for more things to come...


-- Dave

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I still remember the first time I heard "Close to You" (the song). I was eating dinner with my parents at a restaurant and it came on the radio. I was first struck by the trumpet solo -- I thought it was Herb Alpert. Then later on, one of my sisters fell in love with "We've Only Just Begun" and I wound up giving her the CTY album for Christmas. She proceeded to play the living daylights out of it. Since it was my sister who liked it, I decided it couldn't possibly be cool music, but I had to admit liking the single "Close To You"...because of that trumpet solo!

Not long after that we started selling 45RPM singles at the store, and we started getting in the Carpenters later hits of course. By the time "Rainy Days and Mondays" and then "Hurting Each Other" came along, I was hooked. The first album I bought for myself was A Song For You and then I worked my way backward from there. I still regret not finding an Offering LP when they were around.

 

[Rudy]

Hmmm...I think my first exposure was the "CTY" single. It didn't survive. I remember something was playing on our new Magnavox console, and I was spinning the single around like a turntable on top of the sliding cabinet top. When Mom found the swirl marks later that day, "CTY" became a two-part single--the left side, and the right side. We did end up with the LP around the same time, I guess, so I was no stranger to the songs on that one. I would guess that Mom bought the single, as she was the big Bacharach/David fan in the house. Dad was probably as smitten with KC as Mom was of Burt, so he likely bought the LP.

Really scientific, huh?

 

[A&M Retro]

I've got a mint copy of the 'DBX' encoded album, too. Would like to know more about that format.

Rudy and I can both claim to have played 'Close to You' on a Magnavox console. It was the first single my parents allowed me to play on it.
I bought the single for my sister at 7-11 (when they still sold top 40 records). I destroyed it, but still have it in my collection. I received the album for Christmas, and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

[Rudy]

I've got a mint copy of the 'DBX' encoded album, too. Would like to know more about that format.

All the news that's fit to print:

http://www.amcorner.com/forum/threads/dbx-processors-in-a-nutshell.11981/

 

[Chris Mills]

This was the first album I bought, I remember being intrigued by the cover, couldn't understand why there were only two people, imagined a group! As for the music, I loved the mix of ballads and uptempo songs, loved the harmonies, and was astonished to hear some of the songs joined together, I'd never heard that before. When I heard the extended version of Close To You, I was blown away, I thought the song had ended, and all of sudden the piano goes "ping", and the drums come banging out of the speakers, it was great.
The album finale, "Another Song", was so different from anything else on the album and totally unexpected, couldn't stop playing it.
I bought the album in three formats, vinyl, cassette, and CD. Also downloaded some of the remixes, my favourite remix is "Baby It's You", just totally improves the quality of the song. Have yet to hear the remix of "Another Song", it's out there somewhere, just haven't found it yet.
There isn't one track I dislike on this album, for me each one is a gem

 

[newvillefan]

Have yet to hear the remix of "Another Song", it's out there somewhere, just haven't found it yet.

The remix is great, it's a bit like the remix of 'One Love'. It breathes new life into the song, the remix is very subtle but makes the track sound very fresh.

 

[Mark-T]

^^ So where can it be found?

 

[Chris May]

The remix is great, it's a bit like the remix of 'One Love'. It breathes new life into the song, the remix is very subtle but makes the track sound very fresh.

The one thing that makes this remix stand out above many of the others is the re-recorded bass line by Joe Osborn. It not only is re-recorded, but several new melodic lines that completely showcase Joe's signature sound...just great!

 

[Harry]

^^ So where can it be found?

One place only. The Japanese set called SWEET MEMORY on the disc called "at last."

I have to agree that this is one sweet remix, especially, I think because it was so unexpected for this rarely-anthologized album track.

Harry

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I don't have the Sweet Memory set but was wondering if there were any liner notes inside about this 1995 remix of "Another Song". I am assuming Richard was involved in this remix? It seems odd to me that so much effort went into the remix yet so little is known about it and of all the compilations for it to appear is a very rare Japan set, the remix never to be seen from again. I can understand wanting to add this remix to an exclusive set but were talking a very exclusive set. I don't even remember any marketing on this set promoting the inclusion of a rare remix. Most of the fans have never heard the remix, so many more compilations have been released since yet this remix has never re-surfaced. I find it really odd to have made a remix as great sounding as this to "bury" it so to speak on a compilation so rare and a set that was quite expensive as I recall.

If you go back and preview the video that Stephen posted about Newville Tour, on part of that tour where they are in the music room videotaping all the tapes and CD's on the table in the center of the room, you will see one of these Sweet Memory Cd's since I don't have them I don't know which it is but the cover is one of them.

 

[Harry]

When I learned of SWEET MEMORY, I knew I had to have it and contacted Yuka, who either had a second set around or she sold me hers. I'm not quite sure. I know I paid around $200 for the set of six discs and am happy I did. They are a really nice set, with 90 Carpenters tunes. Hard to justify for just one remix, but sometimes fandom calls...

Harry

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Wow you acted at the right time Harry, what a steal. Amazon shows someone from PA is selling their whole set for $599.00, imagine that, still that works out to be about what more than $6.00 a song? yeah I'll have to think about that one. lol

 

[Harry]

As far as liner notes go, no, there's nothing in SWEET MEMORY detailing anything about mixes, at least not as far as I can tell. As this was made for the Japanese market, there's naturally some Japanese text that I can't read along with the usual lyrics in both languages. The credits are in English, as well as Richard's little one-sentence descriptions of the theme of the contents.

Back to CLOSE TO YOU, I was thinking about the jacket cover and what I mentioned earlier about the silver color as opposed to gray, and I got to wondering how many fans out there might never have seen a first-pressing of the title with the silver-colored border. It was that way on both front and back and really makes for a much classier presentation than the gray that replaced it I seem to have three copies of the LP - only one has the silver. The other two are gray. Another thing I notice looking at the three of them is that the silver-colored one doesn't have an A&M logo in the top right, just a catalog number of A&M SP 4271.

The Japanese got it almost right in their mini-LP versions in the 35th Anniversary box set. They did attempt a silver color - and it's very close to the color on my original jacket - perhaps not quite as shiny. They also printed a re-release catalog number of SP-3184 in the front, and included the A&M logo.

Harry

 

[Toolman]

When I learned of SWEET MEMORY, I knew I had to have it and contacted Yuka, who either had a second set around or she sold me hers. I'm not quite sure. I know I paid around $200 for the set of six discs and am happy I did. They are a really nice set, with 90 Carpenters tunes. Hard to justify for just one remix, but sometimes fandom calls...

Harry

There are times I'll sit back and consider all the duplications I've accumulated of their songs on 45s, LPs, cassettes, 8-tracks and CDs, and wonder why the heck... once counted how many "copies" of the song "Close to You" I have and it was really kind of insane. And yet, now I hear about this "Another Song" remix and the "gotta have it" internal voices start up again. Maybe there's a support group for this somewhere...