Now & Then | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | May 1, 1973 | |||
Recorded | 1972–1973 | |||
Studio | A&M (Hollywood) | |||
Genre | Pop | |||
Length | 37:46 | |||
Label | A&M | |||
Producer |
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The Carpenters chronology | ||||
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Singles from Now & Then | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Rolling Stone | (Unfavorable) [2] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [3] |
Now & Then is the fifth studio album by the American music duo the Carpenters, released on May 1, 1973. It reached No. 2 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart on July 21, 1973, [4] and ranked No. 20 on the Cash Box year-end pop albums chart. [5] The title, suggested by Karen and Richard's mother Agnes, was taken from a leftover song that did not appear on the album. [6]
As an outgrowth of the Rick Nelson "Garden Party" incident,[ citation needed ] an oldies revival occurred in pop music by 1973, and Side B of the album is an oldies medley. The medley starts with the Carpenters' original song "Yesterday Once More". Tony Peluso, the Carpenters' guitarist who made his debut on the 1972 album A Song for You , is heard as a radio DJ throughout the medley, which includes such songs as "The End of the World", "Dead Man's Curve", "Johnny Angel" and "One Fine Day".[ citation needed ] Peluso was also heard as a DJ on the Carpenters' "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" recording in 1977. The medley also features Mark Rudolph, a cousin of the Carpenters, as the listener who calls in during "Guess the Golden Goodies Group Contest".[ citation needed ]
Now & Then is one of only two albums for which Karen Carpenter performed all or most of the drumming, the other being Offering (later re-released as Ticket to Ride). She plays all of the drum tracks with the exception of "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)", for which the session drummer Hal Blaine played drums.[ citation needed ]
The album was released on May 1, 1973, the same day on which the Carpenters performed at the White House following a state dinner for West German chancellor Willy Brandt.
The album's lead track, "Sing", was written by Sesame Street 's frequent composer Joe Raposo. Karen and Richard had first heard the song while on the set of a Robert Young television special. A&M Records did not wish to release it as a single, but Richard insisted, confident it would be a hit. "Sing" reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 21, 1973. [6] [7]
Richard wrote "Yesterday Once More" after hearing the melody in his head while driving one day. The temporary lyrics for the chorus, which he intended to change later, were kept after the lyricist and former bandmate John Bettis told Richard, "This 'Sha-la-la-wo-wo-wo' stuff sounds pretty good!" [6] The single peaked at No. 2 on July 28, 1973, [8] and became the duo's biggest worldwide hit. [6]
"Yesterday Once More" was issued as a promotional single in the UK in 1973 [9] and "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" was issued as a promotional single in the UK in 1974. [10]
The LP album has a three-panel cover that folds out, showing a panoramic view of Karen and Richard Carpenter driving past the Carpenter family home on Newville Avenue in Downey, California. Karen and Richard had bought the five-bedroom house for their parents in 1970. Karen collapsed in the upstairs bedroom of the house while suffering the heart attack that ultimately killed her in 1983. The property also contained an annex, now destroyed, that was Richard and Karen's home studio and housed their awards and certification plaques.
In February 2008, fans created a worldwide awareness campaign about the impending demolition of the Carpenter family house that appears on the album cover, which had become a tourist attraction.[ citation needed ] The home's owners, who had purchased it in 1997 from Richard Carpenter after his mother's death in 1996, were frustrated with fans coming to the house and asking to be shown around, and they wanted to raze it.[ citation needed ]
The car pictured on the cover is Richard's 1973 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 ("Daytona"). He later sold the car, but bought another of the same type in 1995.[ citation needed ]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Sing" (Joe Raposo) | 3:20 |
2. | "This Masquerade" (Leon Russell) | 4:50 |
3. | "Heather" (Johnny Pearson) | 2:47 |
4. | "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" (Hank Williams) | 3:40 |
5. | "I Can't Make Music" (Randy Edelman) | 3:17 |
No. | Title | Length |
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6. | "Yesterday Once More"
| 18:05 |
7. | "Yesterday Once More (reprise)" (Bettis, Carpenter) | 0:58 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
6. | "Yesterday Once More" | 3:50 |
7. | "Fun, Fun, Fun" | 1:32 |
8. | "The End of the World" | 2:25 |
9. | "Da Doo Ron Ron (When He Walked Me Home)" | 1:43 |
10. | "Dead Man's Curve" | 1:40 |
11. | "Johnny Angel" | 1:30 |
12. | "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" | 1:45 |
13. | "Our Day Will Come" | 2:00 |
14. | "One Fine Day" | 1:40 |
15. | "Yesterday Once More" (reprise) | 0:58 |
Technical
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Chart (1970s) | Position |
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Japanese Albums Chart [25] | 25 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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Japan (Oricon Charts) | — | 514,000 [26] |
Netherlands (NVPI) [27] | Platinum | 100,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [28] | Gold | 100,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [29] | 2× Platinum | 2,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
"Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" is a song written and recorded by American country music singer Hank Williams that was first released in July 1952. It is Williams' most recorded song. Named for a Creole and Cajun dish, jambalaya, it spawned numerous recordings and has since achieved popularity in several different music genres.
Close to You is the second studio album by the American music duo the Carpenters, released on August 19, 1970. In 2003, the album was ranked No. 175 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list. The album contains the hit singles "(They Long to Be) Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun". The success of the title track earned Carpenters an international reputation. The album topped the Canadian Albums Chart and peaked at #2 on the U.S. Billboard albums chart. It was also successful in the United Kingdom, entering the top 50 of the official chart for 76 weeks during the first half of the 1970s.
A Song for You is the fourth studio album by the American music duo the Carpenters, released on June 22, 1972. According to Richard Carpenter, A Song for You was intended to be a concept album with the title tune opening and closing the set and the bookended selections comprising the 'song'. "A Song for You" was written by songwriter Leon Russell.
"Yesterday Once More", written by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis, is a hit song by the Carpenters from their 1973 album Now & Then. Thematically the song concerns reminiscing about songs of a generation gone by. It segues into a long medley, consisting of eight covers of 1960s tunes incorporated into a faux oldies radio program. The work takes up the entire B-side of the album.
"I Won't Last a Day Without You" is a song by The Carpenters with lyrics written by Paul Williams and music composed by Roger Nichols. It was released in the U.K. in September 1972, paired with "Goodbye to Love" as a double-A side. The single reached No. 9 and spent 14 weeks on the chart. It was later released in the U.S. and became a hit single for them in 1974, reaching No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number one on the easy listening chart. It was the Carpenters' ninth No. 1 on the easy listening chart.
Made in America is the tenth studio album by the American music duo The Carpenters, released in June 1981. Karen Carpenter died less than two years later, making it their final album released in her lifetime. It reached number 52 in the US and number 12 in the UK.
Ticket to Ride is the debut studio album by the American music duo Carpenters. At the time of its initial release in 1969, it was issued under the title Offering, with a completely different cover photo. It was a commercial failure and produced only one minor hit single, a ballad version of the Lennon-McCartney song "Ticket to Ride".
Horizon is the sixth studio album by the American musical duo the Carpenters. It was recorded at A&M Studios. The Carpenters spent many hours experimenting with different sounds, techniques and effects.
A Kind of Hush is the seventh studio album by the American music duo Carpenters. It was released on June 11, 1976.
Passage is the eighth studio album by the American music duo The Carpenters. Released in 1977, it produced the hit singles "All You Get from Love Is a Love Song", "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" and "Sweet, Sweet Smile". The Carpenters' "Sweet, Sweet Smile" was picked up by Country radio and put the duo in the top ten of Billboard's Country chart in the spring of 1978.
Gold: 35th Anniversary Edition is a two-disc compilation released by the Carpenters in early 2004.
The Essential Collection: 1965–1997 is a box-set compilation album from The Carpenters that, with the exception of a few track changes, is essentially the same as the 1991 From the Top set. Coming in at four discs and 73 songs, this album is one of the biggest of all Carpenters compilation sets. The songs from this box set are everything from the Richard Carpenter Trio recordings from 1965 to their biggest hits in the early 1970s to the last song ever recorded by the Carpenters, "Now".
Pianist, Arranger, Composer, Conductor is the second solo album by American musician Richard Carpenter, released in 1998. It includes instrumental versions of popular songs of the Carpenters, and is dedicated to their deceased mother, Agnes Carpenter. The album contains two new songs, "All Those Years Ago" and "Karen's Theme", which was released as a single.
"Only Yesterday" is a song recorded by the Carpenters. Released on March 14, 1975, the song was composed by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis. "Only Yesterday" peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Adult Contemporary (AC) charts, The Carpenters' eleventh number one on that chart.
"I Need to Be in Love" is a song written by Richard Carpenter, Albert Hammond and John Bettis. It was released as a single on May 21, 1976. It was featured on the A Kind of Hush album, which was released on June 11 of the same year.
The Ultimate Collection is a 3-CD set by The Carpenters released in 2006. It contains many of their popular songs, like "(They Long to Be) Close to You" and "Top of the World", and their album cuts, like "Desperado" and "Jambalaya ". All of the songs are taken directly from the original album. In the case of "Yesterday Once More", it fades into a motorcycle engine, which subsequently fades into the oldies medley on the Now & Then album.
The Carpenters, officially known as Carpenters, were an American vocal and instrumental duo consisting of siblings Karen (1950–1983) and Richard Carpenter. They produced a distinctive soft musical style, combining Karen's contralto vocals with Richard's harmonizing, arranging, and composition skills. During their 14-year career, the Carpenters recorded 10 albums along with many singles and several television specials.
The discography of the American pop group the Carpenters consists of 14 studio albums, two Christmas albums, two live albums, 49 singles, and numerous compilation albums. The duo was made up of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter.
"Make Believe It's Your First Time" is a song written by Bob Morrison and Johnny Wilson. Originally recorded by Bobby Vinton, the song was twice recorded by Karen Carpenter, both as a solo act and as a member of the Carpenters.
Carpenters is the third studio album by American music duo the Carpenters. Released on May 14, 1971, it was their most successful studio album, reaching number two on the Billboard 200 chart and number 12 in the UK, as well as being certified 4× Platinum by the RIAA. The album contained the hit songs "For All We Know", "Rainy Days and Mondays" and "Superstar".