“Yesterday Once More” once more
This weekend’s recording project was to restore Side Two of A&M SP-3519, the Carpenters’ fifth album, Now & Then, because I wanted a portable copy of the “Yesterday Once More” medley, and because so many Carpenters’ reissues have been remixed or otherwise screwed around with that I felt it was worth the effort to go back to the original LP.
This proved to be a bigger project than I’d anticipated, partly because my work file was monstrously huge — after cleaning up the edges, I wound up with 420,156,632 bytes, which took the better part of ten minutes to squeeze down to MP3 size — but mostly because I played the final product, all 19:50 of it, three times in succession, once for quality-control purposes, once to check the compressed version for artifacts, and once just to listen to a voice I’d all but forgotten, a voice I had dearly loved when I was younger despite the perceived hit to my rock-and-roll credibility.
And still do. I never did figure out exactly what it was about Karen Carpenter that melted my heart, even on seemingly trivial things like this oldies-but-goodies medley, but this much I know: her vocal phrasing is impeccable, almost Sinatra-like, and what’s more, Hal Blaine and Buddy Rich both had high regard for her drumming, which is rather like Henry Ford telling you you make a damn nice car, kid. Yes, it’s true, Blaine played on some of the singles; but on “Yesterday Once More,” it’s all Karen behind the drum kit, and she’s solid.
Besides, the Carpenters’ influence is still felt here and there: everyone who ever sang a power ballad owes something to “Goodbye to Love,” with a tasty Tony Peluso fuzz-guitar solo, reprised at the outro, that actually got the siblings hate mail from uncomprehending fans. (Peluso is all over “Yesterday Once More,” and not just on guitar; the voice of the DJ is his.) And frankly, I think the Metallica logo owes a lot to the Carpenters’ logo.
It may be true, as Steve Eaton wrote and Karen sang, that all you get from love is a a love song, and it may even be a dirty old shame; me, I persist in believing the contrary, at least for the moment.
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wamprat »
25 January 2009 · 1:43 am
Need a new recording project? How about “Sportscar Songs by Oscar Brand & the Hubcaps”?
ms7168 »
25 January 2009 · 8:14 am
I miss her. Just recently their Christmas song came into rotation again briefly. Was always my favorite holiday song.
CGHill »
25 January 2009 · 9:25 am
Oscar Brand? OMG. Now there was a singer with a sense of the absurd.
Michael Bates »
25 January 2009 · 9:32 am
I remember that album fondly. “Yesterday Once More” was my first introduction to most of the songs in the medley. What a warm and wonderful voice she had.