My Life as a Soundtrack Vol I, Track #1: The Carpenters
I’m a music dork.
I’ve got a circle of online friends that I trade mix cds with. We decide on a theme, everyone makes a mix, and then everyone sends a copy to everyone in the trading ring. Then we review each other’s mixes, usually song by song, via email. (If you’re interested in joining, email me–I’m always on the look out for people to join up. But you have to be dedicated.)
Previous themes we’ve done include:
Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter
A best of (anything, we all chose something different)
Instrumentals
Covers
You get the idea. Well, for this next round, we’re doing a music evolution mix. We’re all going to make a mix of how our musical tastes evolved over time. And since we’re all so heavily into music, we’re all making it a 2-cd mix.
I’m going to post my songs from my mix on this blog. It’ll be like a Soundtrack of My Life. Here’s track 1.
Carpenters - On Top of the World
When I was a kid, we had neighbors with two fully stocked jukeboxes in their basement. We’d go over there to play with their kids all the time and listened to music. They had a lot of “Susie” songs–”Susie Q, Baby I Love You,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Muskrat Love,” etc–and the boy who lived there used to play them all the time to drive me crazy. So I’ve got issues with songs that have my name in them. But they also had some Carpenters. My brothers and I also had a Carpenters record single. I loved them.
Yes, they’re cheesy and horribly 70’s. But listen to the brilliance of this song. Karen Carpenter has one of the greatest voices I’ve ever heard. I don’t know enough about music to speak intelligently about arrangements, but I know Richard Carpenter gets a lot of praises for his. And for the production. How does he get that sound?
So this song represents all those songs I used to listen to on the neighbor’s jukeboxes. I could’ve just as easily used a Captain and Tenille song.
You can listen to it on the radio.blog at the top right of my blog.
I love the Carpenters! I love that they are cheesy and I love that they are horribly 70’s (I know, you do too). Karen’s voice is so fabulous. Richard is so everything else. They make me nostalically happy and sad all at the same time.
I’m looking forward to the other tracks of your life!
Comment by Laura — July 21, 2005 @ 1:59 pm
I just listened to it again, and now I’m jonesing for some Captain and Tenille. I’ll have to keep my eye out for a best of next time I hit the record store.
Comment by Susan M — July 21, 2005 @ 3:17 pm
ah, the carpenters. they come up on tv here quite frequently which is always a pleasant surprise. they must have been quite popular here as when their greatest hits “gold” came out i saw a bootleg of it called “cold”. :)
they recorded a song that henry mancini’s daughter wrote(i’m not sure if she wrote the music or if her dad did) and they also recorded a burt bacharach song(in which burt credited richard’s arrangement superior to his own - which is really saying something as he is really picky about how his music is recorded).
Comment by william — July 24, 2005 @ 4:30 pm