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Carpenters - Only Yesterday

Carpenters - Only Yesterday Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Horizon
Released: 1975

Only Yesterday Lyrics

After long enough of being alone
Everyone must face their share of loneliness
In my own time nobody knew
The pain I was goin' through
And waitin' was all my heart could do

Hope was all I had until you came
Maybe you can't see how much you mean to me
You were the dawn breaking the night
The promise of mornin' light
Filling the world surroundin' me
When I hold you

Baby, baby, feels like maybe
Things will be all right
Baby, baby, your love's made me
Free as a song, singin' forever

Only Yesterday when I was sad and I was lonely
You showed me the way to leave the past and all its tears behind me
Tomorrow maybe even brighter than today
Since I threw my sadness away
Only yesterday

I have found my home here in your arms
Nowhere else on earth I'd really rather be
Life waits for us, share it with me
The best is about to be
And so much is left for us to see
When I hold you

Baby, baby, feels like maybe
Things will be all right
Baby, baby, your love's made me
Free as a song, singin' forever

Only yesterday when I was sad and I was lonely
You showed me the way to leave the past and all its tears behind me
Tomorrow maybe even brighter than today
Since I threw my sadness away
Only yesterday (Only yesterday) {Only yesterday}

Only yesterday when I was sad and I was lonely
You showed me the way to leave the past and all its tears behind me
Tomorrow maybe even brighter than today
Since I threw my sadness away
Only yesterday

Writer/s: CARPENTER, RICHARD LYNN / BETTIS, JOHN
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Only Yesterday

Richard Carpenter wrote this with lyricist John Bettis. They were sure the song wouldn't be a hit, and lost a $1,000 bet to their recording engineer Roger Young when they were proven wrong.

Carpenters - Merry Christmas Darling

Carpenters - Merry Christmas Darling Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Christmas Portrait
Released: 1970

Merry Christmas Darling Lyrics

Greeting cards have all been sent
The Christmas rush is through
But I still have one wish to make
A special one for you

Merry Christmas Darling
We're apart that's true
But I can dream and in my dreams
I'm Christmasing with you

Holidays are joyful
There's always something new
But ev'ryday's a holiday
When I'm near to you

The lights on my tree
I wish you could see
I wish it ev'ry day
Logs on the fire
Fill me with desire
To see you and to say

That I wish you Merry Christmas
Happy New Year too
I've just one wish on this Christmas eve
I wish I were with you

The logs on the fire
Fill me with desire
To see you and to say

That I wish you Merry Christmas
Happy New Year too
I've just one wish on this Christmas eve
I wish I were with you
I wish I were with you

Writer/s: CARPENTER, RICHARD LYNN / POOLER, FRANK
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Merry Christmas Darling

This was the Carpenters' first attempt at Christmas music. The lyric was written in 1946 by Frank Pooler, who was the choir director at California State University, Long Beach. Karen and Richard Carpenter were both part of the choir. In 1966, at Pooler's request, Richard composed the music for this ballad, which was first released in 1970. This sparked the interest and idea of a Christmas album by the Carpenters, and on October 13, 1978, Christmas Portrait was released. (thanks, TimmT - Orange, CA)

In the UK, this was re-released in 1990 as a single with "(They Long to Be) Close to You," which is when it hit #25.

Carpenters - Jambalaya (On The Bayou)

Carpenters - Jambalaya (On The Bayou) Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Now & Then
Released: 1973

Jambalaya (On The Bayou) Lyrics

Goodbye, Joe, me gotta go, me oh my oh.
Me gotta go, pole the pirogue down the bayou.
My Yvonne, sweetest one, me oh my oh.
Son of a gun, gonna have big fun on the bayou.

[Chorus]
Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and fillet gumbo
Cause tonight I'm gonna see my ma cher amio.
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gayo,
Son of a gun, gonna have big fun on the bayou.

Thibodeaux, Fontaineaux, the place is buzzin',
Kinfolk come to see Yvonne by the dozen.
Dress in style, go hog wild, and be gayo.
Son of a gun, gonna have big fun on the bayou.

[Chorus]
Oh, guitar!

[Chorus]
Oh, Lord!
Hang tight, ooh Lord!
Ah, take it out.
He's comin', ah!

Writer/s: LIPPENCOTT, JEFFREY / WILLIAMS, MARK THOMAS / SYMONDS, PHILLIP MARK /
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Jambalaya (On The Bayou)

Hank Williams originally recorded this in 1952. His version was a #1 Country hit and also went to #20 on the US pop charts. Although the Carpenters didn't release it as a single in the US, their version did go on to become a huge hit in Japan, England, Mexico, Holland, Germany and many other countries around the world.

Other artists to record this include Jo Stafford, Fats Domino, and The Blue Ridge Rangers. Brenda Lee also performed the song, making her US television debut on Ozark Jamboree in 1955 when she performed this song at age 11. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

Carpenters - Solitaire

Carpenters - Solitaire Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Horizon
Released: 1975

Solitaire Lyrics

There was a man, a lonely man
Who lost his love through his indifference
A heart that cared, that went unchecked
Until it died in his silence

And Solitaire's the only game in town
And every road that takes him, takes him down
And by himself, it's easy to pretend
He'll never love again

And keeping to himself he plays the game
Without her love it always ends the same
While life goes on around him everywhere
He's playing solitaire

Another day, a lonely day
So much to say that goes unspoken
And through the night, his sleepless nights
His eyes are closed, his heart is broken

And solitaire's the only game in town
And every road that takes him, takes him down
And by himself it's easy to pretend
She's coming back again

And keeping to himself he plays the game
Without her love it always ends the same
While life goes on around him everywhere
He's playing solitaire

A little hope, goes up in smoke
Just how it goes, goes without saying
Solitaire
And by himself it's easy to pretend
He'll never love again
Ohhh

And keeping to himself he plays the game
Without her love it always ends the same
While life goes on around him everywhere
He's playing solitaire
Solitaire, solitaire

Writer/s: SEDAKA, NEIL / CODY, PHIL
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Solitaire

Neil Sedaka wrote this song with Philip Cody , who collaborated with Sedaka on his comeback hits "Laughter In The Rain" and "Bad Blood." In this song, the card game solitaire becomes a metaphor for loneliness, as a man finds himself alone after losing his love. Cody told us: "Neil just hit me with a lot of sad music, and that kind of thing for me was a surprise - I didn't know I had that in me. But Neil encouraged me to make him cry. So I went for that particular part of Neil's throat - I was trying to get a reaction out of Neil, and if I got a reaction out of Neil, I knew I'd done good. Because I had no idea what a hit song was. I'd been in the studio and I'd been out and about on the streets for six years at that point. But this was the first time that I ever really hooked up with anyone who actually knew what they were doing."

Neil Sedaka recorded this song in 1974, but it was the Carpenters who had the big hit with their 1975 recording, thanks to a mighty vocal performance by Karen Carpenter. Sedaka, who fell off the charts when the Beatles took over, enjoyed a resurgence as a performer and songwriter in the mid-'70, and this was one of his most successful compositions. Neil had to push for this song, as his publisher Don Kirshner didn't think much of it.

Some of the many artists to record this song include Andy Williams, Sheryl Crow, Elvis Presley and Clay Aiken. For the Andy Williams version, his producer Richard Perry asked the song's lyricist Philip Cody to change some of the words to make them easier to sing. Cody balked at first, and then came to accept that altering his words to accommodate a popular singer wasn't the worst thing in the world. Said Cody: "Once I let go of the idea that my lyrics were inviolate, it went rather smoothly. Over the course of time, as the Carpenters did the song, they basically did a mash-up of the old lyric and the new lyric, which actually was better than either of the two, the Andy Williams or Neil's original. I think the Carpenters' version was the one that I like best."

This is one of the few songs that was successful with singers of both genders. Philip Cody told us that when he wrote it, he imagined a female voice singing it. Said Phil: "When I heard Karen Carpenter, I had chills down my spine. As a lyricist, you want that thing where an artist owns your lyric. You can measure success by the amount of money you make off a song, but I measure the success of that song by that particular moment, when she made it totally her own. And it's still great. I sat down one day and I listened to all 90 versions of 'Solitaire' that people have done, and of all the ones that are out there, Karen Carpenter's is still the one that is the benchmark for all the covers on that song."

The Andy Williams version of this song was a #4 UK hit in 1973, two years before the Carpenters' version came out. There was a completely different song called "Solitaire" that was a hit for Laura Branigan in 1983.

The Greek chanteuse Nana Mouskouri not only did a cover of this song but also recorded versions in French and German. (thanks, Jerro - New Alexandria, PA)

Carpenters - We've Only Just Begun

Carpenters - We've Only Just Begun Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Close To You
Released: 1970

We've Only Just Begun Lyrics

We've Only Just Begun to live
White lace and promises
A kiss for luck and we're on our way
(We've only begun)

Before the risin' sun, we fly
So many roads to choose
We'll start out walkin' and learn to run
And yes, we've just begun

Sharing horizons that are new to us
Watching the signs along the way
Talkin' it over, just the two of us
Workin' together day to day
Together
And when the evening comes, we smile
So much of life ahead
We'll find a place where there's room to grow
And yes, we've just begun

Sharing horizons that are new to us
Watching the signs along the way
Talkin' it over, just the two of us
Workin' together day to day
Together
Together

And when the evening comes, we smile
So much of life ahead
We'll find a place where there's room to grow
And yes, we've just begun

Writer/s: NICHOLS, ROGER S. / WILLIAMS, PAUL H.
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

We've Only Just Begun

This started out as a bank commercial. Songwriters Paul Williams and Roger Nichols were commissioned by an advertising agency to write it in 1968 for Crocker Bank, which was trying to attract young people and newlyweds to their institution. (thanks, Brian - Funchal Madeira, Portugal)

Paul Williams told us: "'It had all the romantic beginnings of a bank commercial' is the way I describe it. There was actually a wonderful writer named Tony Asher who wrote for this ad agency, and he'd had a skiing accident and he broke his arm, so he couldn't write or play the piano or whatever. So he suggested Roger Nichols and I as replacements to write this ad. The ad agency called us and said, "Look, we're going to show a young couple getting married, driving off into the sunset, and it's going to say, 'You've got a long way to go, we'd like to help you get there to the Crocker Bank.'" And I went, Okay, what rhymes with Crocker? Crocker what? And they said very specifically, "No we don't want a jingle." What they asked for is what we would today call a music video. It was going to show a young couple getting married, driving off into the sunset. After the ceremony, the first kiss and all. So Roger and I wrote the song that would play over that.

We wrote the first two verses of 'We've Only Just Begun.' We wrote a second version of the commercial that was a verse, and what became the bridge. We added a third verse just in case anybody would ever want to record it. And then I assumed that it would never, ever get cut again. Richard (Carpenter), I guess, heard me singing it on the TV commercial, and called and asked if there was a complete song. And we went, 'Well, funny you should ask.' And if there hadn't been a complete song, we would have lied and said, 'Well, of course there is,' and then sat down and written it. You know, songwriting in those days was like that, too. I remember finishing songs in the back seat of a publisher's car on the way to play it for a producer. I retained my rights as a writer, and the publisher retained his rights as well."

Williams went on to write several more hits for the Carpenters, as well as songs for Barbra Streisand, Carole King and Three Dog Night. He also worked on many films as both a songwriter and an actor, composing the classics "Evergreen" from A Star Is Born and "Rainbow Connection" for The Muppet Movie. He attributes his songwriting success to authenticity, explaining: "When 'We've Only Just Begun' was a #1 record, I think the #1 album in the country was "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida." So it was as far away from what was happening in the music scene as you can get. And yet it was a hit. I think it was a hit because of, obviously, Karen [Carpenter]'s amazing vocal, but I think that any time we write authentically and honestly about what's going on in the center of our chest, because people are so much alike, there's a big a chance that it's going on in the center of your chest, too." (Check out our interview with Paul Williams.)

This song is very popular at weddings, as the lyrics describe a couple starting a new life together and living in harmony: "Talking it over, just the two of us, working together day by day." (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

Carpenters - Top Of The World

Carpenters - Top Of The World Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: A Song For You
Released: 1972

Top Of The World Lyrics

Such a feelin's comin' over me
There is wonder in 'most ev'ry thing I see
Not a cloud in the sky, got the sun in my eyes
And I won't be surprised if it's a dream

Everything I want the world to be
Is now comin' true especially for me
And the reason is clear, it's because you are here
You're the nearest thing to heaven that I've seen

I'm on the Top Of The World lookin' down on creation
And the only explanation I can find
Is the love that I've found ever since you've been around
Your love's put me at the top of the world

Somethin' in the wind has learned my name
And it's tellin' me that things are not the same
In the leaves on the trees and the touch of the breeze
There's a pleasin' sense of happiness for me

There is only one wish on my mind
When this day is through I hope that I will find
That tomorrow will be just the same for you and me
All I need will be mine if you are here

I'm on the top of the world lookin' down on creation
And the only explanation I can find
Is the love that I've found ever since you've been around
Your love's put me at the top of the world

I'm on the top of the world lookin' down on creation
And the only explanation I can find
Is the love that I've found ever since you've been around
Your love's put me at the top of the world

Writer/s: CARPENTER, RICHARD LYNN / BETTIS, JOHN
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Top Of The World

Richard Carpenter wrote this with John Bettis, a lyricist who wrote the words to several Carpenters' hits as well as Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" and The Pointer Sisters' "Slow Hand."

This originally showed up on the multi-platinum album A Song For You in June 1972. The song was released as a single in Japan in 1972 and went gold. At the same time, Country artist Lynn Anderson ("I Never Promised You A Rose Garden") covered it and her version reached #1 on the Country charts. Finally in September 1973, the Carpenters released the song as a single in the US and UK due to popular demand. It shot straight to #1 and became one of their best known hits. (thanks, Timm - Anaheim, CA, for above 2)

Carpenters - (They Long to Be) Close to You

Carpenters - (They Long to Be) Close to You Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Close to You
Released: 1970

(They Long to Be) Close to You Lyrics

Why do birds suddenly appear
Every time you are near?
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you.

Why do stars fall down from the sky
Every time you walk by?
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you.

On the day that you were born
The angels got together
And decided to create a dream come true
So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of golden starlight in your eyes of blue.

That is why all the girls in town
Follow you all around
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you.

On the day that you were born
The angels got together
And decided to create a dream come true
So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of gold and starlight in your eyes of blue.

That is why all the girls in town
Follow you all around
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you.

Just like me, they long to be
Close to you.

Wa, close to you
Wa, close to you
Ha, close to you
La, close to you

Writer/s: BACHARACH, BURT F. / DAVID, HAL
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

(They Long to Be) Close to You

This was written by the songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It was originally released as the B-side of "Blue Guitar" by Richard Chamberlain in 1963. (thanks, Richard - Toronto, Canada)

Dusty Springfield recorded an early version of this song in 1964, which was originally scheduled for release as a single and potential follow-up to her hit "I Just Don't Know What To Do with Myself." However, it wasn't until 3 years later, in 1967, that her version was finally was released on her album Where Am I Going?.

The Carpenters signed with A&M Records in 1969, which was co-owned by Herb Alpert. Burt Bacharach asked Alpert to record the song himself, but he didn't feel comfortable with the lyrical content - "Moondust in your hair" - and instead produced a new arrangement for the Carpenters. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

Richard Carpenter said of recording this song: "He (Herb Alpert) just gave me a lead sheet, and he said, 'I have a recording of this, but I don't want you to hear it. I don't want anything to influence what I may come up with. Just keep, at the end of the first bridge, two piano quintuplets.' That record, that song, the arrangement, all of it, is misleading to the uninitiated, because it sounds simple. And it's anything but simple."

In their first sessions for this song, Karen Carpenter played the drums, which Alpert didn't like. Said the producer: "I thought it was a little light. And so I asked them to go back in the studio again, because Karen was playing drums. And they recorded it the second time and I still felt they were missing a little something on the groove, so I suggested very carefully to Karen that maybe Hal Blaine should come in and play drums on it."

Blaine replaced Karen on drums and they got the take they liked with Richard on piano, Joe Osborn on bass, and Karen singing.

The trumpet part in the middle of the song didn't come easy: Richard had a very specific sound in mind, and had multiple trumpets trying to play it, which wasn't working because each trumpet was playing slightly different. Chuck Findley solved the problem by playing all the parts himself, then layering them together to create the elusive sound Richard wanted.

This was the first of a string of hits for the Carpenters. They dominated Easy Listening radio in the early '70s.

The Carpenters' first single was a cover of The Beatles' "Ticket To Ride," which hit #54 in the US. This was their second single.

This was featured in the 1989 movie Parenthood, starring Steve Martin. It was used in a scene where Rick Morranis' character sings to apologize to his wife in the middle of teaching her class. (thanks, Britney - Calabasas, CA)