Karen Carpenter’s voice. Richard Carpenter’s orchestration. The magnificence of this brother/sister combination is without question. Their dominance in crafting sweet and sensuous, soft, melodic pop made them the #1 selling act of the 1970s. Karen Carpenter had the ability to create tremendous, heart wrenching emotion from the simplest of lyrics. Her death may be one of the most tragic of all the tales in music, as, given that she died of bulimia at 32, the beauty of her gift makes literally every song in the Carpenters’ vast discography just a bit more bittersweet than it needs to be.
Choosing just ONE song from the duo is impossible. There’s the first and their most major hit, “Close to You,” whose piano line is easily one of the touchstone moments in the history of popular music. Or “Superstar,” the wonderful tale of falling in love with the man that sings the songs. However, the finest of all the Carpenters’ hits may be their signature song, 1970’s “We’ve Only Just Begun.”
Warm and pastoral, then gliding into a comfortable easy rock chorus, “We’ve Only Just Begun” celebrates the positivity and wonder of a brand new love. “Sharin’ horizons that are new to us/ Watchin’ 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.”
The melodies here are fabulous, defined by the multiple part harmonies created by overdubbing the vocals of Karen and Richard Carpenter to create a fuller and more vocally robust sound. They combine to create vivid perfection here, and easily one of the most note perfect cheerful, proud and beautiful love songs of all time.
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