Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Caravan
2. Parting Of Our Ways, The
3. Looking For Love
4. I'll Be Yours
5. Iced Tea
6. You'll Love Me
7. All I Can Do
8. Don't Be Afraid
9. Invocation
10. Your Wonderful Parade
11. All Of My Life
12. Eve
13. Ticket To Ride
14. Get Together
15. Interview
16. Love Is Surrender
17. Maybe It's You
18. Close To You, (They Long To Be)
19. Mr. Guder
20. We've Only Just Begun
21. Merry Christmas Darling
22. For All We Know (from "Lovers And Other Strangers")

Disc 2:

1. Rainy Days And Mondays
2. Superstar
3. Let Me Be The One
4. Bless The Beasts And Children (from "Bless The Beasts And Children")
5. Hurting Each Other
6. It's Going To Take Some Time
7. I Won't Last A Day Without You
8. Song For You, A
9. Top Of The World
10. Goodbye To Love
11. This Masquerade
12. Sing
13. Jambalaya (On The Bayou)
14. Yesterday Once More
15. Oldies Medley: Fun, Fun, Fun / End Of The World, The / Da Doo Ron Ron / Deadman's Curve / Johnny Angel / Night Has A Thousand Eyes, The / Our Day Will Come / One Fine Day
16. Yesterday Once More (Reprise)
17. Radio Contest Outtakes

Disc 3:

1. Morinaga Hi-Crown Chocolate Commercial
2. Please Mr. Postman
3. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
4. Only Yesterday
5. Solitaire
6. Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again
7. Good Friends Are For Keeps
8. Ordinary Fool
9. Sandy
10. There's A Kind Of Hush (All Over The World)
11. I Need To Be In Love
12. From This Moment On
13. Suntory Pop Jingle #1
14. Suntory Pop Jingle #2
15. All You Get From Love Is A Love Song
16. Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft (The Recognized Anthem Of World Contact Day)
17. Sweet, Sweet Smile
18. Christ Is Born
19. White Christmas
20. Little Altar Boy
21. Ave Maria

Disc 4:

1. Where Do I Go From Here
2. Little Girl Blue
3. I Believe You
4. If I Had You
5. Karen/Ella Medley: This Masquerade / My Funny Valentine / I'll Be Seeing You / Someone To Watch Over Me / As Time Goes By / Don't Get Around Much Any More / I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart
6. 1980 Medley: Sing / Knowing When To Leave / Make It Easy On Yourself / Someday / We've Only Just Begun
7. Make Believe It's Your First Time
8. Touch Me When We're Dancing
9. When It's Gone
10. Because We Are In Love (The Wedding Song)
11. Those Good Old Dreams
12. Now
13. Karen's Theme

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #130679 in Music
• Released on: 2006-08-31
• Number of discs: 4
• Format: Box set
• Dimensions: .79 pounds

Amazon.com
The sprawling suburbs that sprang up south of Los Angeles during the postwar industrial boom gave white pop two of its most accomplished icons, Brian Wilson's Beach Boys, out of Hawthorne, and Downey's Carpenters. That geography subtly permeates the first disc of this four-CD, 89-track anthology, from the living room demos and indie singles that pushed them to a Hollywood Bowl battle of the bands victory while still teens to their first triumphs for A&M Records, just across town in Hollywood. Assembled, burnished, and annotated with loving care by Richard Carpenter, it's a collection that chronicles an expansive musical vision rooted in prerock pop, yet fueled by the ambitious, neo-baroque arrangement consciousness of the '60s L.A. music scene. Karen Carpenter's warm, inviting alto may have been the band's trademark, but it's Richard's perfect studio frameworks--and a far-ranging taste for material that spans standards, Bacharach's "Close to You," Leon Russell's "Superstar," "A Song for You, " and "This Masquerade"--that made the Carpenters' music considerably more than the sum of its parts. Filled with a wealth of rare outtakes, remixes, radio spots, TV performances (including a duet-medley between Karen and the great Ella Fitzgerald), and commercial spots, Essential is exactly that for a Carpenters fan. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

This Is The Essential Collection
As the title suggests, this boxed set is the essential collection, save for a few deletions from the previously released boxed set titled "From The Top", released in 1991. This set is pretty much a re-release of that set as the previous reviews indicate, additions made now include all the hits and the overall package design is a standard sized double jewelcase with a cd sized booklet featuring updated liner notes.

"A Song For You," not a hit but a very popular album cut is now here though not in it's original form, the title is the 1987 remix, done for the gold cd issue of "A Song For You." Another favorite album track now here is "Sandy," from 1976's "A Kind Of Hush." There are a number of remixes available on other compilations sold overseas that far outshine the original mixes and should have been included here. "Baby, It's You" and "I Can't Make Music" from "Treasures" and the recently released "By Request" feature these superior versions. Remixes that were available on "From The Top" were deleted in favor of the original versions, namely "For All We Know" and "Let Me Be The One," both remixes are excellent, the tag Karen adlibs at the end of the "Let Me Be The One" remix showcasing her sense of humor colored with sarcasm is now missing. The original versions are available on the recently released remasters of the entire Carpenters catalog, releasing the remixes would have not sent the originals into obsecurity. Richard presents here the best known Carpenters songs in what he feels are the absolute finest versions.

The medley featuring Ella Fitzgerald is a welcome addition, The excellent remixes from Karen's solo album except "If I Had You," have been deleted. Probably due to copyright laws, only the Karen/Ella medley represents the album "As Time Goes By," released in 2001 in Japan. "The Rainbow Connection" and "Leave Yesterday Behind" would have made fine additions. Richard's 1987 solo album "Time" is represented only by the album art featured at the end of the booklet, a track or two should have been included here, he's a Carpenter too. The addition of the chocolate commercial is nice, but it's really short. 25 seconds. "Make Believe It's Your First Time" is not Karen's solo version, as Amazon.com indicates in the track listing, but the version released on "Voice Of The Heart." This time, this set closes with a track from Richard's second solo album in 1997. It gives this set a feeling of closure. The mastering of this set is the best ever for a Carpenters album, I feel Richard should have taken advantage of the programming space and not made the deletions that he did, but this set is not as thin as "From The Top." Even so, this set is excellent for any collector, casual and avid.

ONE OF THE GREATEST FEMALE VOICES IN MUSIC HISTORY
There have been many great female vocalists throughout history and so many women with "big" voices in pop music. Quite frankly though many of them truly lack distinction and real influence. I mean when listening tentatively to a radio pop song can you really tell the difference quickly between Celine Dion or Shania Twain or Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston or half a dozen other popular singers? There are few vocalists in popular music who have had as stunning, as influential or as distinctive a voice as Karen Carpenter. Her vocals are immediately recognizable, always pitch perfect and simply, richly beautiful. Regardless of what you may think of the Carpenters' choice of music or the sometimes sugary arrangements of their later years, Karen's voice is eternal and incomparable.

There is something for everybody here. For the diehard Carpenters' fans there are the very early, previously unreleased tracks (even some lively jazz-oriented instrumental songs featuring Karen on drums), in addition to other oddities and even some tunes written and recorded for commercials. For the occasional fan or casual listener, all of the Carpenters' hits throughout the years are here as well...interlaced with other album tracks to produce over four hours of music.

Someone once said if you don't like at least some Carpenters' music, then you simply must not like music at all. If there is one Carpenters' collection to own...this is certainly the ultimate and most essential.

Carpenters: The Essential Collection (1965-1997) is Complete Retrospective of Carpenter Music
Carpenters: The Essential Collection (1965-1997), is a remake of the original box set, "Carpenters - From The Top". The only difference is this box set has about a dozen songs not included on the "From the Top" collection. If I had to choose between the two, I'd go with "The Essential Collection" as it is more complete.

Both sets give a complete retrospective of Carpenter recordings from their earliest in 1965, to 1997. The quality of the music and recordings is evident from start to finish. For someone wishing to have a fairly complete set of the most popular Carpenter songs, this is the set that I would recommend. Of course, there are other little known gems that are not included in this set. I have put together a listmania on "Little Known Carpenter Gems" if the reader has further interest.

Jim "Konedog" Koenig