Revisiting A&M Records No. 34
Claudine Longet: ‘Love Is Blue’ (April ’68, possibly earlier)
Say this much for that ingenue de chanson then equally known as Mrs. Andy Williams: back in the ‘60s she had exquisite taste. Or, at least, the men (entirely men) shaping her sound and style did, though I can’t fathom even such a lightweight artist agreeing to sing just anything placed before her.
Revisiting A&M Records No. 31
‘Roger Nichols & the Small Circle of Friends’ (January* ’68)
Ever since the year began and this chronological reexamination deepened almost bottomlessly, this enchanting obscurity has become my white whale, my new holy grail — which is my way of admitting that this photo is doctored.
Like so many other platinum acts from A&M Records’s pre-rock catalog, the Carpenters struck me even from a single-digit age as featherlight schlock, inescapably omnipresent (especially in the ‘70s) but instantly dismissed by Gen X’ers (I’m one) who had yet to grow out of ironic hipster attitudes toward everything straight-laced and square.
Some of you surely remember as fondly as I do how that outlook changed dramatically for the better via the 1994 compilation ‘If I Were a Carpenter.’ At the height of grunge, here was an earnestly sincere salute to all this sterling popcraft we’d never properly appreciated.