Now & Then (The Carpenters album)

Now & Then
Studio album by Carpenters
Released May 1, 1973
Recorded 1972–1973
Genre Pop
Length 36:57
Label A&M
Producer Richard Carpenter, Karen Carpenter
Carpenters chronology
A Song for You
(1972)		 Now & Then
(1973)		 Live in Japan
(1975)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Rolling Stone(Unfavorable)[2]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[3]

Now & Then is the fifth album by the Carpenters, released on May 1, 1973. In Cash Box Year-End Charts of 1973, Now & Then appeared at number 20 and the title for the album was suggested by Karen and Richard's mother, Agnes Carpenter.

Background

As an outgrowth of the Rick Nelson Garden Party incident, an oldies revival occurred in pop music around 1973, so Side "B" of the album featured an oldies medley. The medley starts with the Carpenters' original song "Yesterday Once More". Tony Peluso, the Carpenters' guitarist who made his debut on their 1972 album A Song For You, is heard as a radio DJ throughout the medley, which includes such songs as "The End of the World", "Dead Man's Curve", "Johnny Angel", and "One Fine Day". Peluso would also be heard as a DJ on the Carpenters' "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" recording in 1977.

The Now & Then album also featured Mark Rudolph, a cousin of the Carpenters, on the "Guess the Golden Goodies Group Contest", as the listener who calls in. This is also one of only two albums where Karen did most or all of the drumming - the other being Offering (later rereleased as Ticket to Ride) - although on this album, she plays all of the drum tracks with the exception of Jambalaya (On the Bayou), which had Los Angeles session drummer Hal Blaine on the drums.

Cover

The LP album featured a three-panel cover that folded out, showing a panoramic view of Karen and Richard Carpenter driving past the Carpenter family home on Newville Avenue in Downey, California. The car pictured on the cover was a 1973 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 ("Daytona") owned by Richard. (Richard later sold the original red Ferrari featured on the album cover, but bought another car of the same type in 1995.)

In February 2008, fans created a worldwide awareness campaign of the impending demolition of the Now & Then Carpenter house which had been made famous on the album cover and became a tourist destination. The home's owners, the Parras, who had purchased it in 1997 from Richard Carpenter, after his mother's death in 1996, had had enough of devotees turning up at the house and asking to be shown round, and they wanted to raze the main house. The five-bedroom house had been bought by Karen and Richard for their parents in 1970. It was an annex to the now-destroyed house in which Karen collapsed from the heart attack that killed her in 1983.

Track listing

Side one
  1. "Sing" (Joe Raposo) – 3:20
  2. "This Masquerade" (Leon Russell) – 4:50
  3. "Heather" (Johnny Pearson) – 2:47
  4. "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" (Hank Williams) – 3:40
  5. "I Can't Make Music" (Randy Edelman) – 3:17
Side two
  1. "Yesterday Once More" (John Bettis, Richard Carpenter) – 3:50 (Total time – 18:05)
    1. "Fun, Fun, Fun" (Brian Wilson, Mike Love) – 1:32
    2. "The End of the World" (Arthur Kent, Sylvia Dee) – 2:25
    3. "Da Doo Ron Ron (When He Walked Me Home)" (Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry, Phil Spector) – 1:43
    4. "Dead Man's Curve" (Jan Berry, Roger Christian, Brian Wilson, Artie Kornfeld) – 1:40
    5. "Johnny Angel" (Lyn Duddy, Lee Pockriss) – 1:30
    6. "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" (Benjamin Weisman, Dorothy Wayne, Marilynn Garrett) – 1:45
    7. "Our Day Will Come" (Bob Hilliard, Mort Garson) – 2:00
    8. "One Fine Day" (Carole King, Gerry Goffin) – 1:40
  2. "Yesterday Once More" (reprise) – 0:58

On CD issues of the album, the "oldies" covers are split off onto a separate track from "Yesterday Once More" and labeled as "Medley".

Personnel

Singles

"Sing"

"Yesterday Once More"

"Jambalaya (On the Bayou)"

"This Masquerade"

EPs

Now & Then

Chart positions

Weekly charts

Chart (1973–75) Position
Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart[4] 3
Canadian RPM Albums Chart[5] 2
Dutch Mega Albums Chart[6] 2
Japanese Oricon LPs Chart[7] 1
Norwegian VG-lista Albums Chart[8] 12
UK Albums Chart[9] 2
United States Billboard Pop Albums[10] 2

Year-end charts

Chart (1973) Position
Australian Albums Chart[4] 12
Dutch Albums Chart[11] 19
Japanese Albums Chart[12] 5
UK Albums Chart[13] 12
US Billboard Top Pop Albums[14] 51
Chart (1974) Position
Dutch Albums Chart[15] 26
Japanese Albums Chart[12] 4
UK Albums Chart[13] 25

Decade-end charts

Chart (1970s) Position
Japanese Albums Chart[16] 25

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/Sales
Japan (Oricon Charts) 514,000[17]
United Kingdom (BPI)[18] Gold 100,000^
United States (RIAA)[19] 2× Platinum 2,000,000^

^shipments figures based on certification alone

References

  1. ↑ Eder, Bruce. Now & Then at AllMusic. Retrieved 2011-06-29.
  2. ↑ Fletcher, Gordon (July 5, 1973). "Music Reviews : Now and Then by the Carpenters". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2008-10-11. Retrieved 2011-08-17.
  3. ↑ Brackett, Nathan; Christian Hoard (2004). The Rolling Stone Album Guide. New York City, New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 140. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  4. 1 2 Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  5. ↑ "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". RPM. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  6. ↑ "dutchcharts.nl Carpenters - Now & Then" (ASP). dutchcharts.nl (in Dutch). MegaCharts. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
  7. ↑ "Yamachan Land (Japanese Chart Archives) - Albums Chart Daijiten - Carpenters" (in Japanese). Original Confidence. 2007-12-30. Retrieved 2012-02-22.
  8. ↑ "norwegiancharts.com Carpenters - Now & Then" (ASP). Retrieved 2011-08-08.
  9. ↑ "Chart Stats - Carpenters - Now & Then" (PHP). UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
  10. ↑ AllMusic Carpenters > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums
  11. ↑ "Dutch charts jaaroverzichten 1973" (ASP) (in Dutch). Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  12. 1 2 "Top-ten of the Japanese Year-End Albums Charts 1970-1974" (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
  13. 1 2 "Complete UK Year-End Album Charts". Retrieved 2011-09-12.
  14. ↑ "Top Pop Albums of 1973". billboard.biz. Retrieved 2012-02-21.
  15. ↑ "Dutch charts jaaroverzichten 1974" (ASP) (in Dutch). Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  16. ↑ Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970-2005. Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
  17. ↑ Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970-2005. Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
  18. ↑ "British album certifications – Carpenters – Now and Then". British Phonographic Industry. Enter Now and Then in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Gold in the field By Award. Click Search
  19. ↑ "American album certifications – Carpenters – Now and Then". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH
Preceded by
Super Deluxe by Cherish		 Japanese Oricon LP Chart number-one album
October 15, 1973 		Succeeded by
Third by Kaguyahime
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