Today’s classic song with Hal Blaine on drums of the day is “(They Long to Be) Close to You” by the Carpenters. This monster track was released in May of 1970 and shot to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, Cash Box Top 100, Billboard Adult Contemporary, and Canadian RPM charts. It won the group a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus and was certified Gold by the RIAA. Billboard ranked it the number-two song for all of 1970, just behind yesterday’s classic Hal Blaine song of the day, Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bride Over Troubled Water.”
When this single was released I was in sixth grade and I dismissed it as boring easy listening fluff. I was wrong; the song is terrific and I’ve come to appreciate it over the years. First, it’s a wonderful Burt Bacharach/Hal David composition; they couldn’t write a bad song if they tried. Second, the arrangement (by Richard Carpenter and Herb Albert) and backing track (by the Wrecking Crew) is superb. Third, Karen Carpenter’s voice is just sublime. It’s truly a wonderful track—listen and learn, people.
The story behind the song is an interesting one. Bacharach and David wrote the thing almost a decade earlier for actor-turned-sometimes-singer Richard Chamberlain. His original recording, arranged by Mr. Bacharach himself, was released in 1963 but it really wasn’t that good; it had a heavy 6/8 feel that just plodded along, an overly saccharine string part, and an equally overdramatic vocal performance from Mr. Chamberlain. Not surprisingly, it didn’t go anywhere.
The following year, Dionne Warwick released a Bacharach-arranged version of “Close to You” on her album Make Way for Dionne Warwick. Her version sounded a lot like Chamberlain’s version but with more restrained strings and much better vocals from Ms. Warwick. This version was also released as the B-side of her 1965 single, “Here I Am,” but nobody really noticed it.
Dusty Springfield also recorded a version of “Close to You” in 1964 but that one didn’t get released until her 1967 album Where Am I Going? That version shifted the feel to 6/8 to straight 8ths but also went unnoticed.
Burt next gave the song to Herb Alpert to record as a follow-up to his 1968 Bacharach/David hit, “This Guy’s in Love with You.” Herb recorded it with an uptempo Latin beat but didn’t like what he heard so he didn’t release it. (I don’t blame him; this Tijuana Brassified version really misses the mark.) Instead, Mr. Alpert passed the song on to a new group he’d recently signed to his A&M Records label, the Carpenters.
It was the Carpenters’ version that made magic. Richard Carpenter and Mr. Alpert rearranged the thing with a slight shuffle beat, toned down the strings, put a fluegelhorn solo in the middle, and added what would become the Carpenters’ trademark stacked vocals. Richard originally wanted Herb Alpert to play the solo but he wasn’t available, so he got studio ace Chuck Findley to play it. The sparse arrangement made the song, and even Burt Bacharach himself was impressed:
“Man, this is just great! I completely blew it with Richard Chamberlain but now someone else has come along and made a record so much better than mine.”
Aside from Mr. Findley, the other musicians on the track were the cream of the Wrecking Crew crop, Joe Osborn on bass and Hal Blaine on drums. (Richard Carpenter played piano.) Hal’s playing throughout is subtle and restrained; in fact, I used this song in my Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Drums book as as an example of how to play simply and subtly only those notes you need to. Here’s what I wrote:
Another example of a no-snare song is the Carpenters’ classic “Close to You.” Now, you might think of this as a dopey song by a dopey group (I did, when I was younger)—but you’d be wrong. First of all, the song itself is a classic Burt Bacharach/Hal David tune, actually written back in 1963 when the songwriting team was just starting out. Second, the drumming is the epitome of drummer Hal Blaine’s “less is more” approach. Hal doesn’t play a single note on the snare drum throughout the entire song, not even a rimclick. (This is harder than it sounds—have you ever gone an entire song without hitting your snare drum?) Instead, he uses the hi-hat for both ride and backbeat—and plays some of the most tasteful tom-tom fills ever recorded, using his massive set of concert toms. (To me, the best part of the song is the out-chorus, where Hal fills on his hi-hat—just a few notes, but absolutely perfect!)
As you can probably tell, I love this song and Hal’s extremely tasteful playing throughout. A lesser drummer would have played straight eighths on the hats and rimclicks on two and four and be done with it. Leave it to one of the greatest drummers in the world to simplify the drum part in a way that both supported and elevated the song. This is why I love Hal Blaine and find him a tremendous influence. He played for the song, nothing more and nothing less.
Here’s a treat for you—the Carpenters’ recording of “Close to You” with isolated vocals, bass, and drums. This helps you focus on exactly what Hal and Joe Osborn were doing throughout the track. It’s simplicity defined from both of those pros, which gives Karen Carpenters’ exquisite vocals room to breathe. Man.
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