Carpenters – "Superstar" (1971)

Loneliness is a such a sad affair

And I can hardly wait to be with you again

Back in the seventies, my friends and I thought that the music of the Carpenters was about as square as music could be.  (Using the word “square” probably makes me about as square as a blogger can be.)

It’s been decades since I listened to an entire Carpenters record on the radio.  I usually change stations immediately when I hear the opening notes of “Close to You” or ‘We’ve Only Just Begun” or “Rainy Days and Mondays.”

Richard Carpenter with his little sister, Karen

But for some reason, I didn’t do that when “Superstar” came on the Sirius XM ’70s on 7 channel about a week ago.

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Legendary college basketball coach John Wooden once said, “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”  

Or maybe it was longtime Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver who said that.  (Or maybe it was President Harry Truman.)

Whoever said it first, it’s true.  I thought I knew that all the Carpenters’ hits were too sappy and sentimental to bear.  But I learned some things the night I listened to “Superstar”:

First, Karen Carpenter is a great singer.

Second, Richard Carpenter is a great arranger.

And third, the Carpenters’ “Superstar” is a perfect pop record.

I’ve listened to it about a hundred times in the last week, and I’m not even beginning to tire of it.

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“Superstar” is about a groupie who has had an affair – perhaps just a one-night stand – with a touring rock guitarist.  Every time she hears his song on the radio, she remembers the night they met and wonders why he never came back to see her.  But he’s moved on for good – you have to wonder if he even remembers her.

It’s a nice little song, but I don’t think either the music or the lyrics are anything special.  Apparently Karen Carpenter felt the same way in 1971 when her brother Richard told her about hearing Bette Midler perform “Superstar” on the Tonight Show – or perhaps the song’s lyrics were too explicitly sexual for Karen’s tastes.

Richard changed “I can hardly wait to SLEEP with you again” to “I can hardly wait to BE with you again,” and Karen agreed to give “Superstar” a try.  

She recorded a “scratch” vocal track – which is a recording of the lead vocal that’s intended to serve as a reference point for studio musicians to follow when their accompanying instrumental tracks are recorded.  

The Carpenters

After the instrumental tracks are recorded, the singer usually returns to the studio to record a final lead vocal track.  But Richard thought that Karen’s first take was so perfect that he decided to keep it rather than having her do it over.

He then backed Karen’s flawless vocal track with a inspired instrumental arrangement – which should come as no surprise given Richard’s talents as an arranger.  (Music professionals certainly recognized his talent as an arranger: Carpenter was nominated for the “Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals” Grammy no fewer than five times between 1970 and 1977.)

Music professor Kevin J. Holm-Hudson published a detailed analysis of the Carpenters’ recording of  “Superstar” in 2002 in the journal of the Society for Music Theory.  You can click here to read that journal article.

One of Holm-Hudson’s many insightful comments on Richard Carpenter’s “Superstar” arrangement is how the verses and choruses differ.  The minor-key verses feature “classical” instruments – a harp, an oboe, French horns, and strings – that are often associated with melancholy or grief.  

The major-key choruses, which are louder and more rhythmically assertive, use instrumentation that is more typical popular music genres – the drums are more prominent, and tambourines and Tijuana Brass-style trumpets are added to the mix.

You can click here to read an analysis of Richard’s arrangement of “Superstar” by Daniel Levitin, a cognitive neuroscientist who also has engineered and produced records.

Levitin appreciates just how important the arrangement of a song can be:

No one could think more of Karen than I do, but you can have the best singer on the planet and the best song, but if you don't have the right arrangement for that song and singer, the singer's going nowhere and neither is the song.  The arrangement is everything that makes a hit record.

He’s right.  “Superstar” proves that.

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Here’s the Carpenters’ recording of “Superstar,” which was released in 1971 on the Carpenters album:

I don’t think I’ve ever heard a purer and more unaffected lead vocal from a female artist.  Karen’s singing on “Superstar” is truly extraordinary.

At the very end of the song – after Karen sings her last note – Richard has one final surprise for us.  The strings play one more chord, and then another.  The last chord in particular is so soft that you may have never noticed it before, but it is as unexpected and sublime a final chord as I have ever heard.  

You can click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Delaney & Bonnie and Friends – "Superstar (Groupie)" (1969)

And I can hardly wait

To sleep with you again

A few nights ago, I heard the Carpenters’ 1971 hit, “Superstar,” on the Sirius XM ’60s on 6 channel.

I usually change channels quicker than you can say “Jack Robinson” when a Carpenters song – any Carpenters song – comes on the radio.  (“Close to You,” “We’ve Only Just Begin,” “Rainy Days and Mondays,” “Top of the World” . . . it’s hard to say which one I dislike the most.)

For some reason, I listened to “Superstar” all the way through that night.  It turns out that it is a GREAT record.  The song itself isn’t anything special, but Karen Carpenter’s singing and her brother Richard’s arrangement are quite extraordinary.  

I ended up writing five posts about five different recordings of the song.

That’s just how it works sometimes.  I like to think I’m in control of 2 or 3 lines, but but my wildly popular little blog has a mind of its own.  Stuff happens, and when it does, all you can do is try to hold on and enjoy the ride.

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In 1969, Rolling Stone bought a full page ad in the New York Times to promote an upcoming special issue on “groupies.”  (The story goes that publisher Jann Wenner had to empty the magazine’s bank account to pay the $7000 that the ad cost.)

The term “groupies” was originally used to describe the screaming teenage girls who innocently worshipped the Beatles and other pop groups of that era.  But by the time the Rolling Stone issue came out, the word had taken on a sexual implication.

Groupies were no longer the innocent female fans who got picked up and driven home by mom or dad after a concert.  Instead, they were the adventurous women who went backstage after the show and usually ended up spending the night at the band’s hotel (or on the tour bus).

Rolling Stone's “groupies” issue

Frank Zappa, one of the musicians who were interviewed by Rolling Stone, had this to say about groupies:

New York groupies are basically New York chicks. They're snobbish and uptight -- they think they're big. San Francisco groupies are okay, but they think there's nothing happening outside San Francisco. L.A. groupies are without doubt the best -- the most aggressive and the best f*cks, and the only drawback is the incredibly high rate of venereal disease.

(That’s a little harsh, but it’s the kind of provocative thing that Frank Zappa was always saying.)

Later that year, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends released a song titled “Superstar (Groupie).”  It told the story of a gullible groupie who believed that a touring musician she had slept with would someday come back to be with her.

The chances of that happening, of course, are slim and none – and Slim just left town, along with the musician and his band.  But every time the groupie hears the musician’s record on the radio, she thinks about him and wishes for his return.

Eric Clapton with Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett

“Superstar (Groupie)” was written by Leon Russell and Bonnie Bramlett – or that’s what the record label says.  After the Bramletts divorced, Delaney claimed that he assigned the ownership of a number of songs he had written or co-written to Bonnie in order to avoid the provisions of an onerous publishing contract he had signed.

Rita Coolidge later said that she came up with the idea for “Superstar (Groupie),” and the next 2 or 3 lines will feature her cover of the song.

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Here’s the original Delaney & Bonnie and Friends recording of “Superstar (Groupie),” which was released as the B-side of the group’s “Comin’ Home” single in 1969.  (Both songs were released on Delaney and Bonnie’s sixth and final studio album, D&B Together, in 1972.  The couple divorced a year later.)



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