Back in my hometown of Philly, -the- radio station that everyone listened to was WFIL (AM). It had a big signal, all the kids listened to it for all of the top 40 songs and the "boss jocks". You could be out on the street in the summertime without a radio and still listen as every car that went by had the station blaring from its speakers. That said, I listened to its FM sister station, WFIL-FM, a lighter sounding station that catered more toward the adult population with what we'd call Adult Contemporary today, but even softer than that, They'd play instrumentals once in awhile, and none of the harsher songs in the charts. That's where I went to hear the great Bacharach-David songs sung by Dionne Warwick, softer Beatles tracks like "Michelle" and "Something", Nancy Sinatra and sometimes her Dad, my A&M favorites Herb and the Brass, Sergio Mendes, and the new duo Carpenters. I rarely expected too much crossover between the AM and FM, except on the bigger soft hits. So yeah, I would hear Carpenters big hits on the AM along with occasional one-offs like the Peppermint Rainbow or a song like "1900 Yesterday" on the big AM station. And so in the summer of 1971, while listening to my soft FM station, I heard this Carole King record, "It's Too Late." It was a pleasant record, not too harsh sounding at all, and I thought it to be a new and pleasant FM type of record. Then one day I happened into a pizza place (Marios & Ginos) in the 69th street hub of Upper Darby. While enjoying my slice and soda for lunch, I was bombarded with the big, bombastic sound of WFIL-AM, probably playing something by the Rolling Stones or something else from the rock charts. And on came "It's Too Late" by Carole King and I recognized it as that new song I was hearing on the FM station. Somehow hearing it on the AM station gave the record a gravitas that I hadn't considered before, and I knew that this Carole King would be a force to be reckoned with. In short order, I was hearing the flip side on both stations, and all of a sudden I needed to grab the album. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that the ODE70 label was manufactured and distributed by my favorite A&M Records, and I followed Carole King's career for years afterward. Good memories.
Want Ads - It reminds me of "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5. It's Too Late - I didn't hear this until the late 80s. A classic that deserved its number one position on the 40 charts. I still holds up remarkably well today.
What can I say. As a kid I listened to the radio a lot. And nothing made me change stations faster than the Carpenters coming on. After all these years they still trigger my gag reflex.
Cool, thanks for the response! I wonder what Danny's name was on the Flintstones? Danny Hutstone I would guess...
Interesting about the demo info! I always thought it sounded "rough", having none of the gloss and sheen of a true studio album. Shows how important good songs are to the process. In retrospect, it's amazing Lou didn't recognize the potential of both songs and basically gave It's Too Late away by putting it on the back side! Great, iconic album.
I don't think he had a name...it was the episode where Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm became singers. Fred Flintstone had a dream (nightmare?) during the show and several singers in the dream appeared in succession-one of them was Danny Hutton, singing a snippet of his hit "Roses Are Rainbows". Of course, this song just happened to be on Hanna Barbera Records, the animator duo who had their own label at the time-an early example of product placement! I haven't seen the episode since the early 80s, and I'm dying to see it again since my memory of it is very fuzzy.
I'm sure he did. It was common for labels to put two potential hits on each side of a 45 to see which one would win. IN this case, they both won. From looking at the labels posted above, I see no indication that one was supposed to be on the A-side. I remember that episode. I think the song was sped up a bit, too.
I remember when I bought a cd version of the Tapestry album in the mid 80s and we listened to the LP and the cd to compare the sounds... The cd seemed duller.
Remember also that Carole King was not really regarded as a singer outside of a couple of singles in the 60s. The record company probably intended these songs to be covered by other artists the same way her songs usually were, thus the demo quality of the recording. Just look at the difference between these tunes and something like Jazzman 3 years later.
Uh..... yeah. Whatever Posessed Richard to sing a song with that many "S's" in it, is a mystery to me!
I love cute remedy's like this, especially when it's been so long. Moments in time so far gone but never forgotten.
"It's Too Late" is one of my favorite songs ever. Favorite Carole King song, favorite song of any of what we call "singer-songwriters". The album is also great. I heard this a song a lot on the radio at that time, and in almost all the intervening years. It's one of those timeless songs that doesn't seem to age. As I have mentioned I was 4 in 1971. I apologize for the following as it is juvenile, but it is an integral part of my early relationship with this song. I'm told that I used to sing "It's Kool-Aid" instead of "It's Too Late" (I used to drink a lot of Kool-Aid in the '70s).
I think this is live in England early 1972, maybe from a BBC show. Still waiting for an official release of this show on DVD !!!
Do not show the numbers 66031 and 66032 which is the A-side and the B-side? I know it from German vinyl singles like 45-69477 / 45-69478 and later 75977 / 75978.[/QUOTE]
King's albums post Tapestry are peppered with some really good cuts even though she never attained those heights again. This one from Fantasy has always been a favorite. Surprising someone like Streisand never covered it.
Typically with A&M (and many labels), the lower matrix number would indicate an a-side while a higher number indicates a b-side. Here the (66031) matrix is on "I Feel The Earth Move" which would tend to make it the a-side. There are exceptions, and I believe this to be one of those cases. If it were meant to be a true double a-side, then one number HAS to be higher than the other, even though both are considered equal.
My brothers and I used to think the Buckinghams were singing "Canada Dry" when we heard "Kind Of a Drag" on the radio.
The Wikipedia article also mentions that "I Feel The Earth Move" was the intended A-side. Not surprising really. It's the more traditionally poppy and uptempo number. "It's Too Late" is moody and melancholy and wouldn't be my pick either for the first single off Tapestry. And yet, it was an enormous commercial success and made Tapestry one of the best selling albums of all time. Shows you what I know!
The initial CD was pretty bad, I thought. The SACD sounded wonderful - I got that master, converted to 24/88.8 PCM, from HDTracks awhile back. I think it's fantastic.
They used to show bits of that week after week on an Aussie music show Happening '71. Tapestry was on A&M in Australia. Previous Ode records had been on CBS.
[/QUOTE] It's too late would have been my pick. It's just a better quality song, and fit in with the things that James Taylor, Carly Simon, Bread, and Carpenters were doing (i'm not sure when Carly Simon started releasing singles).
