A New Year's Treat! The Carpenters "We've Only Just Begun" Vocal ANALYSIS!

I grew up listening to the Carpenters. I think Karen has one of the most beautiful voices in the world. I love her vibrato- when someone sings with a really fast vibrato it sounds ‘forced’ to me. Hers is slow and smooth and natural. And she was a heck of a drummer, too!

It's been said many times before, but whenever I hear Karen's voice, it always comes to mind. "We don't know what heaven looks like, but because of Karen Carpenter, we know what it sounds like."

I am an unapologetic lover of the Carpenters. I am today a retired 66 y.o. ex shipyard worker who loves me some Carpenter's. Karen's voice simply brings happiness and pleasure.

As an older guy now I often cry a little whenever I hear her voice. She was always a secret favorite when I was into hard rock and punk. One day, shortly after she passed, some friends and I were playing the "build a band out of those who are gone" game and I announced that she was now the only drummer I'll ever choose. I got stares, and at least one person's downturned mouth and slow head shake in agreement let me know that I was not alone.

I’m a metalhead and grew up listening to the Carpenters. Karen had the voice of an angel ✨

She had NO training as a singer. She was a drummer. Yet, she was pitch perfect and instinctively knew what to do with the vocals. When to draw a note out, when to hit hard and when to softly make a point or turn into another verse. She was a gift from Heaven. The Perfect voice.

I'm 63 and have ever been considered 'soft' by anyone who has ever met me. Usually it's the exact opposite. But whenever I hear a Carpenter song I feel a tear forming realizing that Karen is no longer with us. The most beautiful voice ever.

Her voice was perfection. In my opinion the greatest female singe of my lifetime(I am 62) she was also a great drummer. Not just as a gimmick but really a great drummer. So VERY sad what happened.

My older daughter had terrible colic as an infant, and the only relief I got was playing songs from the Carpenters. Karen’s soothing voice saved my sanity.

As amazing as Karen's voice is, her brother is an incredible composer and arranger. Everyone focused on Karen, with few realizing that Richard wrote the songs specifically for her voice, and yet was seldom recognized for his own musical skills. They were "The Carpenters", but Richard always seemed to be a side note, in spite of the fact that without him, there wouldn't have been The Carpenters. I miss Karen because her voice was just so beautiful, and all we have now are these recordings from decades past. Over the years Richard has continued to do his thing, but always in the background. He has written amazing songs for so many people. The two of them were a perfect combination, and their voices blended so well together.

This song was written by Paul Williams as a jingle for Crocker bank. Richard Carpenter heard the song on the commercial and contacted Williams about covering it. Williams only wrote about 60 seconds of the song, so he he had to finish it before Richard could arrange the song for the Carpenters sound. We've Only Just Begun is on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Released 53 years ago. And it’s as beautiful and as powerful as it was in 1970. Truly a voice for the ages.

You only have to hear Karen sing one song to totally understand why, decades after her leaving us, she is still remembered. R.I.P

Karen is possibly the only singer in history where you could extract a random single note from a song and most of the world (who'd heard her before) would recognise her voice instantly.

If there ever has been a pure and perfect female voice, it was Karen Carpenters!!

I think Karen Carpenter had the most pure voice of any pop singer in history. A songbird if there ever was one.

A few months into 2023, I fell into yet another conversation about music with one of our managers at work and he told me how much he loved and missed hearing Karen Carpenter sing. So this summer when I was asked to play some solo instrumental guitar pieces for his retirement party, I learned this song. After I played it, this man whom I've known for thirty years and seen him only joking or dead serious about work, sat there looking at me with tears in his eyes and his wife by his side and said "You have no way of knowing this, but that's the song we had someone perform for us at our wedding." Thank you, Elizabeth, for reminding me of one of the best moments of 2023. Happy New Year!

The vocal harmonies were sung only by her and her brother in multiple layers. That's why they fit so well. Their voices complemented each other perfectly.

Her voice ALWAYS gives me goosebumps.

Richard to me is one of the best arrangers of all time. Karen sings like an angel with love and pain. The combination of these siblings is unique in music history.