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When Carpenters Went Head To Head With Punk, On ‘Passage’

Carpenters’ ‘Passage’ was a victim of timing. Released in October 1977 when the world was going punk, Carpenters still made the plushest pop.

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Cover: Courtesy of A&M Music

Carpenters’ ambitious eighth album, Passage, was a victim of its own timing: released in October 1977, while the world was going punk and Carpenters were producing the plushest of plush pop. Passage included three hit singles, “All You Get From Love Is A Love Song” (US No. 35), “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft” (US No. 32), and “Sweet, Sweet Smile (US No. 44). The latter song, written by Juice Newton, was picked up by country radio and made the Billboard country chart in the spring of 1978. Yet while the album only made No. 49, it remained on the US chart for four and a half months.

Listen to Passage now.

Passage includes some of the Carpenters’ most ambitious productions of all time, among them their cover of Canadian band Klaatu’s “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft.” The single came out in late September 1977 and was recorded on the A&M soundstage in Los Angeles, featuring the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, who, for contractual reasons, were referred to as the “Overbudget Philharmonic,” in Passage’s liner notes.

The orchestral arrangements for “Calling Occupants” and the other “production” number on the album, “On The Balcony Of The Casa Rosada/Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” were by British arranger and conductor Peter Knight, whose credits include The Moody BluesDays Of Future Passed album. According to Richard, “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” was “submitted to us by the publisher, and I immediately felt it was perfect for Karen, though now I feel differently, as I believe the song doesn’t linger long enough in a lower register, a great area for Karen’s voice.”

Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft (The Recognized Anthem Of World Contact Day)

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Passsage was something of a first for the Carpenters in that it includes no songs written by Richard. “All You Get from Love Is A Love Song” was written by Steve Eaton, while the lovely “Two Sides,” one of the band’s lesser-known gems was written by Scott E. Davis, better known as Mac Davis. The album’s opening track, “B’wana She No Home,” is from the pen of cult jazz vocalist Michael Franks, while “Man Smart, Woman Smarter” is credited to Norman Span, better known as 40s calypso singer King Radio.

Aside from Karen and Richard, the album features regular guitarist Tony Paluso (who is also the voice of the DJ on “Calling Occupants”), along with bass player Joe Osborn, Ray Parker Jr on guitar — later to find fame with Raydio — noted Los Angeles sax player and session man Tom Scott and Elvis Presley’s drummer, Ron Tutt.

Passage entered the US charts on October 22, 1977, but while it didn’t chart as highly as expected at home, it did make No. 12 in the UK and No. 7 in Japan, and remains a much-loved album by fans, most of whom were never remotely interested in punk, anyway…

Passage can be bought here.

4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. Ilona Ledeboer

    October 22, 2014 at 9:24 pm

    I like words that people sing with love. Iussually scream…..

  2. JUAREZ JULIO

    October 23, 2014 at 4:29 am

    POR FAVOR PUEDEN ENVIARME LAS MEJORES CHATARRITAS DE SIEMPRE

  3. John Hopkins

    October 22, 2017 at 6:18 pm

    Some of us loved both the Carpenters and punk.

  4. JJ Koz

    October 22, 2022 at 10:38 pm

    Nice to see someone mentioning Carpenters “Passage” some 40 plus years later. It truly was the plushest sounding songs Carpenters released. Karen’s vocals were the purest on the tracks especially “Sweet Sweet Smile” “Calling Occupants” and “Don’t Cry for me Argentina”. Everything about this venture was so polished from the vocals to the arrangements to the album cover design. It was their foray into a new more adult dimension for them. One can only imagine what music we were deprived of with Karen’s untimely death. “Passage” still remains my favorite Carpenters album, it never gets old. Certainly the purest, plushest pop around. R.I.P Karen.

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