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Hollywood has been the world platform for music; so it is difficult to call it pure American music. Artists like Beatles from UK got their super-stardom in USA. While most popular groups were from USA, Europe, Australia etc.; artists from East, like Ravi Shankar got significant recognition in Hollywood.
“Yesterday Once More” is the song about the songs we loved during our yesteryear. Life is all about memories. Memories of our favorite songs are also attached to some significant occasions of our past. In USA it is often asked, ‘Where were you when you first heard this song?’
When I first arrived in The USA in January 1973, I was not familiar with American music at all. I immediately fell in love with the 70’s music. According to me, 70’s was the best decade of American music, when a flock of great artists brought in unique and unusual music, including Pop, Rock, Country & Western, Soul, Rhythm & Blues, etc. Competition was so steep, it was difficult to name any one superstar, like Sinatra in 40’s, Elvis in 50’s, Beatles in 60’s etc. Yet Carpenters earned super-stardom. I immediately fell in love with the music of Carpenters.
Karen had a voice from heaven. She started as a drummer, but immediately became singing sensation. Brother Richard is a great song writer (composer, arranger)and Pianist, and provided one of the best background harmony for the song. Carpenters’ music had not only some of the best melodic compositions, but also the sophistication that became difficult to find later on.Unfortunately Karen died only 10 years after she started singing at the age of 32, but she lives on with her sweet voice, great understanding of musical notes, the emotions.
This song was one of their biggest hits. My most favourite Carpenters song. Became No.1 and No.2 hits on major charts. It is the theme song from their album ‘Now & Then’ in which they express memories of the music of yesteryear; and give tribute to their favorite songs when they were growing up as teens.
Now we remember ‘Yesterday Once More’ as ‘our yesterday once more’.