Random Thoughts – Randocity!

Once again, we take a trip to the past to visit Karen Carpenter singing Merry Christmas, Darling. Her enchanting contralto shines through brilliantly here. Let’s have a listen.

A little trivia to go along with the above video. Karen originally recorded Merry Christmas, Darling in 1970 which was also released that year. In 1978, along with the Carpenters wishing to release their ninth album Christmas Portrait, a full length Carpenters Christmas album, Karen rerecorded the lead vocal for this song in 1978. Apparently, Karen expressed her desire to rerecord it. There are, in fact, two versions of this song. The video above contains the 1978 rerecorded lead vocal. Here is Karen’s 1970 version:

The subtleties in her two performances are amazing to behold. Eight years later and her voice still sounds almost exactly the same, except for a tiny bit raspiness in her breathier vocals.