[.ca] Carpenters: Interpretations

Excellent show!:
I enjoyed this collection of songs thoroughly. Each song was very interesting. The most I liked: Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft - visually very pleasing- this is the first time I saw the video of this song, (They Long to Be) Close to You - the little drummer girl enjoed herself greatly playing the instruments and singing, and We've Only Just Begun - excellent song for the newlyweds and not only. The last song From This Moment On was especially interesting - Karen was sitting close to her brother playing piano - you could appreciate her clear voice and lyrics - very sensual. Short collection of songs but I enjoyed them greatly and I am going to watch them over and over again. I would like to add that this DVD has excellent picture and audio quality. Overall money well spent. Very good price, too.

Every song lip-synched. Horrible!:
When I read that the songs were culled from various "performances" spanning 1970-1980 - and that Richard Carpenter himself was involved with the release-that for sure-I would finally get to see some rare live performances from "The Carpenters".I looked so forward to seeing Karen pour her heart out with live,haunting renditions of their popular(and not so popular)hits.The moment I watched/heard the 1st song,I knew right away they were playing the original recorded version-and that Karen wouldn't really be singing.I then figured "OK-we got a whole 10 yrs worth of various appearances-surely a few of them would feature real singing.Well, not a one folks.What a bummer! Richard, what were you thinking? How could you put out such drivel? Is this how you honor your legendary sister? Even televised documentaries on the famous duo don't show Karen actually singing live.They focus more on the sensationalism of Karen's eating disorder and Richard's bout with pills or drugs. When is somebody going to do this group justice and put out a DVD of the real thing? Till then, I'll stick with the CD's, thank you.

1994 VHS release with better audio and video.:
1994 marked 25 years, since 1969, when the Carpenters, (Karen and Richard), signed with A & M Records and released their first album for that studio-"Offerings" a.k.a. "Ticket to Ride". (There is no difference between the two albums execpt for the name change due to the minor success of the single-"Ticket to Ride"). In 1994, A & M released the Carpenters album and VHS tape, "Interpretations". The name came from the fact that the Carpenters played songs written by other song writers, not by Richard Carpenter. A collection of songs played by the Carpenters and written by Richard Carpenter is the 2003 cd-"Carpenters Perform Carpenter". (Richard Carpenter wrote the music for the songs while, usually, John Bettis wrote the song's lyrics). "Interpretations" the VHS tape has some songs not included in the 1985 VHS tape "Yesterday Once More", (which was released as a DVD, in 2002, under the title-"Gold"). In cases where the songs in "YOM" and "Interpre." are the same, the video might be different. For example; both "YOM" and "Interpre." have the song-"Calling Occupantants of Interplantary Craft". "YOM" has a music video, while "Interpre." shows the song as performed in an ABC special. The DVD for "Interpretations, like the "Gold" DVD, ("YOM"), has better audio and video than the VHS tape. Like the U.S. release "Gold", "Interpre." has no other differences from the VHS tape, other than "song selection". There are No extras. According to the Grant Gurrererro website, which lists everything released by the Carpenters, the Japanese DVD verision of "Interpre." had no extras either. I do recommend the DVD of "Interpretations". I hope someday there will be other DVD releases of Carpenters music, including a "Live In Concert" for those people who do not have an all region DVD player to see the Japanese only, VHS/DVD, release--"Live at Budokan 1974".