I Won't Last a Day Without You
| "I Won't Last a Day Without You" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Carpenters | ||||
| from the album A Song for You | ||||
| B-side | "One Love" (US) / "Goodbye to Love" (UK double A-side) | |||
| Released | March 25, 1974 (USA) / September 1972 (UK) | |||
| Recorded | 1972 | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Length | 3:52 | |||
| Label | A&M | |||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) | Karen Carpenter, Richard Carpenter, Jack Daugherty | |||
| Carpenters singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| A Song for You track listing | ||||
13 tracks
| ||||
"I Won't Last a Day Without You" is a song by The Carpenters with lyrics written by Paul Williams and music composed by Roger Nichols. The writing duo had previously contributed "We've Only Just Begun" and "Rainy Days and Mondays" to the Carpenters.
Composition and recording
[edit]The song was written by Paul Williams (lyrics) and Roger Nichols (music) who also wrote two previous hits for The Carpenters – "We've Only Just Begun" and "Rainy Days and Mondays".[1] According to the lyricist Paul Williams, the line "when there's no getting over that rainbow" in the chorus is a reference to the song "Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz.[1]
Williams said that the song was originally written with just two verses and a chorus, and a demo was submitted to The Carpenters in 1971. However, just before the song was due to be recorded, a request was sent to the songwriters for an additional bridge and a third verse to be added. The songwriters managed to comply with this last-minute request, and they recorded a demo the day before the recording, to the displeasure The Carpenters who felt the song was not sent to them soon enough. Richard Carpenter also changed the bridge and chord structure, changes Williams felt detracted from the song and he believed that The Carpenters would have greater success if they had recorded the song unchanged.[2]
The song was recorded as a tract for The Carpenters' album A Song for You, and was released two years later as a single in the US.[1] Williams himself later recorded the song as it was written, as did Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross.[2]
Release
[edit]The song was released in the U.K. in September 1972, paired with "Goodbye to Love" as a double-A side single for A Song for You.[citation needed] The single reached No. 9 and spent 15 weeks on the chart.[3]
It was later released in the U.S. and became a hit single for them in 1974, reaching No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart No. 1 one on the easy listening chart,[4] the ninth No. 1 for Carpenters.
Chart performance
[edit]
Weekly charts[edit]
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Year-end charts[edit]
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Personnel
[edit]- Karen Carpenter – lead and backing vocals
- Richard Carpenter – backing vocals, piano, Wurlitzer electric piano, orchestration
- Joe Osborn – bass guitar
- Tony Peluso – electric guitar
- Hal Blaine – drums
- Louie Shelton – electric guitar[citation needed]
- Earl Dumler – English horn
- Uncredited – tambourine
Other versions
[edit]Many artists have released other versions of "I Won't Last a Day Without You". Among the most notable are:
- Paul Williams, the lyricist for the song, recorded the song for the 1972 album Life Goes On. It was released as a single in 1973, but his rendition garnered only minor success, reaching 106 on the Bubbling Under chart and No. 40 on the Adult Contemporary chart.[1][16]
- Diana Ross included it on her 1973 album Touch Me in the Morning; she also made it the B side of the title track single release, which became a No. 1 hit in August 1973.[17]
- Barbra Streisand included it in her 1974 album ButterFly.[18]
- Bobby Darin recorded a cover that later appeared on a posthumous album titled Darin 1936-1973 released by Motown Records two month after Darin's death in December 1973.[19]
- Maureen McGovern released it as a single in 1973 (and included it on her album The Morning After), reaching No. 89 Billboard, No. 72 Cash Box and No. 14 Adult Contemporary. In Canada, her version reached No. 12 AC.[20] The Carpenters released their single the following year.
- Al Wilson created a medley of "I Won't Last a Day Without You" with another Nichols/Williams composition "Let Me Be The One" for his 1974 album La La Peace Song. The medley was issued as a single in December 1974 and went to No. 18 on the R&B chart in Billboard magazine; it crossed over to both Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart (No. 39),[21] and to the mainstream Pop chart the Billboard Hot 100 (No. 70).[22]
- Vince and Dianne Hatfield recorded a version which reached No. 83 on the Country chart.[1]
- Ringo Sheena covered the song on her 2002 cover album Utaite Myōri as a duet with Hikaru Utada, who appears as a featured vocalist.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Hyatt, Wesley (1999). The Billboard Book of Number One Adult Contemporary Hits. Billboard Books. p. 141. ISBN 0823076938.
- ^ a b Schmidt, Randy (2012). Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9780857127693.
- ^ "Goodbye to Love by The Carpenters". The Official Charts Company.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits: Eighth Edition. Record Research. p. 107.
- ^ "RPM Top 100 Singles - June 1, 1974" (PDF).
- ^ "RPM Top AC Singles - June 15, 1972" (PDF).
- ^ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
- ^ David Kent (1993). Australian Charts Book 1970—1992. Australian Chart Book Pty Ltd, Turramurra, N.S.W. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
- ^ "Carpenters".
- ^ "Carpenters Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
- ^ "Carpenters Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
- ^ "Cash Box Top 100 Singles" (PDF). Cash Box. June 1, 1974. p. 4.
- ^ "Cash Box Radio Active" (PDF). Cash Box. April 13, 1974. p. 32.
- ^ "RPM 1974 Wrap Up - December 28, 1974" (PDF).
- ^ "Top 100 Year End Charts: 1974". Cashbox Magazine. Archived from the original on September 27, 2012. Retrieved July 16, 2015.
- ^ Joel Whitburn's Bubbling Under the Billboard Hot 100 1959-2004
- ^ "Diana Ross: Billboard Hot 100". Billboard.
- ^ Ruhlmann, William. "Butterfly: Barbra Streisand". AllMusic.
- ^ Griffith, JT. "Darin 1936–1973,-Bobby%20Darin". AllMusic.
- ^ RPM Adult Contemporary, November 30, 1973
- ^ "Al Wilson: Adult Contemporary". Billboard.
- ^ "Al Wilson: Billboard Hot 100". Billboard.
