Song #311: "Top Of The World" by Carpenters

Date: Dec 1, 1973
Weeks: 2

My randomizer seems to have hit the early 1970s a lot already, and I'm starting to dread it. How can music that is so excessively orchestrated manage to also be so weak and minimal? How does music like this dominate the pop charts in a post-Beatles world?

I understand that some of the point, especially with folk songs, is that it's easy for people to pick up a guitar, sing along, and make a campfire song out of it. And that's all well and good for a campfire song in theory, but it doesn't make for a particularly compelling musical performance here.

On the other hand, Karen Carpenter has a really great and strong voice, and this song does a good job showing it off with some impressive pitch changes from one note to the next. Her voice is doing the most interesting musical thing in the song, and it's really quite good. And yet it's not so complex that you can't try to sing along.

I suppose that's why the music is so minimal. It's trying to stay out of her way.

The lyrics she's singing match the song well, too. "Your love's put me at the top of the world." That's the lyrical content in a nutshell and the rest of the lyrics don't mix the message: I'm in love and that makes me happy. Most pop songs are about exactly that, but few are so direct about it.

My verdict: Like it. Karen Carpenter does enough to make up for the lacking backing music. Also, I have a generally positive association with this song because it's associated with this hilarious gag from Friends.