Vassallo: It’s Yesterday Once More

Vevo video as shared on Facebook page of The Carpenters.

Watching Jordan Spieth on Thursday work his magic at the Masters, for some strange reason took me back to a lighter time in the 1970s when another young golfer named Watson was beginning to do the same. One of my fondest songs of the 70s was by a duo, The Carpenters, titled “Yesterday Once More,” which hit the charts in June, 1973.

Richard and Karen Carpenter were an incredible brother-sister American vocal and instrumental duo that featured a soft musical style throughout their 14 year career. During that time they produced 11 albums and 31 singles, three going to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and fifteen number one’s on the Adult Contemporary chart. All in all they sold more than 100 million units!

Richard was the creative force who was an accomplished keyboard player and coupled with Karen’s contralto voice which spanned three octaves, they were bound for greatness. Karen was also an accomplished drummer, however, standing only five feet and four inches, it was difficult to see her behind the drums which ultimately led to her staying strictly with the vocals for the most part. Richard was a composer, arranger who was classical in style utilizing strings, occasional brass and woodwind instruments in their recordings.
He was also famous for playing the Wurlitzer electric piano.

Their careers had not quite hit the ultimate fame that they would eventually when the two crossed paths with Herb Alpert. From that point forward, they were on their way to super stardom. There were so many hits, but just to name a few memories included “Ticket to Ride,” “Close to You,” “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Merry Christmas, Darling,” “For All We Know,” “Rainy Days and Mondays,” “Top of the World,” “Please Mr. Postman,” and my favorite, “Yesterday Once More” of 43 years ago.

Karen died way too young (in 1983) at the age of 32 of heart failure prompted by anorexia. Of all the great female vocalists that I have ever heard, I must admit that her voice was the most distinctive and probably the greatest of them all. For those of you too young to have known who she was, it’s not too late now to enjoy her fantastic voice and tremendous hits.

Regardless of what Mr. Spieth does on Sunday at Augusta, at least on this Thursday, April 7, 2016, it definitely was “Yesterday Once More” as he became the first defending champion in 50 years to take clear possession of first place after round one. A golfer by the name of Nicklaus last accomplished this feat in 1966!

(Special credit to Wikipedia for providing the historical background for this writing.)

Steve Vassallo is a HottyToddy.com contributor. Steve writes on Ole Miss athletics, Oxford business, politics and other subjects. He is an Ole Miss grad and former radio announcer for the basketball team. Currently, Steve is a highly successful leader in the real estate business who lives in Oxford with his wife Rosie. You can contact Steve at sovassallo@gmail.com or call him at 985-852-7745.

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