(They Long to Be) Close to You

Richard Chamberlain first recorded it in 1963, and Dionne Warwick put it on her 1964 album Make Way for Dionne Warwick. Herb Alpert recorded it too but was displeased and did not release it. After the Carpenters' Ticket to Ride charted, he suggested they try it. Richard said Alpert gave him a lead sheet, that he had not known the song, and that he first decided against it for the Bacharach medley before recording it on its own at Alpert's urging. Several recordings were made until everyone felt it was right, and the group knew it was unlike anything else of its time. Richard added the parentheses because he thought the title too long.

Alpert suggested Hal Blaine on drums in place of Karen for the second session. Chuck Findley played the flugelhorn part that Richard had written for Alpert, and many listeners assumed it was Alpert. Richard said Findley did not play it that way at first but nailed it after they worked on it. Bacharach had one request, that the two quintuplet piano ornaments at the end of the first bridge stay in. Hearing the finished record, he said he had blown it with Chamberlain and that someone had made a much better record than his. Hal Blaine recalled that Richard's intro at first started too slow and ran too fast, and that he suggested a click track, which the producer Jack Daugherty agreed to.

Release

Before its May 1970 release Alpert asked how they thought it would do, and Richard said it would either hit number one or stiff completely. It reached number one on the Hot 100 on 25 July and stayed four weeks. Billboard ranked it number 2 on its 1970 year-end chart, it reached number 6 in Britain and the RIAA certified it gold on 12 August 1970. Richard wrote that it marked the turning point in their career. It won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus. In The Simpsons it first appears in the second-season episode The Way We Was.