In all honesty, I had a brief hour or so this evening when I decided I would stop my music posts.  A couple of friends have been hyper-critical because I play only the music that I like and am not open to their suggestions, most of which I find I simply don’t enjoy.  I have said since my very first music post that I’m open to suggestion, but if I don’t like a song you suggest, I won’t play it here.  Music, like many other things, is a matter of personal preference.  What makes me smile might make somebody else tune out, and that’s okay!  I don’t eat octopus, but I have a friend who loves it.  And that’s okay too.  So, ultimately I am not stopping my music posts and I will always welcome ideas and suggestions — just understand that if I don’t like them, I won’t play them and that doesn’t make me weird!  Music should bring joy, right?

This song by the Carpenters actually started out as a bank commercial!  Songwriters Paul Williams and Roger Nichols were commissioned by an advertising agency to write it in 1968 for Crocker Bank, which was trying to attract young people and newlyweds to their institution.  According to Paul Williams …

“It had all the romantic beginnings of a bank commercial’ is the way I describe it. There was actually a wonderful writer named Tony Asher who wrote for this ad agency, and he’d had a skiing accident and he broke his arm, so he couldn’t write or play the piano or whatever. So he suggested Roger Nichols and I as replacements to write this ad. The ad agency called us and said, “Look, we’re going to show a young couple getting married, driving off into the sunset, and it’s going to say, ‘You’ve got a long way to go, we’d like to help you get there to the Crocker Bank.'” And I went, Okay, what rhymes with Crocker? Crocker what? And they said very specifically, “No we don’t want a jingle.” What they asked for is what we would today call a music video. It was going to show a young couple getting married, driving off into the sunset. After the ceremony, the first kiss and all. So Roger and I wrote the song that would play over that.

We wrote the first two verses of ‘We’ve Only Just Begun.’ We wrote a second version of the commercial that was a verse, and what became the bridge. We added a third verse just in case anybody would ever want to record it. And then I assumed that it would never, ever get cut again. Richard (Carpenter), I guess, heard me singing it on the TV commercial, and called and asked if there was a complete song. And we went, ‘Well, funny you should ask.’ And if there hadn’t been a complete song, we would have lied and said, ‘Well, of course there is,’ and then sat down and written it. You know, songwriting in those days was like that, too. I remember finishing songs in the back seat of a publisher’s car on the way to play it for a producer. I retained my rights as a writer, and the publisher retained his rights as well.”

The song was originally recorded by Smokey Roberds, a friend of Nichols, singing under the name of “Freddie Allen”. It debuted within a wedding-themed television commercial for Crocker National Bank in California in the winter of 1970, with Paul Williams on vocals.  The song played over footage of a couple getting married and just starting out. In the song, direct reference to the bank was left out, in part to make the song more marketable. The commercial turned out to be very popular, but it attracted customers in which the bank was not interested: young adult customers with no collateral for loans.

Richard Carpenter saw the TV commercial and guessed correctly that Williams was the vocalist (both of them were under contract to A&M Records). Carpenter ran into Williams on the record company’s lot and asked whether a full-length version was available. Although the TV commercial had only two verses and no bridge, Williams stated that there was a bridge and an additional verse, forming a complete song, which was then delivered.

According to Williams in the documentary Close to You: Remembering The Carpenters …

“We’d had some success with songs before, a few album cuts and some B-sides – but no singles. This was a major break, a chance to get an A-side and maybe even a hit, so we would have absolutely lied through our teeth if there wasn’t a full song.”

Williams went on to write several more hits for the Carpenters, as well as songs for Barbra Streisand, Carole King and Three Dog Night. He also worked on many films as both a songwriter and an actor, composing the classics Evergreen from A Star Is Born and Rainbow Connection for The Muppet Movie.

We’ve Only Just Begun charted at #1 in Canada and #2 in the U.S.  Although it only charted at number 28 in the UK Singles Chart in 1970, its subsequent growth in popularity in the UK saw it voted second in The Nation’s Favourite Carpenters Song, broadcast by ITV in 2016.

We’ve Only Just Begun
Carpenters

We’ve only just begun to live
White lace and promises
A kiss for luck and we’re on our way
(We’ve only begun)

Before the risin’ sun, we fly
So many roads to choose
We’ll start out walkin’ and learn to run
(And yes, we’ve just begun)

Sharing horizons that are new to us
Watching the signs along the way
Talkin’ it over, just the two of us
Workin’ together day to day
Together

And when the evening comes, we smile
So much of life ahead
We’ll find a place where there’s room to grow
(And yes, we’ve just begun)

Sharing horizons that are new to us
Watching the signs along the way
Talkin’ it over, just the two of us
Workin’ together day to day
Together
Together

And when the evening comes, we smile
So much of life ahead
We’ll find a place where there’s room to grow
And yes, we’ve just begun

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Paul Williams / Roger Nichols
We’ve Only Just Begun lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Tratore, DistroKid