Let Me Be The One

(Paul Williams, Roger Nichols) Almo Music Corp. ASCAP 2:24

Original album mix:
CARPENTERS (Tan Album), and all CDs of this title
– 40/40 BEST SELECTION (JP)
A&M NEW GOLD SERIES VOL 1 (1990)
A&M GOLD SERIES (1991) and STARTRAX (AUS)
BY REQUEST
– ESSENTIAL COLLECTION
GOLD (US)
TREASURES (JP)

1990 remix: has count-in and break-down, stereo piano, reverb added
– 40/40 (US)
– CARPENTERS BEST VOL. 2
FROM THE TOP
SWEET SIXTEEN

1990 longer remix edit: same as above without count-in but with the ending break-down intact:
MAGICAL MEMORIES OF THE CARPENTERS

1990 shorter remix edit: same as above without count-in or break-down
SWEET MEMORY someday
TREASURES (UK)

Quad remix:
CARPENTERS (tan album) Quad 8-track

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Chris May says:

(from Daniel Levitin)

Another of Richard’s witty arrangements is the brass part for the Paul Williams/Roger Nichols tune Let Me Be The One, also from their second album, “Carpenters.” Scored for three trumpets and two trombones, in bar 5 of the tune Richard writes horn hits on beat 2 and on the “and” of beat 3. These propel the song rhythmically into bar 6, where the usual thing to do would be to repeat the rhythm. But instead, Richard delays the bar six entrance by half a beat, putting the next hits on the “and” of beat 2 and straight on beat 4. This lack of symmetry takes the listener by surprise and spices up the rhythm of the arrangment. Note also how Richard voices the sus4 chord in bar 8 for a fat sound: the trombones take the root and 7th, while the trumpets cluster tightly with the sus4, seventh and octave.

Richard usually knew exactly what he wanted, and he was not afraid to be stubborn about gettting it. For most of the tunes, Richard didn’t just write out parts for orchestral instruments, but he wrote out all the drum beats, too, the kick, snare, hat and crash, in most cases leaving the fills for the drummer to improvise. On Let Me Be The One, however, Richard knew exactly what he wanted. “To me, the fill [into bar 5] had to go tiba-dump, dump, so I wrote it out that way. Richard also wrote out the bass parts, and wrote out certain fills the way he wanted them, too. At first, this approach ruffled session bassist Joe Osborn.

“At first Joe wasn’t a big fan of mine,” Richard recalls. “He was hot on Karen and just put up with me – I don’t think he really wanted me around. I wrote a fill for him note for note for Crystal Lullaby and he looked at it and he said ‘I can’t do that. The bass won’t go that high.’ And I said, ‘of course it’ll go that high!’ Now when he was doing the Mamas and Papas and Never My Love [the Association] and Travelin’ Man [Ricky Nelson] and all that, he could never read a note – he was just a natural musician. And the producers would put up with him learning the songs on the spot because he was so damn good. But a chart meant nothing to him. So they’d play him the demo or sing it to him – John Phillips would play him California Dreamin’ – until he learned it. “It finally got to him and so he taught himself – or had someone teach him – how to read. He was reading by the time he worked with us. And I’ll tell you, once he learned how to read, he was among the best in the business. That Man Smart, Woman Smarter thing, where it starts on the downbeat and yet it sounds like a pick-up, ba-bomp – when we counted that off, and it was a room full of good musicians – the only person who came in was Joe Osborn. You know, just like the theme from The Apartment sounds like it’s starting on a pick-up, you can’t tell where the downbeat is. So we’d written out this part and he played it and of course it worked fine. And as soon as that was done, he said ‘you’re a genius!’ And I said, ‘I’m not a genius, Joe, all I did was write what I picture you doing!’ “