Inside Tracks #50: Klaatu, "Calling Occupants," 1976 w/Covers by Carpenters, Babes in Toyland, Atom, Sweet Harriet, Isabela Taviani

In a collab with Dan Pal, we take a look at a 1976 album oddity, and the subsequent embracing of an unlikely song as a career-boosting single. Did it work? We'll be "Calling Occupants" for the answer.

The reviews are in for this “Inside Tracks,” and this generous one, from Andres of The Vinyl Room, is truly appreciated by both Dan and myself! We hope you enjoy it, also! Thank you, Andy!👇

“The way the narrative was crafted here deserves a Pulitzer prize in and of itself, and the stories you both shared are golden and sincere. Two music lovers with different backgrounds and coming from different places, deeply united in music. Beautiful!”

Dan Pal of PalCinema, Television, & Music, lifts off:

In 1977, The Carpenters were coming off their least successful album of the decade up to that point, A Kind of Hush:

From A Kind of Hush photo sessions. 📸Ed Caraeff.

It didn’t have the Top Ten hits their previous works had, and generally limped its way to gold status (500,000 units sold) – their first album of the ‘70s that did not go platinum (1 million+ units sold). I remember hearing rumblings that the brother and sister duo were planning to release a “more experimental album” for their follow-up.

When the first single, Steve Eaton’s “All You Get From Love is a Love Song” (which I loved), barely made the Top 40, I was worried that the new album might also fail. However, I had high hopes that they’d be back “on top of the world”!

Brad: A brief (but incredible) aside, Dan: Carpenters recorded their “All You Get From Love is a Love Song” in March 1977. Five months before, the eventual convicted felon, Peter Lemongello (above; cousin to former Houston Astros pitcher, eventual convicted felon, Mark Lemongello) recorded the first cover of Steve Eaton’s 1974 recording.

The Lemongellos’ story is here, and stretches all the way into this century with the successful singing career (including on American Idol) of Peter Lemongello, Jr.!👇

Low And Outside: The Crime And Punishment Of '70s Houston Astros Pitcher Mark Lemongello

Back to you, Dan: That album, Passage, was released on September 23, 1977.

The album’s liner notes by writer, Tom Nolan (L.A. Times, Rolling Stone) opened with, “You could start by saying that this new Carpenters album is the most daring, innovative, surprising, serendipitous, and satisfying one they’ve ever made.”

It was, truthfully, unlike any album they’d previously made. The single, which would kick off the album’s release, was a cover of Klaatu’s “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft” (produced and arranged by Richard Carpenter, with Karen credited as Associate Producer, and British composer, Peter Knight, with orchestration; released on A&M Records, September 20, 1977; written by John Woloschuk and Terry Draper).

The 1989 Remix:

I had no idea who or what Klaatu was. I was a Carpenters fan, having seen them in concert with my brother the year before. The song on the record clocked in at just over 7 minutes (not as long as their 8+ minute cover of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” on the same album), but there was an edited version of the single which lasted a more radio friendly 3:59 (more YouTube versions available below):

Brad: Notes from ground-level, August 11, 1976

Canada’s Klaatu: The Band, The Rumor, The Album

Klaatu (l-r): John Woloschuk, Terry Draper, Dee Long.

Klaatu’s debut album, self-titled for their U.S. Capitol Records release on August 11, 1976 (called 3:47 E.S.T. in their native Canada, and released on Toronto-based indie, Daffodil Records, with a Capitol/Canada distribution deal) was dropped two weeks before Epic/CBS Records released four albums on August 25th.

That otherwise innocuous end-of-month release included the debut album by Boston, who went on to quickly set sales and airplay records right out of the box.

Here, from behind the mic at commercial FM rocker, WFMF-FM !02/Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is the story of that week:

Breaking Boston: Behind the Scenes the Week CBS Released Boston's Landmark Debut LP, 1976

We got the Klaatu album into the station, of course, in early August, and must’ve had it in the control room. I don’t personally recall playing it during my 7-to-midnight nightly shift, but I must have. I was 21, and enjoyed being the one to possibly trend-set if given a chance!

The buzz about Klaatu, the album, was rather deafening. The Capitol rep mentioned something about rumors that some Beatles were either guesting on it, or that the Liverpool 4 (or some faction thereof) was actually masquerading as Klaatu! The rock press and the record biz trades (like Billboard) weren’t at all in a hurry to squelch these rumors, because…..well, because they were so much fun, and people talking usually resulted in increased interest and, of course, sales.

Klaatu debut album jacket reverse.

I think there was a groundswell, from what I recall at our station, that we decided there were too many unfounded rumors, and if anything, we wanted to wait until the fallout subsided before we decided on playing album tracks or not. And, by the time the Klaatu kerfuffle died down (and it was determined that they had nothing to do with any Beatles, apart from sharing their label), after a couple weeks, we had moved on to the next thing….like that Boston album!

So, whatever the rear-view mirror of time and history might reveal about the album, the band, and even our song focus, today, none of it (from my boots-on-the-ground POV at the time) seemed intentionally planned or set before the album’s release….by Capitol, the band, or anyone. The band and album’s rumors, were originally a pebble, and quickly became a sonic boulder shamelessly pushed downhill…simply by just whomever wanted to push.

In the June 2020 issue of Reader’s Digest/Canada, Dee Long (shown here in his home studio) reveals his early reflections of the early days of the pandemic, and how he was coping.

In a Crawdaddy Magazine interview Paul Myers conducted with Klaatu’s Dee Long (shown above), the guitarist revealed that “People were angry and felt they had been made fools of. Same with the DJs and radio people who felt they had been given the run-around. In our defense, we never intended to fool anyone, but we were still glad to at least have made an impact of some kind. We probably have more fans today than ever before.”

WORLD CONTACT DAY:

Dave Ling of Loudersound.com, in January 2024, peeled back the aural onion that was becoming Klaatu, revealing this: “The album was mysteriously released in a sleeve that featured a smiling sun rising over a hill strewn with mushrooms and butterflies, but bore no credits for the musicians or the producer behind it. The mystique was heightened when it was revealed that nobody from Capitol Records had even met the band by the time the label released Klaatu in the summer of 1976!

“It was a journalist in Rhode Island [Steve Smith, writing for the Providence Sunday Journal in February 1977, six months after album release] who first put two and two together and came up with five, initiating rumours that Klaatu were none other than The Beatles and that Klaatu was a long-lost, anonymously-issued follow-up to Revolver.

“His ‘evidence’ was flimsy to say the least: The Fab Four had shelved an album before their own 1970 break-up; Klaatu was the name of an alien in the sci-fi film, The Day The Earth Stood Still, in which the actor Michael Rennie had appeared; coincidentally, Rennie had also been pictured at the door of a spaceship that appeared on Ringo Starr’s Goodnight Vienna album:

“The Beatles and Klaatu also shared the same record company in North America; further parallels were drawn between Klaatu’s track, “Sub-Rosa Subway,” and Paul McCartney’s 1973 solo album [title], Red Rose Speedway.

“Meanwhile, the silence from Klaatu was deafening. Consequently, Rolling Stone awarded them Hype Of The Year 1977, and [UK’s] NME ran the headline, ‘Deaf Idiot Journalist Starts Beatle Rumour.’ But by then, Klaatu had already sold more than 600,000 copies.”

Dan, with Carpenters’ Curious Cover

Richard Carpenter at work in the studio. For most Carpenters albums, he was a composer, as well as the conductor, arranger, and producer. For “Calling Occupants,” he enlisted the services of the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra and a 60-voice choir.

The song begins with the Carpenters singing a mock radio jingle, which transitions to a DJ conversing with a call-in alien named Mike saying, “We are observing your earth, and we’d like to make a contact with you.” By the way, in case you’re wondering why the name Mike Ledgerwood was used for the alien phone-caller at the beginning of the Carpenters’ version, he was the British press officer for A&M Records (according to Songfacts)!

We then hear familiar-sounding Carpenters chords and Karen’s beautiful vocals leading to the chorus, which essentially is made up of the song’s title.

The next minute also sounds like a traditional Carpenters song until the alien, with its distorted vocals, chimes in again about wanting to make contact. Still, the production is very Richard Carpenter until the 3:15 mark, when the playful part of the song begins to surface. Pianos, guitars, and other instruments and voices, orchestrated by Peter Knight, create a lush-sounding, big-building, science fiction finish.

According to the Passage liner notes, Richard Carpenter said the reason he wanted to record the song was that “I’m a Beatles fan, a Klaatu fan, and a science fiction fan” (Klaatu was said to have been inspired by The Beatles). On the surface, it made sense for the duo to record and release this song: After all, this was just after George Lucas’s Star Wars became the highest-grossing movie in the world and everyone had sci-fi fever.

So, why did it fail as a single?

Monitoring music trade magazine, Billboard’s Hot 100 very closely in those days, I was saddened to see that, after a promising debut, the Carpenters’ cover only reached a peak of #32. It could be that the song sounded too much like a Carpenters single even with its sci-fi bells and whistles. Richard received a Grammy nomination for his musical and vocal arrangement of the song.

The duo’s popularity and dominance on the charts was fading and this one might have been too weird for traditional fans. Interestingly, the B-side of the single was the Carpenters’ version of “Can’t Smile Without You” (written by Christian Arnold, David Martin and Geoff Morrow) which they’d included on the A Kind of Hush album (with a re-recorded Verse 1 and a remix, including additional orchestration and lyric revisions) and later became a 1978 mega-hit for Barry Manilow.

Their “Calling Occupants” did make the Top Ten in England and Ireland, though. Ultimately, while the duo’s follow-up single, “Sweet, Sweet Smile” (written by Otha Young and Juice Newton) made the Country Top Ten, their Passage album fizzled and failed to go gold.

I never really ventured into Klaatu’s version or any of the other covers that have been released over the years…until now. The Klaatu version doesn’t have the Carpenters’ intro or the great vocals provided by Karen. It’s a big, but more synth-focused production. Generally, it doesn’t sound that different, though. Clearly, the Carpenters were trying to be faithful to the original recording.

The Covers

Thanks to Brad Kyle’s suggestion, I decided to check out some of the other covers. In 1994, there was a great Carpenters covers album, If I Were a Carpenter, which featured such artists as Sheryl Crow, The Cranberries, Matthew Sweet, 4 Non-Blondes, and others, including Babes in Toyland.

Babes in Toyland

Babes in Toyland covered “Calling Occupants.” This version gets right down to business and into the first verse without an intro. It’s a guitar-driven 90’s “alternative” cover. No attempt is made to copy the sound of Carpenters (or Klaatu for that matter), with the exception of one distorted alien-sounding line. It’s not bad, though, and is definitely fitting for its era:

Atom

In 2004, the group, Atom, released their version on the album I have returned. While they begin with a more traditional opening, the production seems created for the dance floor. The results might satisfy those looking for a more upbeat, less adventurous version of the song. It becomes a bit repetitive toward the end though, but again, it’s an interesting take on a then 28-year-old song:

Sweet Harriet (Harriet Riendeau)

Sweet Harriet sky-diving over Key West, FL, her very first jump, this past December!

To honor my mother’s first name, I also checked out Harriet Riendeau’s 2015 cover (aka “Sweet Harriet”). This one begins with the aliens speaking, but quickly transitions to a very slow beat and generally low-key production, with some acoustic guitar work, strings, and drums. The vocal by this YouTube content creator in New Hampshire, is not the strongest, but her arrangement is definitely original and pleasant to the ear:

Isabella Taviani

Finally, Brazilian singer, Isabella Taviani, released her own Carpenters covers album in 2016 (Carpenters Avenue). Taviani has a full, rich voice that adds some drama to the song. The arrangement mixes elements from many of the aforementioned versions making it actually sound fairly contemporary and even retro. It’s a pretty cool cover with a rather sassy finish:

I’ll always prefer the audacity of the Carpenters’ version, though, since it took the duo, for a very short time, a bit out of their comfort zone while still maintaining some of their iconic production style and vocals.