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  The Steel Guitar Forum
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  Who played steel on "Top of the World"?

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Author Topic:   Who played steel on "Top of the World"?
Duane Reese
Member

From: Salt Lake County, Utah

posted 20 May 2006 09:29 PM     profile     
Who was the session player for "Top of the World" by the Carpenters?
Chris LeDrew
Member

From: Newfoundland, Canada

posted 20 May 2006 11:41 PM     profile     
Red Rhodes.
Smiley Roberts
Member

From: Hendersonville,Tn. 37075

posted 20 May 2006 11:57 PM     profile     
...& Buddy Emmons.

------------------

  ~ ~
©¿© It don't mean a thang,
mm if it ain't got that twang.


Gary Spaeth
Member

From: Wisconsin, USA

posted 23 May 2006 09:44 PM     profile     
red rhodes on the first half and buddy on the second half.
Donny Hinson
Member

From: Balto., Md. U.S.A.

posted 25 May 2006 04:50 PM     profile     
Red did the intro, but just about everything else (except a few harmonics, I think), is Buddy.
Chris LeDrew
Member

From: Newfoundland, Canada

posted 25 May 2006 07:31 PM     profile     
What's next, Buddy played the top five strings and Red played the lower five?
CHIP FOSSA
Member

From: Monson, MA 01057 U.S.A.

posted 25 May 2006 09:32 PM     profile     
I find this rather odd.

There really isn't much steel in the song. It's tasteful as hell, but why would they choose to actually use 2 steelers? We all know both Buddy and Red are capable of doing the entire song justice.

I don't know, just seems odd.

Chris LeDrew
Member

From: Newfoundland, Canada

posted 26 May 2006 04:58 AM     profile     
The album was "A Song For You", and here are the listed musicians:

The Carpenters: Karen Carpenter (vocals, drums); Richard Carpenter (keyboards, background vocals). Additional personnel includes: Louie Shelton, Tony Peluso (guitar); Red Rhodes (steel guitar); Bob Messenger (tenor saxophone, flute, alto flute); Tim Weisberg (bass flute); Earl Dumler (oboe, English horn); Norm Herzberg (bassoon); Joe Osborn (bass); Hal Blaine (drums).

No sign of Buddy there.

[This message was edited by Chris LeDrew on 26 May 2006 at 04:58 AM.]

Jon Light
Member

From: Brooklyn, NY

posted 26 May 2006 05:14 AM     profile     
Forum>Search

It is well documented.

Ray Minich
Member

From: Limestone, New York, USA

posted 26 May 2006 07:37 AM     profile     
Don't shoot the piano player(s)...
Buddy Emmons
Member

From: Hermitage, TN USA

posted 26 May 2006 01:54 PM     profile     
When Richard rolled the song he told me he was going to keep Red's intro and ending and I was to play the fills.
Kenny Foy
Member

From: Lynnville, KY, USA

posted 26 May 2006 08:48 PM     profile     
And there you have it. Taa Daa
Chris LeDrew
Member

From: Newfoundland, Canada

posted 27 May 2006 10:37 AM     profile     
I've been told.
CHIP FOSSA
Member

From: Monson, MA 01057 U.S.A.

posted 28 May 2006 08:08 AM     profile     
Thanks Buddy,

That was the answer we were looking for.

Joe Alterio
Member

From: Fishers, Indiana

posted 28 May 2006 08:08 PM     profile     
Buddy....might there be more to the story? Just curious as to why Red's fills (which I assumed he did record) were replaced. More curious would be what was Red's reaction?

As stated before, either of you could have done the song in it's entirety....as good as Red was, it is curious that something he played may not have been up to snuff...?

Joe

Buddy Emmons
Member

From: Hermitage, TN USA

posted 30 May 2006 06:22 PM     profile     
It’s hard to speculate as to what may have been behind Richard’s structuring of the arrangement; but judging from my experience with him I can only assume he wanted more signature licks and movement in the fills. Richard went as far as to sit at the piano and play notes for me to listen to that reflected the style he was looking for.

Replacing someone else’s track or being bumped off of a track is not a big deal to me. I’ve been replaced more than once and my solution was to simply pick up pieces of my life and move on. Meanwhile, I suspect that Richard Carpenter was doing his job as a producer by starting with a pedal steel sound in his head and doing what it took to get it on tape.

Joe Alterio
Member

From: Fishers, Indiana

posted 31 May 2006 05:02 AM     profile     
Interesting.....thanks, Buddy!

Joe
John Bechtel
Member

From: Nashville, Tennessee,U.S.A.

posted 31 May 2006 09:26 PM     profile     
“Pick up pieces of my life and move on”. I wish I'd have said that!

------------------
“Big John”
a.k.a. {Keoni Nui}
Current Equipment

Duane Reese
Member

From: Salt Lake County, Utah

posted 07 June 2006 10:03 PM     profile     
quote:
...simply pick up pieces of my life and move on.

Heck I wish I could do that!

Thanks for all your responses guys - and thank you Buddy for giving us first-hand details on this.

Now to throw a twist into it: there are two versions of the song floating around out there - there's the original version off of the album "A Song for You", and there's also a very common "1991 remix" off of some other compilations, and they have different steel intros and fills all around as far as I can tell; the only thing that I could tell was from the same tracking was the very ending riff...

I would imagine that they probably put Red's and Buddy's takes on different tracks and saved them both back (well if they remixed it I guess they saved the multitrack tape without question) so I don't know if what you hear on the 1991 remix is what you didn't hear on the original from 1972. On the ending riff by the way, you hear two steels do the squeeze so that was probably both of them finishing it up - neat stuff!

Thanks again!

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