Rainy Days and Mondays - Carpenters (1971) 8/6/22

Several times since I started my "Great Songs of the '70s" blog back in 2019, I've mentioned The Wrecking Crew...the group of Los Angeles session musicians (including Glen Campbell, Hal Blaine, and Leon Russell) who worked with just about everyone--most notably The Beach Boys, Sonny & Cher, The Fifth Dimension, Frank Sinatra... and The Carpenters.

I've also mentioned multi-award-winning songwriter Paul Williams, who has written tunes for Three Dog Night, Barbra Streisand,...and The Carpenters.

One of the best Crew/Williams/Carpenters collaborative efforts was "Rainy Days and Mondays:" a "Great Song of 1971."

Karen was in fine voice, Richard's arrangement was appropriately melancholy--a perfect match for Paul's lyrics, (co-written with Roger Nichols), and the crew was note perfect as always. (Tommy Morgan played the harmonica, Bob Messenger handled the sax solo, and and Karen left the understated drumming to Hal Blaine.)

Chartwise, it was a massive hit: #1 on the Adult Contemporary Charts in both the US and Canada, as well as #2 on the US Hot 100 and #3 on the Canadian Top 40.

There's no doubt that "Rainy Days and Mondays" was a sad, but ultimately "Great Song of 1971!"