Search - Roger Nichols :: & Small Circle

Roger Nichols sound preceded The Carpenters on A&M

Alan Rogers Watts | Norcross, GA United States | 05/09/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Know how a good song sometimes sticks in your head? This entire album does.



Roger Nichols (not the Steely Dan engineer) created this wonderful album of "sunshine pop" music by two men and one Karen Carpenter-like voice. Fellow A&M artist Richard Carpenter was soon to begin The Carpenters by latching on to Nichols and Paul Williams' We've Only Just Begun and later recorded many more of their songs for hits. Don't categorize this as easy listening (or anything else) as critics did. Geniuses make things seem easy and often inspire the artists willing to pay the price of fame.



And for those of you who buy albums based on credits, the musicians on this album are still changing American music:

Randy Newman

Lenny Waronker

Nick DeCaro

Van Dyke Parks

Tommy LiPuma

Mort Garson



Only a class-act label like A&M could produce this kind of album -- the music came first during the late 1960's creative period that was rocking Hollywood."