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A Song for You (The Carpenters album)

1972 studio album by the Carpenters

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ1755196
Source-derived summary

A Song for You is the fourth studio album by the American music duo the Carpenters, released on June 13, 1972. According to Richard Carpenter, A Song for You was intended to be a concept album (of sorts) with the title tune opening and closing the set and the bookended selections comprising the 'song'. "A Song for You" was written and originally performed by Leon Russell.

In Cash Box's Top 100 Albums of 1972, A Song for You was ranked number 26.

Six songs were released as A-side singles internationally: "Hurting Each Other", "It's Going to Take Some Time", "Goodbye to Love", "Top of the World", "I Won't Last a Day Without You", and "Bless the Beasts and Children".

Singles

"Hurting Each Other", a cover of an obscure Ruby & the Romantics tune, was the first single issued from A Song for You in early 1972, and reached number two, becoming the Carpenters' sixth straight gold single. A cover of Carole King's "It's Going to Take Some Time" followed and peaked at number 12, and was followed by the number seven hit "Goodbye to Love", which was refused airplay on some easy listening radio stations because of a fuzz guitar solo by Tony Peluso. The song had a significant impact on the power ballad songs which followed. The album also included the Carpenters' version of the Academy Award-nominated title song from the 1971 film Bless the Beasts and Children, which had already charted at number 67 on the Hot 100 as the flip side of the duo's version of "Superstar".

The album's biggest hit single, the number one song "Top of the World", was not issued until over a year after the album's release.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “A Song for You (The Carpenters album)” is 1972 studio album by the Carpenters. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Song, Carpenters and album, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1972, 1971—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1972-06-22. For this dossier, Song, Carpenters and album is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1972 studio album by the Carpenters” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1755196. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1972 and 1971.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “A Song for You (The Carpenters album)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow A Song for You (The Carpenters album) primary sources, A Song for You (The Carpenters album) archive and Song research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from A Song for You (The Carpenters album)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.