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Created: Wednesday, 19 August 2015 20:08

Written by Shauna

March Release - "There's a Kind of Hush"

“There’s a Kind of Hush” was written by Les Reed and Geoff Stephens and was originally recorded by Stephen’s group, the New Vaudeville Band, in 1967. This version was a major hit in Australia and South Africa, but unfortunately for them, Herman’s Hermits recorded a cover that was released in the rest of the world almost simultaneously. The HH version hit the Top 30 on the US charts, peaking at #4 (the group’s first top ten hit). This is all great for Herman’s Hermits, but for me…that version never existed.

My introduction to the song was the beautiful cover by The Carpenters, released in 1976. Smack in the middle of my teenage years, this version cemented its place in my heart and I had no idea it wasn’t the “original."

Jimmy and I spent a lot of time listening to the original, particularly the many interesting things happening in the rhythm track. For example, there are two carefully placed handclaps in the bridge. Just two. It’s brilliant, but what must it be like to live in the mind of Richard Carpenter and get a real vision of his creative genius. What makes him say, “Let’s put one handclap right there…and one more right there. That’s all.” Karen was the voice of the duo, but Richard’s arrangements and signature overdub sound made their collective sound pure magic.

The first step of production is the arrangement. What parts go where in our 7-part (64-beat) singing call structure? What do you feature in the opener, middle break, closer? What do you put in the figures? What about the transitions and turnarounds. This song basically has two 64-beat parts that lead back and forth into each other. The tempo was perfect for a singing call. The sections were already 64 beats long. Almost a slam dunk. The only question was, which ones go where? It honestly didn’t take me very long to decide that we were just going to follow the alternating structure of the original. It isn’t common for a singing call to have different melodies on the figures, but it has been done before. This allowed us to keep the original transitions of the tune, as well as set us up for a key change into the closer. Win/Win. (I only wish we’d also had a place for some of the beautiful instrumental interludes.)

I reached out to Scott Bennett to record the vocal for the male range track. It has been a while since Scott has lent his vocal talents to Chic, and this felt like a good choice to bring him back. As always, he did an amazing job and went the extra mile to get us his vocal with a very quick turnaround time. Scott appears courtesy of Crest/Acme Recordings, and we appreciate his ongoing support. As many will remember, Scott recorded the male range of our very first release, and since that beginning his support of Chic Recordings has never wavered.

I actually considered putting out the female track without a reference vocal. Covering Karen Carpenter is an impossible task. Before recording, I told Jimmy, “Look, we’re not trying to imitate Karen here. It can’t be done.” But I really enjoyed recording this tune that has been with me since I was 15 years old. It was especially fun working with Jimmy on the background vocals. This song actually has fewer than most of the Carpenters’ songs, and we tried to stay true to how they were built into the arrangement.

CHIC 1076 in the male vocal range features the vocal by Scott Bennett, courtesy of Crest/Acme Recordings.

CHIC 2076 in the female vocal range features Producer, Shauna Kaaria.

To purchase, just head on over to the Chic Boutique for fast and easy mp3 downloads.

Click on the youtube links (to the left) for previews!