Carpenters – Only Yesterday

Their Last Top Ten Hit, Recorded When Karen’s Health Began To Fail

The Carpenters released “Only Yesterday” on March 14, 1975, as the second single from their sixth studio album Horizon. The song peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Adult Contemporary chart—the duo’s eleventh number one on that chart. In Canada, it reached number two, while hitting number seven in the UK, number five in Ireland, and number ten in New Zealand. Cash Box called it “a ballad with its infectious beat” and praised how “Karen’s dulcet, multi-tracked vocals soar over a dynamic arrangement.” What nobody mentioned at the time was that this would be the Carpenters’ twelfth and final top ten single on the Billboard Hot 100—though Richard Carpenter later revealed that during these recording sessions, Karen’s health had begun to deteriorate.

The single became a top five global hit, certified gold in Japan where it won the prestigious Grand Prix award. Following the massive success of “Please Mr. Postman,” which had topped charts worldwide seven months earlier, “Only Yesterday” maintained the Carpenters’ commercial momentum even as the Horizon album itself peaked at only number 13 in the US—breaking their streak of five consecutive albums reaching the US top five. But the album topped charts in the UK and Japan, becoming one of the best-selling albums of 1975 in both countries. It also reached number three in New Zealand, number four in Canada, and number five in Norway. The Horizon album earned platinum certification from the RIAA for shipping over one million copies, and critics praised it as the duo’s most musically sophisticated album to date.

Richard Carpenter and frequent collaborator John Bettis wrote the song after Richard noticed how quickly time was passing and how easily yesterday’s dreams could fade into the present’s background noise. The lyrics capture the bittersweet feeling of looking back on a relationship: “After long enough of being alone / Everyone must face their share of loneliness.” Bettis later explained that the song wasn’t about nostalgia for its own sake—it was about the quiet courage needed to face the present after the past has slipped away. The opening phrases feature some of Karen’s most emotionally raw vocal performances. Richard called it one of her greatest, noting “the song was difficult to sing, and Karen nailed it perfectly.” Critics at the time remarked on the mournful quality that pervaded even this upbeat single—a soft-focus pathos that seemed to define the entire Horizon album.

The album was recorded in 1974-1975 at A&M Studios in Los Angeles, primarily in Studio D using then state-of-the-art 24-track recording technology with Dolby noise reduction, recorded at 30 inches per second to achieve the cleanest sound possible. Richard Carpenter produced the album, spending countless hours experimenting with different sounds, techniques, and effects. For “Only Yesterday,” he layered Karen’s vocals through extensive multi-tracking and double-tracking, creating what some described as an almost choir-like effect. The distinctive harmonica accents came from session legend Tommy Morgan, whose haunting performance established the song’s melancholy mood. Richard arranged and orchestrated everything himself, playing piano, Wurlitzer electronic piano, and Fender Rhodes electric piano. Session musicians included Joe Osborn on bass, Tony Peluso on guitar, and Jim Gordon on drums alongside Karen.

Horizon was released on June 6, 1975, on A&M Records—the label founded by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, who had signed the Carpenters in 1969. The album opened with the instrumental “Aurora” and closed with “Eventide”—two bookend pieces that created a sunrise-to-sunset atmosphere. Between them sat covers of the Eagles’ “Desperado,” Neil Sedaka’s “Solitaire,” and the 1930s standard “I Can Dream, Can’t I.” Jerry Moss himself sent Richard a congratulatory letter about the production—a rare gesture that meant everything to both Karen and Richard, as Moss rarely showed such appreciation for the Carpenters. Stephen Holden of Rolling Stone praised the album’s “more elaborately orchestrated textures” and noted how Richard “wisely mixed them at a level that doesn’t distract attention from Karen’s intimately mixed singing.”

The music video featured footage of Karen and Richard at work in the studio before cutting to the Huntington Library Gardens in San Marino, California, including scenes at the Japanese Garden’s red moon bridge, which had been roped off from the public specifically for filming. The video received moderate rotation on television but couldn’t match the impact of their earlier visual work. The song has been covered by numerous artists over the decades, and in 2010, Lana Del Rey performed it at Joe’s Pub in New York City as part of the Loser’s Lounge Tribute to The Carpenters. A 1990 greatest hits compilation titled Only Yesterday peaked at number one on the UK Albums Chart for seven weeks, introducing the song to a new generation.

For a song that would become the Carpenters’ last top ten hit, “Only Yesterday” carries a weight nobody recognized in 1975. Richard later admitted that during the Horizon sessions, Karen’s eating disorder had begun taking its toll—though neither sibling fully understood what was happening. The album’s misty, melancholy atmosphere wasn’t just an artistic choice—it was the sound of Karen Carpenter singing through the early stages of an illness that would kill her eight years later. As one fan later wrote: “It seems overwhelmed with soft-focus pathos—even a poppy, upbeat single like ‘Only Yesterday’ has something mournful about it.” The song that asked listeners to remember yesterday became, tragically, a reminder of what the Carpenters would never have again—a tomorrow where Karen’s voice could still soar.