Oscar-Nominated Songs: For All We Know

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After yesterday’s rain rain rain the sun is out! January is usually “weather whiplash” month for us here. And speaking of whiplash, here’s a song that’s a little (a lot?) different from yesterday’s! Presenting the next song on my month-long list of favorite Oscar-nominated songs. For All We Know - Carpenters When I started I said there’d occasionally be discrepancies in the song in the movie and the “hit version” of the song. Here’s the first example. In the film, Larry Meredith sang the song. The hit was by the Carpenters. Sorry, unless you have a better voice than Karen Carpenter, you’re gonna lose that race. The film, Lovers and Other Strangers, was an “episodic” play written by husband-and-wife comedians/writers/actors Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna. (Quick side note: Bologna had my favorite line in the film rendition of Neil Simon’s Chapter Two: “A girl like that? You don’t take her anyplace fancy. You take her to New Jersey.” ) The scenes were meant to show the more “realistic” side of love, sex, dating, and marriage than the “happily ever after” depicted in everything. Or so the reviews and Picky Wedia said: I never saw it (it was released when I was a kid, rated “R,” and didn’t have John Wayne, so my dad would never have allowed a ticket to be purchased ). This song was used in the wedding scene. Richard S. Castellano, who’d later leave the gun and take the cannolis in The Godfather, was in the film as the dad. But so what? The Carpenters covered the song, and from there it became a top five, gold-record-winning hit. That hit rendition probably helped it win the Oscar for Best Original Song. And, speaking of “hits,” the song was written by two members of the soft rock band Bread! I have no desire, even today, to see the film, but I could listen to Karen Carpenter’s honey vocals all day long. For All We Know Written by Jimmy Griffey, Robb Royer, and Fred Karlin Recorded by the Carpenters Oscar Winner From Lovers and Other Strangers, 1970 Look at the two of us: