Carpenters – Top of The World

About The Song

“Top of the World” is a 1972 song written by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis and recorded by the Carpenters. It was released in 1973 as a single and appeared as the title track of their album named after the song. The song was a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for two consecutive weeks in 1973.

Richard Carpenter co-wrote “Top Of The World” with John Bettis, a lyricist who worked with him on a whole lot of Carpenters songs. Like “(They Long To Be) Close To You,” it’s a broad and unconflicted love song, simple to the point of being simplistic. When they wrote it, Bettis and Carpenter figured they’d written an album track, and they didn’t have any plans to release it as a single. But after the Carpenters’ 1972 album A Song For You came out, the country singer Lynn Anderson had a huge hit with a cover of “Top Of The World” — something that the Carpenters probably invited when they put pedal steel all over the original. So the Carpenters made “Top Of The World” a single, and it hit #1 after the album had already been out for a year and a half.
“Top Of The World” isn’t a ballad; it’s a solid midtempo jam, with Hal Blaine drums that seem like they’re itching to speed up even further. It’s got a lush and confectionary arrangement, full of strings and organs and milky backup singers. There’s a bland confidence to the song that’s almost admirable. But there’s something else, too. There’s Karen Carpenter.

Karen Carpenter had a way of finding a slight tinge of melancholy in songs that otherwise actively resisted the very existence of sadness. Her voice is warm and controlled, and there’s an intelligent sparkle in it. On “Top Of The World,” she sings about finding some transporting level of happiness: “Not a cloud in the sky, got the sun in my eyes / And I won’t be surprised if it’s a dream.” But Karen’s voice holds on the word “dream,” like she’s seizing on that as the likeliest possible explanation. And Karen also sinks her teeth into the central chorus hook, which is a lot more immediate than much of what her group was offering up.

Almost everything about “Top Of The World” speaks to a basic, surface-level idea of sophistication. But Karen Carpenter’s vocal work is what ultimately saves “Top Of The World” from simper status. She’s what gives the song its richness. She doesn’t turn it into a masterpiece or anything, but she does what she can.

Video



Lyric

Such a feeling’s coming over me
There is wonder in most everything I see
Not a cloud in the sky
Got the sun in my eyes
And I won’t be surprised if it’s a dream

Everything I want the world to be
Is now coming true especially for me
And the reason is clear
It’s because you are here
You’re the nearest thing to heaven that I’ve seen

I’m on the top of the world looking down on creation
And the only explanation I can find
Is the love that I’ve found ever since you’ve been around
Your love’s put me at the top of the world

Something in the wind has learned my name
And it’s telling me that things are not the same
In the leaves on the trees and the touch of the breeze
There’s a pleasing sense of happiness for me

There is only one wish on my mind
When this day is through I hope that I will find
That tomorrow will be just the same for you and me
All I need will be mine if you are here

I’m on the top of the world looking down on creation
And the only explanation I can find
Is the love that I’ve found ever since you’ve been around
Your love’s put me at the top of the world

I’m on the top of the world looking down on creation
And the only explanation I can find
Is the love that I’ve found ever since you’ve been around
Your love’s put me at the top of the world