Here’s something I bet you didn’t know.

The Carpenters’ song “We’ve Only Just Begun” started life as a bank commercial. It was written by Paul Williams, the same guy who wrote “Evergreen”, the song that won Barbra Streisand an Oscar, as well as the theme from Love Boat, and “Rainbow Connection” (which my kids are singing in a concert tomorrow night).

Of “Begun”, he says:

That song started life as a few verses in a bank commercial. Those verses Roger Nichols and I wrote to accompany footage of a young couple getting married, going to the reception and then driving off into the sunset. The copy read, “We’ve got a long way to go, we’d like to help you get there, the Crocker Bank.” So I sat down and realised that I had to describe a wedding in about three lines. So I came up with: “We’ve only just begun/ White Lace and promises/ A kiss for luck and we’re on our way.” Then they drive off and the song goes on, “Before the rising sun/ We Fly / So much of life ahead.” It was basically the first two verses and then we completed it. We didn’t think that there was very much chance that anyone would record it. it was very sentimental and a throwback to earlier times. I think a lot of stuff was. The number one album at the time that the Carpenters had a hit with it was In A Gadda Da Vita. So I suppose that in a sense the Carpenters, Roger and I were really alternative at the time.

It just goes to show you that great art and cheap commercialism can sometimes be friends.