Oh, what a delightful (cheesy yes, but delightful) song this one is!  We've all enjoyed the scene from "Shrek Forever After" when he gets to be a "real ogre" again for a while and "Top of the World" is playing in the background.  If you say you hate this song, the rest of us all know you're lying to protect an edgy personal brand.

Let's start as always with the stats.  This song was originally just going to be an album cut in 1972 from "A Song for You".  However, about a year after the album was released, Lynn Anderson covered it and released it as a single and scored a #2 hit on the country charts.  Karen & Richard were upset that they didn't drop their own version as a single first after seeing the song's commercial potential.  So, Karen re-cut her lead vocal because she hadn't been entirely satisfied with her original take, and they packaged it as a single late in 1973. By early 1974, it climbed to the top spot on the US Billboard Hot 100, and the Canadian and Australian charts, and cracked the top 20 in a smattering of other major national markets around the world.  

It featured the great Buddy Emmon, universally recognized at the time as the world's premier pedal steel guitarist.  It also featured Hal Blaine on drums, who was a member of the famed "Wrecking Crew", and elite group of session musicians in the 60s and early 70s that played the parts on a huge number of the records we all cherish from the time period.  I find it especially interesting that they brought in Hal on the drums because Karen Carpenter was a top notch drummer herself, and by all accounts actually preferred playing drums and percussion even more than singing.  I don't know what the reasoning was behind not having her cut the drum part herself, but it was never once a bad decision to have Hal Blaine play on your record.  Karen played drums while she sang live quite a bit in these earlier years for the group....it took Richard a few years to convince her to stand at the front of the stage with just a microphone, so there's a lot of footage of her singing this song from a drum kit.

Now, I love this song just for the happy tone, catchy melody, and charming lyrics....but it will always hold a special place in my heart for being part of the worst wedding toast I've ever witnessed, and therefore also the funniest LOL.  A friend of my sister got married and had one of her sisters stand as her maid of honor.  At the reception after the wedding, she gave a speech that was at least 20 minutes long.....and giving speeches was absolutely not her sweet spot in life.  I don't really remember much of what she had to say because I started to zone out pretty quickly after she started talking.....in fact, I think I might have fallen asleep for a few minutes.  However, at some point she instructed everyone to look down at the table in front of them, because she had placed rolled up scrolls at every place setting with the words to "Top of the World" printed out.  She gave the DJ a cue....and he was a little slow on following it, because I think he had zoned out a bit too....and he turned on a Karaoke track for this song, and she started singing "Top of the World", encouraging all of us to join in.  Alas....remember when I said that public speaking wasn't her sweet spot?  She is a far better speaker than she is a singer.

So, the crowd eventually got it that we were supposed to help sing the song...I think most of us were taken off guard because I'm certain I wasn't the only one zoned out or even asleep in the room.  But eventually, perhaps in an attempt to drown out her vocals, we all hit our stride and sang in unison:

I'm on the top of the world lookin' out 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 on the top of the world

Well....in time I learned how to not hold the song accountable for the experience at the wedding, and have become quite a fan of it.  But I'll never hear it a single time for the rest of my life when I'm not at least momentarily teleported right back to that reception hall being woken out of a sound sleep by the sound of an out of tune female voice singing, "Such a feeling's coming over me...."

Truthfully though....it was worth it to go through it just so I'd have the story.  Hope you enjoyed it!  😁

Enjoy my cover of this song from July 22, 2020 during I livestream concert I did in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and then check out a great clip of the Carpenters performing it at the White House in 1973 shortly before they released it as a single.  Also, check out Lynn Anderson's version that hit #2 on the country charts and helped spark the decision by Karen and Richard to drop their own version as a single later that same year. 

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