Bless the Beasts and Children (song)

"Bless the Beasts and Children" is the theme song to the 1971 eponymous film and was performed by the Carpenters. It was featured on the B-side to their hit, "Superstar". The B-side charted on the Billboard Hot 100, eventually topping out at #67.[1] In order to promote it, The Carpenters performed it on their television series, Make Your Own Kind of Music, as "F" for "Film Music".[2] It was nominated for a 1972 Academy Award for Best Song, but it lost to Isaac Hayes's "Theme from Shaft".

For other uses, see Bless the Beasts and Children (disambiguation).
"Bless the Beasts and Children"
Back side of "Superstar" U.S. single picture sleeve
Single by Carpenters
from the album Bless the Beasts and Children and A Song for You
A-side"Superstar"
ReleasedAugust 12, 1971 (1971-08-12)
Recordedmid-1971
GenrePop
Length3:09
LabelA&M
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Jack Daugherty
Carpenters singles chronology
"Superstar"
(1971)		 "Bless the Beasts and Children"
(1971)		 "Hurting Each Other"
(1971)
A Song for You track listing
13 tracks
Side one
  1. "A Song for You"
  2. "Top of the World"
  3. "Hurting Each Other"
  4. "It's Going to Take Some Time"
  5. "Goodbye to Love"
  6. "Intermission"
Side two
  1. "Bless the Beasts and Children"
  2. "Flat Baroque"
  3. "Piano Picker"
  4. "I Won't Last a Day Without You"
  5. "Crystal Lullaby"
  6. "Road Ode"
  7. "A Song for You (Reprise)"

The original soundtrack included two different versions of "Bless the Beasts and Children", the other being an orchestral instrumental arrangement by composers Barry DeVorzon and Perry Botkin, Jr., and the original "Nadia's Theme", which was listed as "Cotton's Dream". "Cotton's Dream" was also used as the theme song to the 1973 soap opera, The Young and the Restless, and later "Bless the Beasts and Children" was used when David Hasselhoff's character, Dr. "Snapper" Foster, had to say goodbye to his son in a dramatic 1982 episode of the series.[3][4][5]

The song was originally released on the original soundtrack, and a slightly different version was released on the Carpenters' 1972 LP, A Song for You on June 13, 1972.[6] The original soundtrack had a vibraphone playing the melody in the introduction, while the A Song for You version, released on the single, contained an oboe stating the melody. The two versions (soundtrack and album versions) faded out toward the end, but in 1985, Richard Carpenter re-mixed the song so it does not fade out in the end. He also added a harder bass-line.

Barry De Vorzon composed the song at a residence in Lake Arrowhead, California, where he used to spend his weekends, after director Stanley Kramer gave him the screenplay of the film. At first he wrote a "beautiful melody" and then "loaded the lyric with all the terrible things we're doing to children and animals," but it "did not work." The next day he changed them to simpler lyrics that call to protect their innocence.[7]

Chart history
Chart (1971–72) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 67
U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary 26
Oricon (Japanese) Singles Chart 85
Chart (1971-1972) Peak
position
Canada RPM Adult Contemporary[8] 26

Personnel

References
  1. The Carpenters Summary
  2. "Not Found シフトウェブへようこそ". Thecarpenters.tv. Archived from the original on 2007-02-23. Retrieved 2012-01-09.
  3. The Young and the Restless theme lyrics
  4. Bless the Beasts & Children (1971) - Soundtracks
  5. The Young and the Restless Archived May 9, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  6. Comparison between original soundtrack and the A Song for You LP
  7. DeVorzon, Barry (8 December 2011). "The Story Behind the Hit Bless the Beasts and the Children". Masterwriter.com. Event occurs at 2:49-4:17. Archived from the original (video) on 4 October 2018. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
  8. "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. 1977-04-16. Retrieved 2019-02-15.
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