A-side "Sub-Rosa Subway" Format 7-inch single | Released 1976 Recorded 1976 | |
Genre Progressive rock, space rock, psychedelic rock Length 3:23 (single edit)
7:14 (album version) | ||
"Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" is a song by Klaatu, originally released in 1976 on their first album 3:47 EST. The song would open night transmission of pirate radio station Radio Caroline. The year following its release, the Carpenters covered the song, using a crew of 160 musicians. Both versions of the single had the entire name of the song on the label (the picture sleeve of the Carpenters' single had the subtitle in small print); re-issued singles of the Klaatu version had the title shortened to "Calling Occupants".
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Origin
John Woloschuk, a member of Klaatu and one of the song's composers, has said:
The idea for this track was suggested by an actual event that is described in The Flying Saucer Reader, a book by Jay David published in 1967. In March 1953 an organization known as the "International Flying Saucer Bureau" sent a bulletin to all its members urging them to participate in an experiment termed "World Contact Day" whereby, at a predetermined date and time, they would attempt to collectively send out a telepathic message to visitors from outer space. The message began with the words..."Calling occupants of interplanetary craft!"
Personnel
The Carpenters version
The Carpenters' version from their Passage album charted worldwide and appeared on several of their hits compilations. The song title appears on the Carpenters' version above the tagline "(The Recognized Anthem Of World Contact Day)". The success of their version led to the duo receiving many letters from people asking when World Contact Day would be held. The song ultimately led to a successful Carpenters television special, The Carpenters...Space Encounters.
While Klaatu's original opens with various sounds of living species, the Carpenters' version opens with a radio DJ on a request show. The DJ identifies a phone caller as "Mike Ledgerwood". When the DJ asks Mike for his song request, an alien-sounding voice responds. The DJ is voiced by longstanding Carpenters' guitarist Tony Peluso, who can be seen in that role at the start of the video for this track.
Karen Carpenter's vocals range from the low note of B♭3 in the first verse to the high note of F♯5 before the last chorus (Once the F♯5 drops to an E5 a faint harmonized G♯5 seems present on the isolated vocal track from The Singles: 1969–1981 SACD but this is equivocal; it is undecided whether it counts in the vocal range).
The Carpenters' arrangement of the song was later copied on a sound-alike cover released on the 1977 album Top of the Pops, Volume 62.
The cover art was painted by Star Trek designer Andrew Probert.
In April 2011, the song was featured in the BBC series Wonders of the Solar System hosted by Dr. Brian Cox. A portion of the song can be heard in the 2013 film The Wolverine.
Music videos
The Carpenters had two music videos for "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft":
Personnel
Other cover versions
The song was also covered by the children of The Langley Schools Music Project. Another version can be found on the Carpenters tribute album If I Were a Carpenter performed by the band Babes in Toyland.
The Flowers of Hell released a version on their 2012 album Odes, on which they cover their influences.
The group Lard recreates the chorus with a somewhat similar vocal, but completely different lyrics, in the song "Pineapple Face" from the album The Last Temptation of Reid. "Pineapple Face" is a reference to Manuel Noriega and the song presents the lyrics as the thoughts and words of Noriega while taking refuge in the Vatican embassy after the U.S. military surrounded it during Operation Nifty Package.
A happy hardcore version was released in 1999 by The Space Cadet under the title "1st Contact".
The UK electronic dance music group Orbital used samples of The Carpenters version of Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft in their live version of Are We Here. The track was produced for their 2012 Wonky tour and is not commercially available.