"We've Only Just Begun"

Okay, so my Pandora, Exotica/Lounge station, in between Martin Denny tunes and every version of "One Note Samba" or "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars" ever recorded, wants to keep forcing The Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun" down my throat, and I find I am unwilling to give it a thumb's down.

Quite frankly, because it's such a beautiful song/arrangement/recording/performance, I also must turn it up so that it's even louder. Those background vocals! Oh, the goosebumps they inspire. There are so many memories for me when I hear them.

Because their career flourished during my childhood, I was definitely aware of The Carpenters. I am flooded with sensory memories upon hearing "We've Only Just Begun" now. I remember seeing them on numerous TV specials on one of the four or five channels we got back then. Obviously they were all over AM/FM radio. And I think about my piano teacher, Cindy, who I had a slight crush on and felt looked a little bit like Karen Carpenter (God rest her soul). Finally, being older now, the song has taken on a new dimension for me in which things aren't "only just beginning," and that stings a bit. Anyway, just give in to this. It is useless to resist: