`CLOSE TO YOU' HIT NO. 1 30 YEARS AGO (JULY 25)

`CLOSE TO YOU' HIT NO. 1 30 YEARS AGO (JULY 25)

LOS ANGELES (Wireless Flash) -- Tomorrow marks an anniversary that should be music to the ears of Karen Carpenter fans: The 30th anniversary of the day "Close To You" hit No. 1. Amazingly, at first, the Carpenters weren't thrilled about the song but Richard decided to record it when he realized he couldn't get Burt Bacharach's melody out of his head. The song's lyricist, Hal David, says "Close To You" was written in 1963 for Dionne Warwick, who recorded it as an album cut. Then Bacharach and David tried to get Herb Alpert to record it, but Alpert complained that he felt "weird" singing about "sprinkling moon dust" in someone's hair so he gave the tune to the Carpenters. Richard Carpenter was skeptical about the song's chart chances and predicted it would either hit No. 1 or be the biggest stiff in the history of A&M Records.