The Meaning Behind the Carpenters’ “We’ve Only Just Begun”; It Was Written to Sell Mortgages, But Became the Wedding Song for a Generation

We’ve only just begun to live
White lace and promises
A kiss for luck, and we’re on our way
We’ve only begun

Shortly after this Carpenters song was released, it became a popular wedding song. It represented a new beginning, a new lease on life, a fresh start. The Richard Carpenter arrangement along with his sister Karen Carpenter’s voice elevated the song to worldwide-smash status.

The instrumentation and the multi-tracked backing vocals lend the song an instant nostalgic feel. The sentimental, wistful vibe made it a perfect song to play at weddings. And actually, it had been written to be a wedding song of sorts, although not for any particular event. It was created to be part of an ad campaign.

Hal Riney was an advertising executive from San Francisco, California. Crocker Bank hired him to develop a new campaign. The bank was concerned its core customers were older, and thus dying—and they weren’t reaching out to younger customers to take their place. Riney convinced the bank president to invest in paying some songwriters to come up with a song that spoke to the young people and their changing lives. 

In explaining his vision to a bank executive, Riney said in the documentary Art and Copy that he told him, “I can’t tell you what the song is because I’m not a songwriter, and I can’t even tell you what the commercials are because I can’t tell you that until we hear the song. He said, ‘Well, that’s pretty vague.’” 

Songwriter Roger Nichols told the YouTube interview show The Paul Leslie Hour, “Paul (Williams) and I got this request from Crocker Bank in California to write a song for a wedding ceremony. So, we wrote “We’ve Only Just Begun.” Just the first two verses… Crocker Bank came back and said, ‘We want a full song to give to our clientele,’ so, in the meantime, Paul and I had written the bridge and the last verse.”

[RELATED: Top 10 Songs from the Carpenters That You Should Revisit]

Nichols composed the music, and future No. 1 hitmaker Paul Williams wrote the lyrics. Freddie Allen first recorded the song, but Williams sang the version used in the commercials. To that point, they’d been getting a lot of songs recorded as B-sides and album cuts, but no singles. The TV commercial for Crocker Bank ended up being their big break. 

Before the risin’ sun, we fly
So many roads to choose
We’ll start out walkin’ and learn to run
And yes, we’ve just begun

The ad was a big success, and the bank saw immediate results. The brother/sister soft rock outfit the Carpenters were experiencing the success of their own breakout hit, “(They Long to Be) Close to You.” The song won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus in 1971. Richard Carpenter was looking for a song to record as the follow-up to their massive hit. He had worked with Paul Williams as they were both working for A&M Records. Williams would sometimes drop by Carpenters rehearsals and sing with them.

Sharing horizons that are new to us
Watchin’ the signs along the way
Talkin’ it over, just the two of us
Workin’ together day to day
Together

Carpenter knew it was Williams immediately, which meant it had to be a Nichols/Williams song. He knew it was a hit, and approached Williams to see if the song had more than just a couple verses. It did.

Richard Carpenter made a few adjustments to the arrangement, and it became the Carpenters’ next big single. It peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and they performed it at the Grammy Awards ceremony, where they won the award for Best New Artist.

And when the evening comes, we smile
So much of life ahead
We’ll find a place where there’s room to grow
(And yes, we’ve just begun)
Sharing horizons that are new to us
Watchin’ the signs along the way
Talkin’ it over, just the two of us
Workin’ together day to day
Together

“We’ve Only Just Begun” became the wedding song for a generation, as well. The advertising campaign had expanded to include other themes, such as starting a new job or buying a new home. The ads were having the exact effect the bank wanted. The fact that the ad’s music became a smash hit and was getting radio airplay all over the world? Huge bonus for the Crocker Bank. They could never have predicted such an outcome: young customers were indeed coming to the bank. People who were just starting out.

These were people who didn’t have any collateral for loans, however. So the ad campaign was suspended and eventually franchised to other banks. Riney, the ad exec who conceived of the Crocker Bank promotion, went on to be involved with and provide a pivotal ad for Ronald Reagan’s presidential re-election campaign. Some people say it was ads like his famous “It’s morning again in America” spot that were responsible for Reagan’s 1984 landslide victory over Walter Mondale. (Riney narrated that ad and can be heard below.)

The Carpenters had many more hits, and After Karen Carpenter died in 1983, Richard continued composing and performing. In 1998, “We’ve Only Just Begun” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for recordings “of lasting quality or historical significance.”

Photo by Tony Russell/Redferns