TORI HOLUB - JIM WILKAS - BACHARACH / DAVID CARPENTER MEDLEY | REACTION

Hey Jesse, thanks for your review on our video! Here's the basic story on this one - I discovered Tori's awesome vocal and production talent from the Burt Bacharach/Hal David medley originally done by Karen & Richard Carpenter on KRplus. I loved it so much that I added my vocals to it, to help fill out the 'Richard' parts... when I contacted Tori to see if she approved it, she was so excited and said YES!! She originally recorded her own harmonies to it, TRIPLE tracking each harmony part, and I did the same for my part. That's a total of 15 blended well-synced vocal tracks. We live half-way across the country, so obviously, we did not do this 'together'. Again, your kind words and thoughtful review is much appreciated!!

Every Carpenters fan needs to see "Something to Believe in" a brand new "Carpenters" song covered by Tori last month. It deserves to go viral.

Thank you for your comments about the spirit and intentions of someone covering another artists work. I couldn't agree more. Perhaps being sensitive to those few in the comment sections of her videos who themselves seem to feel that it's futile for anyone to attempt "imitating" Karen, I would be the first to acknowledge that she can never be replaced. I choose to see Tori's cover work however as a personal homage and would rather celebrate the efforts of a young woman like her to share the beautiful gift she has in a way that only edifiys the contributions that Richard and Karen made. Thanks again

Hi Jesse,
I’m Joe, Ron’s friend. Until I saw Ron request a reaction from another reactor, I was the only one asking for Tori since last year. I was gifted Tori by the miracle that is algorithms. KRplus said in my recommendation list, you might like THIS and it was Tori doing a Carpenters short. Ya think? OMG! I started exploring and it was , who is this young girl? I saw she’s been doing this for a few years and getting better and better. Then just a few s]days later near the end of October, Tori dropped The Medley. I now had a full length song and video and saw no one was requesting her, so I did. I ran into the guy who gave her the challenge in the comments. She had done just a piece as a short, he said why not the whole thing. And there you have it! The right side of the screen is from October 2023. November 2023 was the 53rd anniversary of the original Carpenters performance (the midpoint in Tori’s video) on The Ed Sullivan Show. Performed live and outside at Walter Reed Military Hospital for a Veterans Day Special. Here’s a link to that as reference…
krplus.net/bidio/qdarp3x1eHCqpXosi=yIdRLqA4TfYU6zBC
It’s based on the music of Burt Bacharach and Hal David (Google them!) Richard Carpenter ran into Burt at an event, Burt asked him to create a medley and he did, this one. Later he felt he made it to fast a “caffeinated version” and redid it in 74 slower and more in tune with their original work. Myself, I LOVE the Jazzy version, it rocks! On Sullivan Karen drummed!
In February Jim was introduced to Tori with this video, maybe others, too. He felt it needed more “Richard” and created what you watched. He showed it to Tori. She loved it, he released it and a collaboration was born. We’ve Only… was the first of hopefully many!! They both “triple tracked” to get the Carpenters sound. Go watch that Tori explanatory video. You can see she made that maybe q years ago. Her first attempt at harmonies by herself. Yes she covered Richard, in the Medley too!! Pay special attention, go watch again, in Walk on by. It took me many views to realize she’s doing Richard/harmonies/Karen, repeat.
She was mostly in perfect sync to the original. That guy Eduard also made a mashup of The Medley. He originally did a mashup of We’ve Only… OMG so perfect. Tori is singing to a Karaoke track the apparently Richard created for the Japanese market. It’s true to the original tempo. Here;s the mashup…
krplus.net/bidio/dpF6oIh5c2mphaAsi=6kuhm7pr2ZvpiWNH
This will take you to his channel, he’s done 3 mashups.
Great reaction and now more impressive that you know they were done completely separately. Tori has also recently released a ballad. And has a few more audio only professionally recorded songs. One last thing. The Medley that Tori did. Other than using the music track, she did EVERYTHING! By herself. Talk about professional!
Joe
Oh and Bacharach Back-ah-rack. Smooth and steady no excessive stops.

Thanks Jesse for this one. You were right that this was quite complex in being able to enunciate all the syllables at the pace they did and also to create the backgrounds and the harmonies to sound so genuine. Jim is the main producer and Tori assists with production. She is also responsible for all of her own harmonies that are recorded in advance. The separate video where she demonstrates how she does this is worth the reaction in itself for you as it is up your line!
Tori's voice is Angelic and yes she can sound very much like Karen Carpenter when doing Carpenter songs, but in other songs, although she retains the Karen vibe, more of her natural voice is on display and you can hear both.
I think this arrangement is genius, with both Jim and Tori's portions being recorded separately as it appears.
I see my friend Joe left you a great deal of information on Tori and her performance here in the comments, so I will cut off here. Thanks again for all you do and I'm sure we will be in touch again soon. Peace out my friend.

Great Medley from Tori and jim brought back a lot of great memories fantastic 👏👌

that was one take, not in the same room as i understood it , "challenge accepted". that was fun to watch Jesse, appreciate the analysis and enthusiasm!