Roger Nichols, a California songwriter and musician who, with his pop-alchemist partner Paul Williams, wrote an advertising jingle for a bank that turned into “We’ve Only Just Begun,” a milestone hit for the Carpenters and a timeless wedding weeper, died on May 17 at his home in Bend, Ore. He was 84.
His death, from pneumonia, was confirmed by his daughter Caroline Nichols.
Mr. Nichols was best known for his collaborations with Paul Williams, the songwriter, lyricist and all-around celebrity known for songs like “Rainbow Connection,” Kermit the Frog’s forlorn anthem from “The Muppet Movie” (1979).
With Mr. Nichols focusing on the music and Mr. Williams conjuring up the words, the duo churned out silky pop nuggets like Three Dog Night’s “Out in the Country” (1970), which rose to No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100; “Traveling Boy,” which Art Garfunkel released in 1973; and “I Never Had It So Good,” recorded by Barbra Streisand in 1975.
But it was with their work for the Carpenters, the hit-machine sibling duo Karen and Richard Carpenter, that Mr. Nichols and Mr. Williams scaled the heights of pop success.
“We’ve Only Just Begun” peaked at No. 2 in 1970, sold more than a million copies of sheet music and served as a timeless showcase for Ms. Carpenter’s spellbinding contralto vocal stylings.
This blockbuster hit had surprisingly humble origins. Mr. Nichols and Mr. Williams were working as songwriters for A&M Records, the Los Angeles label founded by the platinum-selling trumpeter Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, when the San Francisco advertising executive Hal Riney reached out to ask them to write a jingle for a Crocker National Bank campaign aimed at a new generation.
With an initial budget of $300 and only 10 days to work, the songwriters were tasked with composing a romantic, uplifting number for a TV spot featuring a young couple’s wedding.
Mr. Nichols sat down at a piano and came up with a basic melody in 30 minutes, he later said, with Mr. Williams supplying the lyrics for the two verses required for the ad.
“Well, they played it on the radio and on television, and Richard Carpenter picked up on it,” Mr. Nichols recalled in a 2020 interview with “The Paul Leslie Hour,” an online entertainment talk show. The songwriters had already come up with a bridge and a final verse, “so when Richard called us, I said, ‘We have a full song.’ So we played it for him, and the rest is history.”
Roger Stewart Nichols was born on Sept. 17, 1940, in Missoula, Mont., the younger of two sons of Marjory (Dickinson) Nichols, a classically trained pianist, and Lewis Nichols, a professional photographer who played jazz saxophone.
The family moved to Santa Monica, Calif., a year later. As Roger grew up, he continued the family’s musical tradition, playing classical violin and starting a band, the Small Circle of Friends.
He was also a standout athlete, and after graduating from Santa Monica High School in 1958, he was recruited to play basketball at the University of California, Los Angeles, for the storied coach John Wooden.
Mr. Nichols spent two years playing for the Bruins. “But I was just running up to Hollywood all the time and writing music and doing stuff,” he said in the 2020 interview. “And John Wooden said, ‘Hey man, you got to make a decision. You got to play basketball or you got to do something else.’ So, anyway, I wound up quitting school and started writing music.”
He continued to play with his band, which never made it big. But their effervescent 1968 album, “Roger Nichols & the Small Circle Of Friends” — which included contributions from rock figures like Randy Newman and Van Dyke Parks and featured several songs written with the lyricist Tony Asher, a noted Brian Wilson collaborator — eventually attained cult status.
“We’ve Only Just Begun,” which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1971, was not the only Nichols/Williams composition to soar on the charts. “Rainy Days and Mondays” shot to No. 2 the same year; “I Won’t Last a Day Without You” climbed to No. 11 in 1974.
The songwriting team split up in the 1970s. “I wanted us to write songs for movies,” Mr. Williams said in a recent social media post.
Mr. Williams went on to do just that, composing film and television themes, including one for “The Love Boat,” and becoming ubiquitous as an actor.
Mr. Nichols, he recalled, “had another dream.”
“He said I wanna go fishing — wanna go back to Montana,” Mr. Williams said.
For a year or two, Mr. Nichols did return to Montana to decompress, but he eventually went back to the music industry, writing scores for television shows like the Robert Wagner-Stefanie Powers mystery series, “Hart to Hart.”
In addition to his daughter Caroline, he is survived by his wife, Therese (Vorndran) Nichols, and two other daughters, Claire Schiemer and Caitlin Lula.
Over the years, “We’ve Only Just Begun” has been covered by Bing Crosby, Jack Jones, Johnny Mathis and Barry Manilow, among others. With its heart-tugging melody and sunrise lyrics, it became “the wedding song for a generation,” the site American Songwriter observed.
“We wrote almost every day for several years,” Mr. Williams said in his post, noting that Mr. Nichols “was as disciplined as he was talented.”
The lyrics “were born of the beauty in his completed melodies,” he added.
“I wrote what I heard, note for note, word for word. He made it easy.”
Alex Williams is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk.
The post Roger Nichols, Songwriter Behind Carpenters Hits, Dies at 84 appeared first on New York Times.
