MUSIC OF MYTIME SERIES: 1975 THE YEAR OF DEATH AND REBIRTH -- KAREN CARPENTER'S ONLY YESTERDAY

 her unique low-register voice and this song: it welcomed me to America when pain submerged into amnesia so i could leave my loved ones behind in Vietnam --  the "you," the "baby" in the song was America, as it embraced me, and I embraced it to move on.  "Only yesterday when I was sad and I was lonely You showed me the way to leave the past and all its tears behind me Tomorrow maybe even brighter than today  'cause I threw my sadness away...Only yesterday..." 

Lyrics

After long enough of being alone
Everyone must face their share of loneliness
In my own time, nobody knew
The pain I was goin' through
And waitin' was all my heart could do

Hope was all I had until you came
Maybe you can't see how much you mean to me
You were the dawn breaking the night
The promise of mornin' light
Filling the world surroundin' me
When I hold you

Baby, baby, feels like maybe
Things will be all right
Baby, baby, your love's made me
Free as a song, singin' forever

Only yesterday when I was sad and I was lonely
You showed me the way to leave the past and all its tears behind me
Tomorrow maybe even brighter than today
Since I threw my sadness away
Only yesterday

I have found my home here in your arms
Nowhere else on earth I'd really rather be
Life waits for us, share it with me
The best is about to be
And so much is left for us to see
When I hold you

Baby, baby, feels like maybe
Things will be all right
Baby, baby, your love's made me
Free as a song, singin' forever

Only yesterday when I was sad and I was lonely
You showed me the way to leave the past and all its tears behind me
Tomorrow maybe even brighter than today
Since I threw my sadness away
Only yesterday (only yesterday, only yesterday)

Only yesterday when I was sad and I was lonely
You showed me the way to leave the past and all its tears behind me