Open The Door (Betty Carter Song)
"Open the Door" is a popular song written by Betty Carter in 1964. Carter recorded it several times and made it a frequent part of her live performances, to the extent that it became her signature song. It has also been performed and recorded by other singers including Elsa Hedberg.
Carter's biographer William R. Bauer wrote of "Open the Door":
The song's persistent bossa nova rhythm and its haunting, sensual melody make it easy to hear the lyrics as a sexy come-on. But in such phrases as "I must get in your heart" and "No matter how you try to avoid me you can't get away so easily," hints of aggressiveness surface, suggesting that, although the narrator seems to be offering herself, she is in fact seeking her lover's surrender. Her sexuality becomes a means of obtaining control over the object of her desire and making him accept her as she is.
Carter's original 1964 recording of "Open the Door" was included on the soundtrack of the 1999 film American Beauty.
Read more about Open The Door (Betty Carter Song): Recordings
Famous quotes containing the words open, door and/or carter:
“When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the “big canoe” of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“It was so hard to pry this door open, and if I mess up I know the people behind me are going to have it that much harder. Because then there’s living proof. They can sit around and say, “See? It doesn’t work.” I don’t want to be their living proof.”
—Gayle Gardner, U.S. sports reporter. As quoted in Sports Illustrated, p. 87 (June 17, 1991)
“One alone in a Chinese square
confronted tanks, while others fled.
He stood for freedom for us all,
but few care now if he’s jailed or dead.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)