"We've Only Just Begun" is a soft rock song with music by Roger Nichols and lyrics by Paul Williams. It began as a 1970 television commercial for Crocker-Citizens National Bank in California, made by the agency Hal Riney & Partners, which gave the songwriters a slogan about helping a couple on their way, shown over a wedding and the journey ahead. Williams and Nichols reportedly wrote the song in one afternoon. Smokey Roberds recorded it as "Freddie Allen" in March 1970, but it received little airplay. Richard Carpenter then asked for a full-length version, and the pair wrote a fuller song.
The Carpenters' recording, released as a single by A&M on August 21, 1970 from the album Close to You with Karen Carpenter on lead vocal, became a major hit. It reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, held the No. 1 spot on the Adult Contemporary chart for seven weeks, and topped the chart in Canada. The recording was nominated for Grammy Awards and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and Rolling Stone included it in its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Williams later recorded his own version for the 1971 album Just an Old Fashioned Love Song.
