The Carpenters
Encyclopedia
Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of sister Karen
and brother Richard Carpenter
. The Carpenters were the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and press materials is simply Carpenters, without the definite article
. During a period in the 1970s when louder and wilder rock
was in great demand, Richard and Karen produced a distinctively soft musical style that made them among the best-selling music artists of all time.
Carpenters' melodic pop
produced a record-breaking run of hit recordings on the American Top 40
and Adult Contemporary charts, and they became leading sellers in the soft rock
, easy listening
and adult contemporary
genres. Carpenters had three #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100
and fifteen #1 hits on the Adult Contemporary Chart
(see The Carpenters discography
). In addition, they had twelve top 10 singles (including their #1 hits). To date, Carpenters' album and single sales total more than 100 million units.
During their 14-year career, the Carpenters recorded 11 albums, five of which contained top 10 singles (Close to You, Carpenters
, A Song for You, Now & Then and Horizon
), thirty-one singles, five television specials, and one short-lived television series
. They toured in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, the Netherlands and Belgium. Their recording career ended with Karen's death in 1983 from cardiac arrest
following complications of anorexia nervosa
. Extensive news coverage of the circumstances surrounding her death increased public awareness of the consequences of eating disorder
s.
and country music
, there were few contralto
singers in popular music at the time. However, Karen did have a wide vocal range that spanned about three octaves. Richard's voice was said to be very complementary to that of Karen's. Although Karen had great upper range to her voice, they never realized it until she recorded some albums like "Lovelines", so they mostly concentrated on her lower range (or her "basement", as Karen called it). "Both Karen and I felt the magic was in her 'chest voice' (a.k.a. 'basement'). There is no comparison in terms of richness in sound, so I wasn't about to highlight the upper voice", states Richard in the "Fans Ask" section of the Carpenters' official website.
Because Karen's magic was in the "basement", Richard always rearranged cover songs and his own songs in a key that would suit her. Many of the Carpenters' songs are located in the keys of D
("You", "There's a Kind of Hush
"), E
("Yesterday Once More
"), E flat ("Only Yesterday
"), F
("I'll Never Fall in Love Again
", "Top of the World
"), and G
("And When He Smiles", "Reason to Believe
", "For All We Know
", "You'll Love Me").
Although he played many keyboard instruments during the band's existence, including grand piano, harpsichord
, Hammond organ
and synthesizer
, Richard is best known as an endorser of Wurlitzer's electric pianos
, whose sound he described as "warm" and "beautiful". He would often double his acoustic piano parts with a Wurlitzer in the studio to thicken the sound, creating one of the 1970s' most distinctive keyboard sounds. From the mid-1970s Richard also used Fender Rhodes pianos, often having an acoustic grand as well as both Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos on stage for different songs.
Apart from being a singer, Karen was also an accomplished drummer, and often played the drums on their pre-1974 songs. According to Richard, she considered herself a "drummer who sang". Karen was barely visible behind the drums during live performances. Although unwilling, she and Richard eventually reached a performance compromise: during the ballad
s she would sing standing and through the lesser known songs she would sit. As the years progressed, demand for Karen's vocals began to overshadow her drumming time, and gradually she played the drums less. By the A Kind of Hush
album in 1976, Karen did not play the drums at all.
The Carpenters' arrangements, many done by Richard, are often praised. Most of the arrangements are classical in style, with many strings, and sometimes brass and woodwinds ("Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
" used over 160 singers and musicians). Music critic Daniel Levitin
called Richard Carpenter "one of the most gifted arrangers to emerge in popular music."
, to parents Harold and Agnes. Richard Lynn was born on October 15, 1946, and Karen Anne followed on March 2, 1950. Richard was a quiet child who spent most of his time in the house listening to records and playing the piano. Karen, on the other hand, seemed to be friendly and outgoing; she liked to play sports, including softball with the neighborhood kids, but she also spent a lot of time listening to music.
In June 1963, the Carpenter family moved to the Los Angeles suburb of Downey, California
. In the fall of 1964, Richard enrolled at Long Beach State
, now known as California State University, Long Beach
, where he met future songwriting partner John Bettis
, with whom he would write classics like "Top of the World
", "Goodbye to Love
", and "Only Yesterday
"; Wesley Jacobs, a friend who played the bass and tuba
for the Richard Carpenter Trio; and Frank Pooler
, with whom Richard would collaborate to create the Christmas standard "Merry Christmas Darling
" in 1966.
That same fall, Karen enrolled at Downey High School, where she found she had a knack for playing the drums. When Karen joined the marching band, band teacher Bruce Gifford (who had taught Richard in 1963) assigned Karen a glockenspiel
, a quiet instrument that Karen highly disliked. In an interview, Karen stated:
Shortly after, though, friend and fellow band member Frankie Chavez inspired Carpenter to play the drums. Karen would often borrow Chavez's drum kit when he taught her. "She and Frankie ... must have worked down the rudiments, the cadences, and the press-rolls for hours", recalls Richard. When Karen finally got a Ludwig drum kit from her parents in late 1964, she was able to play it professionally, in what Richard had described in their documentary, Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters
as "exotic time signatures".
. The two started a jazz
trio in late 1965 with their friend Wes Jacobs, who played bass and tuba.
The Richard Carpenter Trio signed up for the annual Hollywood Bowl
Battle of the Bands
in mid-1966, where they played an instrumental version of "The Girl from Ipanema
" and their own "Iced Tea". The trio won the Battle of the Bands on June 24, 1966, and they were signed up by RCA Records
. They recorded songs such as The Beatles
' "Every Little Thing
" and Frank Sinatra
's "Strangers in the Night
" for RCA. However, these recordings were never released (although some tracks were released decades later as part of a boxed set
of Carpenters material.)
Later in 1966, Karen tagged along at a late-night session in the garage studio of Los Angeles bassist Joe Osborn
, and joined future Carpenters collaborator and lyricist John Bettis at a demo session where Richard was to accompany an auditioning trumpet player. Asked to sing, Karen performed for Osborn, who was so bowled over with her voice that he said `Never mind the trumpet player; this chubby little girl can sing.'
Osborn then signed Karen by herself as a singer to his fledgling label, Magic Lamp Records, and the label put out a single featuring two of Richard's compositions, "Looking for Love" and "I'll Be Yours." The single was not a hit however, and the label soon became defunct. However, Osborn let Karen and Richard continue to use his studio to record demo tapes until 1969, when they finally got an offer from A&M Records
.
In 1967, Richard and Karen teamed up with four other student musicians from Long Beach State
to form a band called "Spectrum". The group often performed at the Whisky a Go Go
. Spectrum member John Bettis
worked with the Carpenters until Karen's death in 1983, composing many songs with Richard.
In 1968, Spectrum disbanded, and the Richard Carpenter Trio's Wes Jacobs left for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
. Jacobs, who played both the bass and the tuba, would eventually become the symphony's Principal Tubist in 1970. Richard and Karen received an offer to be on the television program Your All American College Show in mid-1968. Their June 22, 1968 performance was Richard's and Karen's first television appearance.
Richard and Karen sent their demo tapes to many record labels until A&M Records
' co-owner and trumpeter/vocalist Herb Alpert
(who happened to be a friend of a friend of their mother's) became attracted to their distinct sound. Alpert was Richard's and Karen's lucky break, and his decision would change their lives.
Offering (Ticket to Ride
When Richard and Karen Carpenter signed to A&M Records, they were given carte blanche in the recording studio. Their debut album, entitled Offering
released in 1969, featured a number of songs that Richard had written or co-written during their Spectrum period. However, the most significant track on the album was a ballad rendition of The Beatles
hit "Ticket to Ride
", which soon became a minor hit for Carpenters, peaking at #54 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Top 20 of the Adult Contemporary
chart. In an effort to cash in on the success of that track, Offering was repackaged with a different cover under the name Ticket to Ride in 1970.
Close to You
Despite the lukewarm chart performance of "Ticket to Ride", Richard and Karen persevered and finally achieved success with the Burt Bacharach
/Hal David
song "(They Long To Be) Close To You
", which was released in 1970. It debuted at #56, the highest debut of the week ending June 20, 1970. It rose to #1 on July 25, 1970, and stayed on top of the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks.
Shortly afterward, Richard had seen a television commercial for Crocker National Bank
featuring a song entitled "We've Only Just Begun
" written by Paul Williams
and Roger Nichols
. Richard realized the song's hit potential when he heard it on television and three months after "(They Long To Be) Close To You" reached #1, Carpenters' version of "We've Only Just Begun
" reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song became the first hit single for Williams and Nichols and is considered by Richard Carpenter to be the group's "signature" tune."
"Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun" became RIAA Certified
Gold Singles
and were featured on the best-selling album Close To You
, which is placed #175 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
The duo rounded out the year with the holiday release of "Merry Christmas Darling
". The single scored high on the holiday charts in 1970 and made repeated appearances on the holiday charts in subsequent years. In 1978, feeling she could give a more mature treatment to the tune, Karen re-cut the vocal for their Christmas TV special and the song became a hit all over again.
Carpenters
A string of hit singles and albums kept Carpenters on the charts through the early 1970s. Their 1971 hit "For All We Know
" was originally recorded in 1970, by Larry Meredith, for a wedding scene in the movie Lovers and Other Strangers
. Upon hearing it in the movie theatre, Richard realized its potential and subsequently recorded it in the autumn of 1970. The track became Carpenters' third gold single.
The duo's fourth gold single "Rainy Days and Mondays
" became Williams' and Nichols' second major single with Carpenters, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, kept from the top slot only because of Carole King
's "It's Too Late". According to Ray Coleman, well-known music industry journalist and biographer, "Rainy Days and Mondays" is arguably one of Carpenters' most popular tracks.
"Superstar" written by Delaney Bramlett
and Leon Russell
became another Carpenters classic and is acclaimed for Karen's "haunting" vocals on the song. Richard modified the original lyric of "And I can hardly wait to sleep with you again," to "And I can hardly wait to BE with you again." The song is often described as "poignant". The record became the duo's third #2 single on the Billboard Hot 100. Their eponym
ous album, entitled Carpenters
was released in 1971. It became one of their best-selling albums, earning RIAA certification for platinum four times. It won a Grammy Award
for Carpenters, as well as three other nominations.
"Goodbye to Love
" is the title to an unheard magnum opus in the 1940 Bing Crosby movie Rhythm on the River
. Crosby played a songwriter trying to come up with a song called "Goodbye to Love." Although the song's title was mentioned several times in the movie, no such song ever existed. Richard Carpenter happened to see this movie on late-night television one night and decided that it was a great title. He and Bettis wrote the song on a Learjet for his sister Karen to sing. The song was Carpenters' third hit single in 1972, peaking at #7.
"Goodbye to Love" starts off slowly with Karen singing softly a cappella
, then builds up to an intense electric guitar solo in the middle. The second verse starts off calmly, then builds up again to a blistering drum and electric guitar fade-out. The fuzz-guitar solo was played by lead guitarist Tony Peluso
, who was called personally by Karen herself and asked to play on the song, thereby launching the genre which would come to be known as the power ballad. Peluso recalls that, at the time, he thought someone was playing a joke on him when a woman called and said she was Karen Carpenter. Peluso would ultimately be a part of Carpenters until their end in 1983.
"Top of the World
" was the group's biggest country hit. Lynn Anderson
had heard the album cut version in 1972 and decided to record her own version. Anderson released her version in early 1973; Richard and Karen debated as to whether or not they should release their version on a single. Gil Friesen, an A&M co-worker, argued that they had released too many records from the A Song for You
album already ("Hurting Each Other
", "It's Going to Take Some Time
", "Goodbye to Love
", and later, "I Won't Last a Day Without You
"). Regardless, they released "Top of the World" as a single in May 1973 in response to the heavy public demand, and it became Carpenters' second Billboard #1 hit, in December 1973.
".
In 1974, Carpenters achieved a massive international hit with an up-tempo remake of Hank Williams's "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)
". While the song was not released as a single in the U.S., it reached the top 30 in Japan, sold well in the United Kingdom, and became their biggest hit of all time in the Netherlands. In late 1974, a Christmas single followed, a jazz-influenced rendition of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
".
" was at #11 and rising on 28 December 1974. In between these two singles, the pair released just one Hot 100 single, a Paul Williams/Roger Nichols composition called "I Won't Last a Day Without You
". Originally recorded as an album track for their 1972 LP, A Song for You
, the Carpenters finally decided to release their original two years after its original LP release and some months after Maureen McGovern
's 1973 cover. In March 1974, the single version became the fifth and final selection from that album project to chart in the Top 20, reaching #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the summer of 1974.
The Singles: 1969-1973
In place of the new album for 1974, their first greatest hits package this album was released, featuring new remix
es of their prior hit singles, some with a newly-recorded lead, and including newly recorded bridges and transition material so that each side of the album would play through with no breaks, giving the album a little bit of a live-concert feel. Some complete songs were recorded in addition to the aforementioned singles, however, as would happen with their non-Christmas songs recorded in 1978, most of these did not see the light of day until after Karen's passing. These songs were included on "Voice of the Heart
", "Lovelines
", the Carpenters box set From the Top, and their two outtake albums As Time Goes By
and Interpretations
.
Their first compilation album was entitled The Singles: 1969-1973
and it topped the charts in the U.S. for one week, on 5 January 1974, and it also topped the United Kingdom chart and became one of the best-selling albums of the decade, ultimately selling more than 7 million copies in the U.S. alone. According to Ray Coleman, The Singles: 1969-1973 went to number one on February 9, 1974, and exited #1 sixteen weeks later, on June 1, 1974, because of Rick Wakeman's
Journey to the Centre of the Earth
.
Horizon
In 1975, The Carpenters gained another hit with a remake of The Marvelettes
' chart-topping Motown classic from 1961, "Please Mr. Postman
". Released in late 1974, the song soared to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1975, becoming the duo's third and final #1 pop single. It also earned Karen and Richard their record-setting twelfth million-selling gold single in America.
Richard Carpenter's and John Bettis's song "Only Yesterday
" followed "Please Mr. Postman", and peaked at #4. Carpenter and Bettis did not believe that "Only Yesterday" would become a hit single, and bet against Roger Young that it would not enter the top 5. They each lost a thousand dollars to Young.
Both singles appeared on their 1975 LP Horizon, which also included covers of The Eagles' "Desperado
" and Neil Sedaka
's "Solitaire", which became a moderate hit for the duo that year. Horizon was certified platinum, but owing to the disc's late release (after the second single was already dropping off the charts), it was their first album to fall short of multi-platinum status. Rolling Stone
reviewer Stephen Holden
acclaimed Horizon, calling it "the Carpenters' most musically sophisticated album to date."
The Carpenters were among the first American recording acts to produce music videos to promote their records. In early 1975, they filmed a performance of "Please Mr. Postman
" at Disneyland as well as "Only Yesterday
" at the Huntington Gardens.
A Kind of Hush
Their subsequent album A Kind of Hush
, released on June 11, 1976, achieved gold status
, but again owing to its late release, became the first Carpenters album not to become a platinum certified record since Ticket to Ride seven years earlier. Their singles releases in 1976 were successful, but at this time, contemporary hit radio was moving forward with changing musical styles, which ultimately made the careers of most "soft" groups like Carpenters suffer. The duo's biggest pop single that year was a cover of Herman's Hermits
' "There's a Kind of Hush (All Over the World)", which peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100. "I Need to Be in Love
" (allegedly Karen's favorite song by Carpenters) charted at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, it followed "There's a Kind of Hush" to the top spot on the Adult Contemporary charts and became the duo's 14th #1 Adult Contemporary hit, far and away more than any other act in the history of the chart.
The disco
craze was in full swing by 1977, and adult-appeal "easy listening
" artists like Carpenters were getting less airplay. Their experimental album, Passage, released in 1977, marked an attempt to broaden their appeal by venturing into other musical genres. The album featured an unlikely mix of Jazz-fusion
("B'wana She No Home"), calypso
("Man Smart, Woman Smarter"), and orchestrated balladry ("I Just Fall in Love Again
", "Two Sides"), and included the hits, "All You Get from Love Is a Love Song
", "Sweet, Sweet Smile
", and "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
". The most notable tracks included cover version
s of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina
" (from the rock opera
Evita) and Klaatu's "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft (the Recognized Anthem of World Contact Day)
", both complete with choral and orchestral accompaniment. Ironically the latter song predated the release of Steven Spielberg
's film Close Encounters of the Third Kind
by one month. Although the single release of "Calling Occupants" became a minor hit in the United Kingdom, peaking at number 32 on the U.S. pop charts, for the first time a Carpenters album did not reach the gold threshold of 500,000 copies shipped in the United States. The Carpenters' music videos of "All You Get from Love Is a Love Song" and "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" for the Passage album can be seen on the DVD Gold: Greatest Hits.
In early 1978, they scored a surprise Top 10 country hit with the up-tempo, fiddle-sweetened "Sweet, Sweet Smile", written by country-pop singer Juice Newton
and her longtime musical partner Otha Young
.
The Singles: 1974-1978
In place of a new album for 1978, a second compilation, The Singles: 1974-1978
, was released however, only in the UK. Meanwhile, in the United States, their first holiday album, Christmas Portrait
, proved to be an exception to their faltering career at home and became a seasonal favorite, returning Karen and Richard to platinum status.
During the sessions, several non-holiday songs were also recorded such as Where Do I Go From Here, Slow Dance, and Honolulu City Lights
, most of which would not see the light of day until after Karen's passing as a part of numerous albums made up of outtakes.
Brief hiatus, Made in America
Richard sought treatment for his addiction to quaaludes at a Topeka, Kansas
, facility for six weeks starting in January 1979. He then decided to take the rest of the year off for relaxation and rehabilitation. Richard first sought refuge at the home of his bandmate Gary Sims, before moving into the apparent anonymity of one of their apartment blocks bought at the outset of their career. Richard would live there for the next seven years, during Karen's treatment in New York, after her death and beyond it. Karen, at this point neither wanting to take a break from singing nor seek help for her anorexia, decided to pursue a solo album project with renowned producer Phil Ramone
in New York. The choice of maverick record producer Ramone and more adult-oriented and disco/dance-tempo material represented an effort to retool her image. By spring 1980, the album was finished and the customary playback for record executives was booked. The album had already been assigned a catalogue number and stunning new artwork and photos of Karen taken for the cover. Staff at A&M were were prepared for its release and it was being talked up as a summer blockbuster for the label. Reaction to an earlier playback in New York had been fantastic, with champagne flowing and an ecstatic Karen jumping up and down. Playback in California, for Richard and A&M Executives met with a very different reaction. Song after song, the room was silent and the subsequent decision from the executives was unanimous: it had to be cancelled. Outside of the meeting, Karen crumpled in her producer's arms, devastated at the rejection. To add insult to injury, A&M Records confirmed that the debt for its production (more than half a million dollars) would be charged against Carpenters' future royalties.
Angry, but for the most part undismayed by the decision, Karen proceeded with plans to record a new album with her brother, who had now recovered from his addiction and was ready to go. Karen's solo album Karen Carpenter
, went unreleased until October 1996, although Karen's fans got a taste of the album in 1989 when four of its tracks, "Lovelines", "If We Try", "Remember When Lovin' Took All Night" and "If I Had You", turned up, albeit remixed by Richard, on their third posthumous album Lovelines
. "If I Had You" was released as a single and reached the Top 20 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Two further tracks were drip fed to fans on the duo's box set 'From The Top'.
The Carpenters produced a final television special in 1980 called Music, Music, Music!, with guest stars Ella Fitzgerald
, Suzanne Somers
, and John Davidson
. This event was filmed the same year Karen married Tom Burris, and she had temporarily returned to a healthier weight. However, ABC
was not at all happy with their special, as it was just music from start to finish, unlike the previous specials which included sketch-based comedy. ABC felt it was too much like a PBS
program.
On June 16, 1981, the Carpenters released what would become their final LP as a duo, Made in America. Happy to see his favourite duo return to the fold, Herb Alpert hosted a 'Welcome Back' party for them on the lawns at the lot of A&M Records. The album sold only around 200,000 copies before Karen's death in 1983; however, it did spawn a final top 20 pop single, the romantic "Touch Me When We're Dancing
", which reached #16 on the Hot 100. It also became their fifteenth number one Adult Contemporary hit. Promotion for the album included a whistle-stop tour of America, Brazil and Europe, preceded by a disastrous live appearance for a Japanese Telethon event, filmed outdoors on the lot of A&M in August 1981. During their segment (the last of the show) and in the uncomfortably hot sunshine, the playback audio cut out midway through their performance of 'Touch Me When We're Dancing'. The ensuing scenes, coupled with Karen's furious reaction, left it obvious to viewers that the whole band had been miming live on TV. Three further singles from the album failed to ignite the charts, with its final selection 'Beechwood 4-5789' being released on Karen's birthday on March 2, 1982.
Karen's personal troubles dimmed the prospects of this modest return to the charts. After a whirlwind romance, Karen married real estate developer Thomas James Burris in a lavish wedding held in the Crystal Room of the Beverly Hills Hotel on August 31, 1980. A new song performed by Karen at the ceremony, "Because We Are in Love", surfaced in 1981 on Made in America (as well as the B-side of "Touch Me When We're Dancing"). By late 1981, though, with marriage troubles brewing and Karen firmly in the grip of anorexia, her physical appearance had changed drastically. Friends she visited did not recognise her and promotional TV appearances revealed her to be shockingly thin. The music videos produced to promote the Made in America album were ample evidence that Karen was now seriously ill. Vindicating the earlier views of many of her close friends, Karen's husband Tom Burris had also turned out not to be what he represented financially, at times demanded sums of up to $30,000 from her to keep his business dealings afloat. Knowing full well of Karen's wish to start a family, Tom had also deliberately concealed from her the fact that he had previously had a vasectomy, a fact which Karen only found out days before her wedding. Telephoning her mother beside herself, telling her that the wedding was off, Karen's mother replied, "The invites have gone out, People Magazine is going to be there. You made your bed, now you have to lie in it. You will walk down that aisle."
By November 1981, Karen's marriage reached a breaking point and after a family dinner, Karen and Tom returned to their parents' home in Downey and after a heated row upstairs, Tom announced to her perplexed parents "You can keep her," and stormed out. Shortly after this, Karen resolved to deal with her eating disorder and sought therapy with noted psychotherapist Steven Levenkron
in New York City. Attending therapy sessions for an hour a day, Karen attempted to deal with her problem head on, but it was not without its complications. On one occasion, Karen admitted to her therapist that she was ingesting up to 100 laxatives a day. More alarmingly, Levenkron found out she was taking ten times the normal daily dose of thyroid medication, despite having a normal thyroid, in order to speed up her metabolism. Horrified by this revelation, he demanded she bring the bottle to him the following day and it remains in his drawer to this day. As Karen's self-imposed deadline of a year in therapy drew nearer, events took a frightening turn in September 1982 when she called her therapist to say her heart was beating funny and she felt dizzy and confused. Admitting herself into hospital, Karen was hooked up to an intravenous drip and had 30 pounds in weight put back on her. By November 1982, Karen left the hospital and despite pleas from family and friends, announced that she was returning home to California and that she was cured. Karen's last public appearance was in December, when she performed at her godparents' school in Sherman Oaks, CA, singing Christmas songs.
Several events between November 1982 and February 1983 caused family and friends to conclude that all was still not well with Karen. Richard insisted that although she had marvellous, big brown eyes, there was no life left in them. Raising the red flag to their long term advisor Werner Wolfen, he subsequently reported this back to Karen, who became furious. Calling a perplexed Richard to a meeting with Werner there and then, she reiterated that she had supported her brother through his difficulties with quaaludes and that he should do the same for her. They called a truce, but she reckoned without her brother's grim conviction of the truth. Karen also complained to friends about her concerns over her thumping heart and spots before her eyes. Alarmed, they wanted to tell her mother about such episodes but Karen allayed their fears and told them she would tell Agnes herself. She never did.
. The following morning, her mother Agnes heard Karen come down to hook up the coffee machine before returning upstairs. Agnes arose and came downstairs and dialled Richard's room where Karen had been sleeping to call her down to breakfast, but did not receive an answer. After shouting her name twice more with no response, Agnes went up the steps and found her daughter lying unresponsive on the floor of the walk-in closet. Screaming for Harold to call paramedics, Agnes then called Richard, who raced to the house. By the time he arrived, his sister was already in an ambulance. Noting Richard's distressed state, paramedics advised him to drive very carefully if he planned to follow the ambulance. Richard would later say that his hope at the time was that she had merely passed out, they would be able to revive her and that she would see the error of her ways. It was not to be. After spending 20 minutes in a waiting room, a doctor entered to tell Richard and his parents the grim news: at the age of just 32, Karen was dead. She was scheduled to sign her divorce papers later that day.
Karen Carpenter did not die from anorexia itself, but from sinister side-effects of the disease. After toying with her body for several years, her heart could not take the strain of a long period of poor eating habits followed by rapid weight gain. The autopsy stated that Karen's death was caused by emetine
cardiotoxicity
resulting from anorexia nervosa. Under the anatomical summary, the first item was heart failure, with anorexia as second. The third finding was cachexia
, which is extremely low weight and weakness and general body decline associated with chronic disease. Emetine cardiotoxicity suggested that Karen abused ipecac syrup, used medically to induce vomiting in patients who have ingested poison, but which taken in quantities actually is a poison in itself. Ipecac was easily obtainable at the time and for a long time after her death there was no evidence to suggest that Karen abused it.. Richard insisted that he had never seen any toxicology report supporting the use of ipecac, but since the publication of the Coleman account of their story in 1994, the long-lost toxicology report has surfaced, proving that Karen's heart had been damaged by the use of ipecac and previous use of synthoid, which Karen took in quantities to race her heart to burn off more calories. What no one could have anticipated was that between Karen leaving New York in November 1982 and the following February, Karen's sustained, secretive use of ipecac (to replace the laxatives Steven Levenkron had successfully weaned her off) meant that she had accidentally poisoned herself within just three months of leaving her therapist's care.
Between her death on February 4 and her funeral service on Tuesday, February 8, 1983, at the Downey United Methodist Church, Karen's body lay in state at Forest Lawns Memorial Park in an open white casket. Karen was dressed in a pink suit and mourners and fans turned up to pay their last respects. At her funeral, more than a thousand mourners turned up, among them her friends Dorothy Hamill
, Olivia Newton-John
, Petula Clark
, Dionne Warwick
and Herb Alpert
. Prior to the funeral, Karen's husband Tom Burris had thrown his wedding ring into the casket. The Carpenters: the Untold Story).
On October 12, 1983, the Carpenters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
, a few yards from the Kodak Theater. Richard, Harold, and Agnes Carpenter attended the inauguration, as did many fans.
Karen's death brought lasting media attention to anorexia nervosa and also to bulimia. Karen's death encouraged celebrities to go public about their eating disorders, among them Tracey Gold
and later, Diana, Princess of Wales
. Medical centers and hospitals began receiving increased contacts from people with these disorders. The general public had little knowledge of anorexia and bulimia prior to her death, making the conditions difficult to identify and treat.
In December 2003, the remains of Karen and her parents were exhumed from Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Cypress, California, and reinterred in Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village, California, in the presence of her brother and his wife (and first cousin) Mary. She is buried with her parents in a pink marble tomb valued at around $600,000, which bears the Carpenter family name in gold lettering across its top.
Following Karen's death, Richard Carpenter has continued to produce recordings of the duo's music, including several albums of previously unreleased material and numerous compilation albums. Voice of the Heart
, an album that included some finished tracks left out of Made In America and earlier LPs, was released in late 1983. It peaked at #46 and was certified Gold. Two singles were released. "Make Believe It's Your First Time", a second version of a song Karen had recorded for her solo album (and a song which had been a minor hit in 1979 for Bobby Vinton
), reached #7 Adult Contemporary but only reached #101 on the pop side. "Your Baby Doesn't Love You Anymore" got to #12 Adult Contemporary. Richard Carpenter married his first cousin, Mary Rudolph, on May 19, 1984. Kristi was born on August 17, 1987, Traci on July 25, 1989, Mindi Karen (named after her late aunt) on July 7, 1992, followed by Colin and Taylor.
For the second Christmas season following Karen's death, Richard constructed a "new" Carpenters Christmas album entitled, An Old-Fashioned Christmas
, using outtake material from the duo's first Christmas album (A Christmas Portrait) and recording new material around it.
That same year, he intervened to limit the distribution of the Todd Haynes
short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
(which used Barbie
dolls to tell the story of Karen's death). Although critics found Karen's portrayal sympathetic, the film depicted the Carpenter family in an unflattering light, and Richard prevailed in pulling the film from distribution on the basis that Carpenters tracks were used without permission. Two years later, a TV movie entitled The Karen Carpenter Story
featuring Cynthia Gibb
and produced with Richard's cooperation, gained favorable notices and reached a wide audience. In the first few weeks after the original airdate in the fall of 1989, not only did many record stores sell out of their stock of the soundtrack album, but many more sold out of their traditional Carpenters stock as well.
, Karen's solo album, was finally released in October 1996, over 16 years after being recorded with an explanation from Richard in the CD's liner notes addressing the decision by A&M records to shelve the album in 1980. The collection of songs on the CD covers a wide range of musical styles, from rock ("Making Love in the Afternoon" with guest vocalist Peter Cetera
) to blues ("Last One Singing the Blues") to lite jazz ("Guess I Just Lost My Head", "If We Try") and disco ("Remember When Lovin' Took All Night", "Lovelines"). The album's producer, Phil Ramone
, produced several tracks for Cetera's former band, Chicago
.
Bootleg copies of nine additional solo songs Karen Carpenter recorded between 1979 and 1980 are in the possession of many Carpenters fans but there seems to be no possibility of the recordings' getting an official release. When approached with the subject, Richard has replied: "Outtakes are outtakes for a reason." Despite this, further albums of Carpenters outtakes, such as As Time Goes By
, continue to be made available.
, which generated one hit single, "Something in Your Eyes", sung by Dusty Springfield
and ten years later he recorded and released an album aptly titled Pianist Arranger Composer Conductor. Around the same time, the British entertainer Jackie Clune developed a Karen Carpenter tribute act, which was partly credited with increasing record sales of genuine Carpenters albums in the U.K.
Richard Carpenter lives with his wife, Mary Rudolph-Carpenter, and their four daughters and one son in Thousand Oaks, California
, where the couple are supporters of the arts. In 2004, Carpenter and his wife pledged a $3 million gift to the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza Foundation in memory of Karen Carpenter. The first annual "Richard Carpenter Scholarship Competition Award Show" was held at the Civic Arts Plaza on September 20, 2006. Richard and daughters Traci and Mindi performed after the show. Richard and his wife won the Philanthropists of the Year Award of Ventura County
in 2007.
More recently, Richard has actively supported the Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center
at his alma mater California State University, Long Beach
. He continues to make concert appearances, including fund raising efforts for the Carpenter Center. In 2001, he was a guest on the "Petula Clark
: A Sign of the Times" concert in Norfolk, Virginia
and portions were recorded for CD and DVD release and for a PBS special. In 2002, he introduced Clark at the Carpenter Center and appeared on her Ultimate Collection CD.
In 2007 and 2008, the current owners of the former Carpenter family home on Newville Avenue in Downey
, obtained permits from the city to tear down the existing buildings on the site to make room for newer and larger structures, in spite of ongoing protests from fans. In February 2008, a group of fans got their protest campaign covered in the Los Angeles Times
. At that time an adjacent house that had once served as the band's headquarters and recording studio had already been demolished and the main house was on the verge of being demolished as well. The original house was immortalized on the Now & Then album cover and was the place where Karen Carpenter died: in the words of Carpenters fan Jon Konjoyan, "this was our version of Graceland
."
In 1971, the A&M graphics department hired Craig Braun and Associates to design their third album cover for their newest album, entitled Carpenters
. "I recognized it to be a great logo as soon as I saw it", says Richard. A fan asked Carpenter on his "Fans Ask" section why there was no logo on Passage, and he replied: "To keep things consistent, ... every Carpenters album from the logo's inception shows the logo; it's on the back of the Passage album, bottom center."
, they tried to promote themselves by being Burt Bacharach
's opening performance. In a live concert in 1974 at The Riviera Hotel
, Las Vegas
, Karen Carpenter explained:
Then, Richard took over, and said:
The medley eventually was abridged and released on their eponym
ous album Carpenters
in 1971. The song was shortened from almost 13 minutes to only 5 minutes.
The band maintained a demanding schedule of concert tours and television appearances. Among their numerous television credits were appearances on such popular series as The Ed Sullivan Show
, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
, The Carol Burnett Show
in 1971 and 1972, The Mike Douglas Show
in 1971, and The Johnny Cash Show
, also in 1971, where they played their hits "For All We Know" and "Rainy Days and Mondays". The duo appeared in a television special
on the BBC
in 1971 where they performed songs "live." They were also the featured performers in a summer replacement series, Make Your Own Kind of Music, which aired on NBC
every Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. in the United States. Both Karen and Richard would later state in a 1980 radio interview that they were often taken advantage of in their dealings with television during the early Seventies and wanted more control in the production of future projects.
In May 1973, the Carpenters accepted an invitation to perform at the White House
for President Richard Nixon
and visiting West German chancellor Willy Brandt
.
The Carpenters played numerous concerts from 1971 to 1975. They are taken straight from Richard's archived itineraries.
By the mid-1970s, extensive touring and lengthy recording sessions had begun to take their toll on the duo and contributed to their professional and personal difficulties during the latter half of the decade. Karen dieted obsessively and developed the disorder anorexia nervosa
, which first manifested itself in 1975 when she collapsed during a show in Las Vegas
. Exhausted, Karen was forced to cancel concert tours in the Philippines
, UK and Japan. Richard has said that he regrets the six- and seven-day work schedules of that period, adding that had he known then what he knows now, he wouldn't have agreed to it. Karen looked noticeably thin - although not sickly - in the music video produced for the "Only Yesterday" single. Richard developed an addiction to quaaludes, which began to affect his performance in the late 1970s and led to the end of the duo's live concert appearances in 1978.
, and Best Pop Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus
, for "(They Long to Be) Close to You
" in 1970; and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group
for the LP Carpenters
in 1971.) In 1973, Carpenters were voted Favorite Pop/Rock Band, Duo, or Group at the first annual American Music Awards.
Richard would often state in interviews, that many critics usually judged them to "drink milk, eat apple pie and take showers."
In Coleman's "The Carpenters: The Untold Story", Richard stressed repeatedly how much he disliked the A&M Executives for making their image "squeaky-clean", and the critics for criticising them for their image rather than their music.
In interview sessions for the BBC in the 1990s, Richard gave further, extensive vent to his frustrations over their handling by the A&M Marketing team. Regarding the Now & Then album:
. Their TV specials usually contained "schtick
", which Richard highly disliked. However, Karen seemed to enjoy it, and her personality shone on camera. Their next one was The Carpenters at Christmas which aired on December 9, 1977. The following TV special was The Carpenters Space Encounters which aired May 17, 1978. Their fourth Special was The Carpenters: A Christmas Portrait
which aired December 19, 1978.
Carpenters' final television special Music, Music, Music!
, was aired in May 1980. It contained no "schtick
" and included only music "from start to finish". Television host John Davidson
and renowned standard singer Ella Fitzgerald
guest starred, and performed various songs. Many of the songs performed on this television special were released on CD in 2004 on their album As Time Goes By. As evidenced on the Carpenters official website, five of the fifteen songs on As Time Goes By were from Music, Music, Music!. However, ABC
wasn't satisfied with the Carpenters' decision to go purely musical. On their documentary, Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters
, Richard quotes them, saying: "What the hell do they think this is? A PBS
special?" Ironically, the documentary originally was aired on PBS until MPI Home Video
released it on DVD a year later, in 1998.
" (United States), "The Sayonara" (Japan), and "Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story
" (Great Britain). The superior technical quality of the recordings, the sorrowful undercurrents in many of their songs and the pain in Karen's voice as well as her life have attracted many fans. It's been said that her signature vocals helped spur more contralto
singers into pop music such as Anne Murray
, Rita Coolidge
, and Melissa Manchester
. Even '90s R&B group Boyz II Men
list Carpenters among their influences. In 1990, the alternative rock
band Sonic Youth
recorded "Tunic (Song for Karen)
", which depicted Karen saying goodbye to relatives as she got to play the drums again and meet her new "friends", Dennis Wilson
, Elvis Presley
and Janis Joplin
. Despite some criticism that their sound was "too soft", major campaigns and petitions exist toward inducting Carpenters in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
.
A tribute album, If I Were a Carpenter, by contemporary artists such as Sonic Youth
, Bettie Serveert
, Shonen Knife
, Grant Lee Buffalo
, Matthew Sweet
, and The Cranberries
, also appeared in 1994 and provided an alternative rock interpretation of Carpenters hits. Sonic Youth's rendition of Superstar, as well as other tracks from this album, were later featured in the 2007 film Juno
.
Several of their songs have achieved the status of popular standards. In particular, "(They Long to Be) Close to You
" is frequently sung in karaoke
bars. This song is heard in the film Parenthood, and is used in two episodes of The Simpsons
as well as The Simpsons Movie
. A scene of the Friends
episode "The One with the Blackout" features three of the friends passing time by singing "Top of the World
" while one of them strums her guitar. The duo's "signature tune", "We've Only Just Begun
", is popular at weddings and receptions, and was featured in the film version of Starsky & Hutch
and 1408
. The Song "Top of the World
" was heard in the movie Shrek Forever After
. "Superstar" has been covered by numerous artists, with popular recordings from Luther Vandross
and Ruben Studdard
to Bette Midler
, Shonen Knife
, and Sonic Youth
and even David Spade
and the late Chris Farley
sing along with it on the radio in Tommy Boy
. Clay Aiken
performed "Solitaire" on American Idol
and introduced the song to a new generation.
"Close To You", the Carpenters first number-one hit, has been remade and used for Nikkon commercials as well as being sung by Sue Heck in ABC-TV's "The Middle" in the third episode of the series entitled "Floating Anniversary."
Nicolas Cage
is an enthusiast for Carpenters music. He received permission to use some of their music in the Ghost Rider
.
Both "We've Only Just Begun" and "(They Long to Be) Close to You" have been honored with Grammy Hall of Fame awards
for recordings of lasting quality or historical significance.
Modern entertainers such as Christina Aguilera
, Gwen Stefani
, Shania Twain
, Jann Arden
, Anastacia
, The Corrs
, Mary J. Blige
, Alicia Keys
, Leann Rimes
, Michelle Wright
, K.D. Lang
, Kelly Jones of Stereophonics
, Johnny Borrell of Razorlight
, Jo O'Meara from S Club and Madonna
have listed Karen Carpenter as a huge influence on their careers.
, Carpenters
, A Song for You
, Now & Then, and Horizon).
". They won three Grammy Awards, and had two songs inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Karen Carpenter
Karen Anne Carpenter was an American singer and drummer. She and her brother, Richard, formed the 1970s duo The Carpenters. She was a drummer of exceptional skill, but she is best remembered for her vocal performances of idealistic romantic ballads of true love...
and brother Richard Carpenter
Richard Carpenter (musician)
Richard Lynn Carpenter is an American pop musician, best known as one half of the brother/sister duo The Carpenters, along with his sister Karen Carpenter. He was a producer, arranger, pianist and keyboardist, and occasional lyricist, as well as joining with Karen on harmony...
. The Carpenters were the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and press materials is simply Carpenters, without the definite article
Article (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
. During a period in the 1970s when louder and wilder rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
was in great demand, Richard and Karen produced a distinctively soft musical style that made them among the best-selling music artists of all time.
Carpenters' melodic pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
produced a record-breaking run of hit recordings on the American Top 40
American Top 40
American Top 40 is an internationally syndicated, independent radio program created by Casey Kasem, Don Bustany, Tom Rounds and Ron Jacobs. Originally a production of Watermark Inc...
and Adult Contemporary charts, and they became leading sellers in the soft rock
Soft rock
Soft rock is a style of music which uses the techniques of rock music to compose a softer, more toned-down sound. Soft rock songs generally tend to focus on themes like love, everyday life and relationships. The genre tends to make heavy use of acoustic guitars, pianos, synthesizers and sometimes...
, easy listening
Easy listening
Easy listening is a broad style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the 1950s, evolving out of big band music, and related to MOR music as played on many AM radio stations. It encompasses the exotica, beautiful music, light music, lounge music, ambient music, and space age pop genres...
and adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music
Adult contemporary music is a broad style of popular music that ranges from lush 1950s and 1960s vocal music to predominantly ballad-heavy music with varying degrees of rock influence, as well as a radio format that plays such music....
genres. Carpenters had three #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
and fifteen #1 hits on the Adult Contemporary Chart
Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...
(see The Carpenters discography
The Carpenters discography
The discography of the American pop group the Carpenters, consists of twelve studio albums, two christmas albums, two live albums, forty-six singles, and numerous compilation albums. The duo made up of Karen Carpenter and her elder brother Richard Carpenter .The siblings started their musical...
). In addition, they had twelve top 10 singles (including their #1 hits). To date, Carpenters' album and single sales total more than 100 million units.
During their 14-year career, the Carpenters recorded 11 albums, five of which contained top 10 singles (Close to You, Carpenters
Carpenters (album)
Carpenters is the third studio album by the Carpenters. Released on May 14, 1971, the album was successful, reaching #2 on the Billboard 200 chart and #12 in the UK...
, A Song for You, Now & Then and Horizon
Horizon (The Carpenters album)
Horizon is the sixth consecutive platinum-certified album by American musical duo The Carpenters. It was recorded at A&M Records and recorded at 30 inches per second)...
), thirty-one singles, five television specials, and one short-lived television series
Make Your Own Kind of Music (TV series)
Make Your Own Kind Of Music is an American television series starring The Carpenters that aired on NBC from July 20, 1971 to September 7, 1971. Some guest stars were Don Knotts, Herb Alpert, Al Hirt, Mark Lindsay, Patchett & Tarses, and the Doodletown Pipers.The key concept of the series is that...
. They toured in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, the Netherlands and Belgium. Their recording career ended with Karen's death in 1983 from cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest, is the cessation of normal circulation of the blood due to failure of the heart to contract effectively...
following complications of anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by refusal to maintain a healthy body weight and an obsessive fear of gaining weight. Although commonly called "anorexia", that term on its own denotes any symptomatic loss of appetite and is not strictly accurate...
. Extensive news coverage of the circumstances surrounding her death increased public awareness of the consequences of eating disorder
Eating disorder
Eating disorders refer to a group of conditions defined by abnormal eating habits that may involve either insufficient or excessive food intake to the detriment of an individual's physical and mental health. Bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, and binge eating disorder are the most common specific...
s.
Musical and lyrical style
One of the elements that made the music of the Carpenters distinctive was Karen's use of her low register. Though present in jazzJazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, there were few contralto
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
singers in popular music at the time. However, Karen did have a wide vocal range that spanned about three octaves. Richard's voice was said to be very complementary to that of Karen's. Although Karen had great upper range to her voice, they never realized it until she recorded some albums like "Lovelines", so they mostly concentrated on her lower range (or her "basement", as Karen called it). "Both Karen and I felt the magic was in her 'chest voice' (a.k.a. 'basement'). There is no comparison in terms of richness in sound, so I wasn't about to highlight the upper voice", states Richard in the "Fans Ask" section of the Carpenters' official website.
Because Karen's magic was in the "basement", Richard always rearranged cover songs and his own songs in a key that would suit her. Many of the Carpenters' songs are located in the keys of D
D major
D major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature consists of two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor....
("You", "There's a Kind of Hush
There's A Kind Of Hush
"There's a Kind of Hush" is a popular song written by Les Reed and Geoff Stephens which was a hit in 1967 for Herman's Hermits and again in 1976 for the Carpenters.-First recordings:...
"), E
E major
E major is a major scale based on E, with the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps .Its relative minor is C-sharp minor, and its parallel minor is E minor....
("Yesterday Once More
Yesterday Once More (song)
"Yesterday Once More", written by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis, is a hit song by The Carpenters from their 1973 album Now & Then. Composed in the key of E, "Yesterday Once More" preceded an "Oldies Medley" on the album, consisting of nine songs from the 1960s. At the end of the song a...
"), E flat ("Only Yesterday
Only Yesterday (song)
"Only Yesterday" is a song recorded by The Carpenters in 1975. It was released on March 14, 1975, and was the Carpenters' last top-ten single in the United States. Composed by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis, it peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the easy listening...
"), F
F major
F major is a musical major scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat . It is by far the oldest key signature with an accidental, predating the others by hundreds of years...
("I'll Never Fall in Love Again
I'll Never Fall in Love Again
"I'll Never Fall In Love Again" is a popular song by composer Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David. Originally written for the 1968 musical Promises, Promises, it soon became one of Bacharach and David's most enduring songs. It was nominated for Song of the Year in the 1969 Grammy awards...
", "Top of the World
Top of the World (The Carpenters song)
"Top of the World" is the name of a 1972 song by The Carpenters. Originally recorded for and released on the duo's 1972 studio album A Song for You, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in late 1973, becoming the duo's second U.S. number-one single...
"), and G
G major
G major is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp, F; in treble-clef key signatures, the sharp-symbol for F is usually placed on the first line from the top, though in some Baroque music it is placed on the first space from the bottom...
("And When He Smiles", "Reason to Believe
Reason to Believe
"Reason to Believe" is a song written and first recorded by American folk singer Tim Hardin in 1965, which has since been recorded by a number of other artists, the most known of which is by Rod Stewart in 1971 and 1993...
", "For All We Know
For All We Know (1970 song)
"For All We Know" is a popular song written for the 1970 film, Lovers and Other Strangers, by Fred Karlin, Robb Wilson and Arthur James . It was originally performed by Larry Meredith....
", "You'll Love Me").
Although he played many keyboard instruments during the band's existence, including grand piano, harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
, Hammond organ
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
and synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
, Richard is best known as an endorser of Wurlitzer's electric pianos
Wurlitzer electric piano
Wurlitzer 200A|250px|thumbThe Wurlitzer electric piano was one of a series of electromechanical stringless pianos manufactured and marketed by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, Corinth, Mississippi, U.S. and Tonawanda, New York...
, whose sound he described as "warm" and "beautiful". He would often double his acoustic piano parts with a Wurlitzer in the studio to thicken the sound, creating one of the 1970s' most distinctive keyboard sounds. From the mid-1970s Richard also used Fender Rhodes pianos, often having an acoustic grand as well as both Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos on stage for different songs.
Apart from being a singer, Karen was also an accomplished drummer, and often played the drums on their pre-1974 songs. According to Richard, she considered herself a "drummer who sang". Karen was barely visible behind the drums during live performances. Although unwilling, she and Richard eventually reached a performance compromise: during the ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
s she would sing standing and through the lesser known songs she would sit. As the years progressed, demand for Karen's vocals began to overshadow her drumming time, and gradually she played the drums less. By the A Kind of Hush
A Kind of Hush (album)
A Kind of Hush is the seventh studio album by American popular music duo The Carpenters. It was released in May 1976.Of its three excerpted singles only the title track, "There's a Kind of Hush ," a cover of a 1960s song by Herman's Hermits, gave the pair a hit single - both the US Top Ten, and UK...
album in 1976, Karen did not play the drums at all.
The Carpenters' arrangements, many done by Richard, are often praised. Most of the arrangements are classical in style, with many strings, and sometimes brass and woodwinds ("Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
"Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft " is a song by Klaatu, originally released in 1976 on their first album 3:47 EST. The following year, The Carpenters covered the song, using a crew of 160 musicians...
" used over 160 singers and musicians). Music critic Daniel Levitin
Daniel Levitin
Professor Daniel J. Levitin, Ph.D. is a prominent American cognitive psychologist, neuroscientist, record producer, musician, and writer...
called Richard Carpenter "one of the most gifted arrangers to emerge in popular music."
Childhood (1946–1964)
The Carpenters were both born on Hall Street in New Haven, ConnecticutNew Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, to parents Harold and Agnes. Richard Lynn was born on October 15, 1946, and Karen Anne followed on March 2, 1950. Richard was a quiet child who spent most of his time in the house listening to records and playing the piano. Karen, on the other hand, seemed to be friendly and outgoing; she liked to play sports, including softball with the neighborhood kids, but she also spent a lot of time listening to music.
In June 1963, the Carpenter family moved to the Los Angeles suburb of Downey, California
Downey, California
Downey is a city located in southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The city is best known as the birthplace of the Apollo space program, and is the city where folk singer Karen Carpenter lived and died...
. In the fall of 1964, Richard enrolled at Long Beach State
California State University, Long Beach
California State University, Long Beach is the second largest campus of the California State University system and the third largest university in the state of California by enrollment...
, now known as California State University, Long Beach
California State University, Long Beach
California State University, Long Beach is the second largest campus of the California State University system and the third largest university in the state of California by enrollment...
, where he met future songwriting partner John Bettis
John Bettis
John Bettis is an American lyricist who has co-written many famous popular songs over the years. In 2011, John was inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame....
, with whom he would write classics like "Top of the World
Top of the World (The Carpenters song)
"Top of the World" is the name of a 1972 song by The Carpenters. Originally recorded for and released on the duo's 1972 studio album A Song for You, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in late 1973, becoming the duo's second U.S. number-one single...
", "Goodbye to Love
Goodbye to Love
"Goodbye to Love" is a song composed by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis. It was released by the Carpenters in 1972. On the "Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters" documentary, Tony Peluso stated that this was one of the first, if not the first, love ballads to have a fuzz guitar solo.Upon...
", and "Only Yesterday
Only Yesterday (song)
"Only Yesterday" is a song recorded by The Carpenters in 1975. It was released on March 14, 1975, and was the Carpenters' last top-ten single in the United States. Composed by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis, it peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the easy listening...
"; Wesley Jacobs, a friend who played the bass and tuba
Tuba
The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
for the Richard Carpenter Trio; and Frank Pooler
Frank Pooler
Frank Pooler is an award-winning American choirmaster, and former Director of Choral Studies at California State University, Long Beach.-Professional career:...
, with whom Richard would collaborate to create the Christmas standard "Merry Christmas Darling
Merry Christmas Darling
"Merry Christmas, Darling" by The Carpenters was written by Richard Carpenter & Frank Pooler and originally recorded in 1970. At the time, it was first available on a 7" single from A&M Records and later in 1974 reissued as A&M 1648 and in 1977 as A&M 1991...
" in 1966.
That same fall, Karen enrolled at Downey High School, where she found she had a knack for playing the drums. When Karen joined the marching band, band teacher Bruce Gifford (who had taught Richard in 1963) assigned Karen a glockenspiel
Glockenspiel
A glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
, a quiet instrument that Karen highly disliked. In an interview, Karen stated:
I didn't really like it (the glockenspiel) because it's not a very convenient instrument to play, and it's hard to carry.... It's always a quarter-step sharp to the band, which used to drive me crazy!
Shortly after, though, friend and fellow band member Frankie Chavez inspired Carpenter to play the drums. Karen would often borrow Chavez's drum kit when he taught her. "She and Frankie ... must have worked down the rudiments, the cadences, and the press-rolls for hours", recalls Richard. When Karen finally got a Ludwig drum kit from her parents in late 1964, she was able to play it professionally, in what Richard had described in their documentary, Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters
Close to You: Remembering The Carpenters
Close to You: Remembering The Carpenters is a 100 minute long documentary that was released on DVD by MPI Home Video. It features interviews by Richard Carpenter, John Bettis , Gary Sims , Petula Clark, et al....
as "exotic time signatures".
The Richard Carpenter Trio and Spectrum (1965–1968)
By 1965, Karen had been practicing the drums for a year, and Richard was refining his piano techniques with teacher Frank PoolerFrank Pooler
Frank Pooler is an award-winning American choirmaster, and former Director of Choral Studies at California State University, Long Beach.-Professional career:...
. The two started a jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
trio in late 1965 with their friend Wes Jacobs, who played bass and tuba.
The Richard Carpenter Trio signed up for the annual Hollywood Bowl
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheater in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States that is used primarily for music performances...
Battle of the Bands
Battle of the Bands
Battle of Bands is a contest in which two or more bands compete for the title of "best band". The winner is determined by a panel of judges, the general response of the audience, or a combination. The winning band usually receives a prize in addition to bragging rights. Traditionally, battles of...
in mid-1966, where they played an instrumental version of "The Girl from Ipanema
The Girl from Ipanema
"Garota de Ipanema" is a well-known bossa nova song, a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s that won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965. It was written in 1962, with music by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. English lyrics were written later by Norman Gimbel.The...
" and their own "Iced Tea". The trio won the Battle of the Bands on June 24, 1966, and they were signed up by RCA Records
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
. They recorded songs such as The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' "Every Little Thing
Every Little Thing (song)
"Every Little Thing" is a song written by Paul McCartney and performed by The Beatles on their 1964 British album Beatles for Sale. In North America, Capitol released it as the last track on Beatles VI.-Composition:...
" and Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
's "Strangers in the Night
Strangers in the Night
"Strangers in the Night" is a popular song composed by Bert Kaempfert with English lyrics by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder. It was originally created under the title Beddy Bye as part of the instrumental score for the movie A Man Could Get Killed...
" for RCA. However, these recordings were never released (although some tracks were released decades later as part of a boxed set
Boxed set
A box set is a compilation of various musical recordings, films, television programs, or other collection of related items that are contained in a box.-Music box sets:...
of Carpenters material.)
Later in 1966, Karen tagged along at a late-night session in the garage studio of Los Angeles bassist Joe Osborn
Joe Osborn
Joe Osborn is an American bass guitar virtuoso, notable for his work as a session musician in Los Angeles and Nashville during the period from the 1960s through the 1980s. Osborn's work is widely admired by fellow musicians.Osborn began his career working in local clubs, then played on a hit...
, and joined future Carpenters collaborator and lyricist John Bettis at a demo session where Richard was to accompany an auditioning trumpet player. Asked to sing, Karen performed for Osborn, who was so bowled over with her voice that he said `Never mind the trumpet player; this chubby little girl can sing.'
Osborn then signed Karen by herself as a singer to his fledgling label, Magic Lamp Records, and the label put out a single featuring two of Richard's compositions, "Looking for Love" and "I'll Be Yours." The single was not a hit however, and the label soon became defunct. However, Osborn let Karen and Richard continue to use his studio to record demo tapes until 1969, when they finally got an offer from A&M Records
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
.
In 1967, Richard and Karen teamed up with four other student musicians from Long Beach State
California State University, Long Beach
California State University, Long Beach is the second largest campus of the California State University system and the third largest university in the state of California by enrollment...
to form a band called "Spectrum". The group often performed at the Whisky a Go Go
Whisky a Go Go
The Whisky a Go Go is a nightclub in West Hollywood, California, United States. It is located at 8901 Sunset Boulevard, on the Sunset Strip.-History:...
. Spectrum member John Bettis
John Bettis
John Bettis is an American lyricist who has co-written many famous popular songs over the years. In 2011, John was inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame....
worked with the Carpenters until Karen's death in 1983, composing many songs with Richard.
In 1968, Spectrum disbanded, and the Richard Carpenter Trio's Wes Jacobs left for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its main performance center is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood...
. Jacobs, who played both the bass and the tuba, would eventually become the symphony's Principal Tubist in 1970. Richard and Karen received an offer to be on the television program Your All American College Show in mid-1968. Their June 22, 1968 performance was Richard's and Karen's first television appearance.
Richard and Karen sent their demo tapes to many record labels until A&M Records
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
' co-owner and trumpeter/vocalist Herb Alpert
Herb Alpert
Herbert "Herb" Alpert is an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, or TJB. He is also a recording industry executive — he is the "A" of A&M Records...
(who happened to be a friend of a friend of their mother's) became attracted to their distinct sound. Alpert was Richard's and Karen's lucky break, and his decision would change their lives.
Carpenters (1969–1983)
Richard and Karen Carpenter signed to A&M Records on April 22, 1969, under the name "Carpenters". Since Karen was technically underage (she was 19 at the time), her parents had to co-sign for her. Richard and Karen had decided to sign as "Carpenters", without the definite article. In the album notes for their 2004 release, Carpenters Gold: 35th Anniversary Edition, Richard stated:After much thought, we decided to name the act "Carpenters" (No "The"; we thought it sounded hipper without it, like Buffalo SpringfieldBuffalo SpringfieldBuffalo Springfield is a North American folk rock band renown both for its music and as a springboard for the careers of Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Jim Messina. Among the first wave of North American bands to become popular in the wake of the British invasion, the group combined...
or Jefferson AirplaneJefferson AirplaneJefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
.)
Offering (Ticket to RideTicket to Ride (album)-Charts:-Credits:*Producer: Jack Daugherty*Engineer: Ray Gerhardt*Guest Artist: Herb Alpert *Bass: Joe Osborn and Bob Messenger*Guitar: Gary Sims*Art Director: Tom Wilkes*Photographer: Jim McCrary-"Ticket To Ride":...
) (1969)
When Richard and Karen Carpenter signed to A&M Records, they were given carte blanche in the recording studio. Their debut album, entitled OfferingTicket to Ride (album)
-Charts:-Credits:*Producer: Jack Daugherty*Engineer: Ray Gerhardt*Guest Artist: Herb Alpert *Bass: Joe Osborn and Bob Messenger*Guitar: Gary Sims*Art Director: Tom Wilkes*Photographer: Jim McCrary-"Ticket To Ride":...
released in 1969, featured a number of songs that Richard had written or co-written during their Spectrum period. However, the most significant track on the album was a ballad rendition of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
hit "Ticket to Ride
Ticket to Ride
"Ticket to Ride" is a song by The Beatles from their 1965 album, Help!. It was recorded 15 February 1965 and released two months later. -Composition:...
", which soon became a minor hit for Carpenters, peaking at #54 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Top 20 of the Adult Contemporary
Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...
chart. In an effort to cash in on the success of that track, Offering was repackaged with a different cover under the name Ticket to Ride in 1970.
Close to YouClose to You (Carpenters album)-We've Only Just Begun:We've Only Just Begun started out as a commercial for Crocker Citizen's Bank in 1970, composed by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols. The commercial showed a couple getting married and starting their life together...
(1970)
Despite the lukewarm chart performance of "Ticket to Ride", Richard and Karen persevered and finally achieved success with the Burt BacharachBurt Bacharach
Burt F. Bacharach is an American pianist, composer and music producer. He is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David. Many of their hits were produced specifically for, and performed by, Dionne Warwick...
/Hal David
Hal David
Harold Lane "Hal" David is an American lyricist. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York. David is best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach.-Career:...
song "(They Long To Be) Close To You
(They Long to Be) Close to You
" Close to You" is a popular song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It was first recorded by Richard Chamberlain and released as a single in 1963 as "They Long to Be Close to You," without parentheses. However, it was the single's flip side, "Blue Guitar," that became a hit...
", which was released in 1970. It debuted at #56, the highest debut of the week ending June 20, 1970. It rose to #1 on July 25, 1970, and stayed on top of the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks.
Shortly afterward, Richard had seen a television commercial for Crocker National Bank
Crocker National Bank
Crocker National Bank was a United States bank headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was acquired by and merged into Wells Fargo Bank in 1986.-History:The bank traces its history to the Woolworth National Bank in San Francisco...
featuring a song entitled "We've Only Just Begun
We've Only Just Begun
"We've Only Just Begun" is the signature song of The Carpenters, written by Roger Nichols and Paul Williams , and is often used as a wedding song. The song was ranked at #405 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".The song was recorded by Smokey Roberds, a friend...
" written by Paul Williams
Paul Williams (songwriter)
Paul Hamilton Williams, Jr. is an Academy Award-winning American composer, musician, songwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song", Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World",...
and Roger Nichols
Roger Nichols (songwriter)
Roger Nichols Roger Nichols Roger Nichols (born in Missoula, Montana, is an American composer and songwriter. He is a multi-instrumentalist who plays violin, guitar, bass, and piano.-Biography:...
. Richard realized the song's hit potential when he heard it on television and three months after "(They Long To Be) Close To You" reached #1, Carpenters' version of "We've Only Just Begun
We've Only Just Begun
"We've Only Just Begun" is the signature song of The Carpenters, written by Roger Nichols and Paul Williams , and is often used as a wedding song. The song was ranked at #405 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".The song was recorded by Smokey Roberds, a friend...
" reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song became the first hit single for Williams and Nichols and is considered by Richard Carpenter to be the group's "signature" tune."
"Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun" became RIAA Certified
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
Gold Singles
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
and were featured on the best-selling album Close To You
Close to You (Carpenters album)
-We've Only Just Begun:We've Only Just Begun started out as a commercial for Crocker Citizen's Bank in 1970, composed by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols. The commercial showed a couple getting married and starting their life together...
, which is placed #175 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
The duo rounded out the year with the holiday release of "Merry Christmas Darling
Merry Christmas Darling
"Merry Christmas, Darling" by The Carpenters was written by Richard Carpenter & Frank Pooler and originally recorded in 1970. At the time, it was first available on a 7" single from A&M Records and later in 1974 reissued as A&M 1648 and in 1977 as A&M 1991...
". The single scored high on the holiday charts in 1970 and made repeated appearances on the holiday charts in subsequent years. In 1978, feeling she could give a more mature treatment to the tune, Karen re-cut the vocal for their Christmas TV special and the song became a hit all over again.
CarpentersCarpenters (album)Carpenters is the third studio album by the Carpenters. Released on May 14, 1971, the album was successful, reaching #2 on the Billboard 200 chart and #12 in the UK...
and A Song for You (1971–1972)
A string of hit singles and albums kept Carpenters on the charts through the early 1970s. Their 1971 hit "For All We KnowFor All We Know (1970 song)
"For All We Know" is a popular song written for the 1970 film, Lovers and Other Strangers, by Fred Karlin, Robb Wilson and Arthur James . It was originally performed by Larry Meredith....
" was originally recorded in 1970, by Larry Meredith, for a wedding scene in the movie Lovers and Other Strangers
Lovers and Other Strangers
Lovers and Other Strangers is a 1970 comedy film based on the play by Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna. The film features an ensemble cast including Richard Castellano, Gig Young, Cloris Leachman, Anne Jackson, Beatrice Arthur, Bonnie Bedelia, Michael Brandon, Harry Guardino, Anne Meara, Bob Dishy,...
. Upon hearing it in the movie theatre, Richard realized its potential and subsequently recorded it in the autumn of 1970. The track became Carpenters' third gold single.
The duo's fourth gold single "Rainy Days and Mondays
Rainy Days and Mondays
"Rainy Days and Mondays" is a 1971 song by The Carpenters that went to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was certified Gold by the RIAA. It was also the duo's fourth #1 song on the Adult Contemporary singles chart...
" became Williams' and Nichols' second major single with Carpenters, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, kept from the top slot only because of Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
's "It's Too Late". According to Ray Coleman, well-known music industry journalist and biographer, "Rainy Days and Mondays" is arguably one of Carpenters' most popular tracks.
"Superstar" written by Delaney Bramlett
Delaney Bramlett
Delaney Bramlett was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and producer. Bramlett's five decade career reached peaks in creativity, performance, and notoriety in partnership with his then wife Bonnie Bramlett, in a revolving troupe of professional musicians and Rock superstars dubbed Delaney...
and Leon Russell
Leon Russell
Claude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....
became another Carpenters classic and is acclaimed for Karen's "haunting" vocals on the song. Richard modified the original lyric of "And I can hardly wait to sleep with you again," to "And I can hardly wait to BE with you again." The song is often described as "poignant". The record became the duo's third #2 single on the Billboard Hot 100. Their eponym
Eponym
An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...
ous album, entitled Carpenters
Carpenters (album)
Carpenters is the third studio album by the Carpenters. Released on May 14, 1971, the album was successful, reaching #2 on the Billboard 200 chart and #12 in the UK...
was released in 1971. It became one of their best-selling albums, earning RIAA certification for platinum four times. It won a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Carpenters, as well as three other nominations.
"Goodbye to Love
Goodbye to Love
"Goodbye to Love" is a song composed by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis. It was released by the Carpenters in 1972. On the "Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters" documentary, Tony Peluso stated that this was one of the first, if not the first, love ballads to have a fuzz guitar solo.Upon...
" is the title to an unheard magnum opus in the 1940 Bing Crosby movie Rhythm on the River
Rhythm on the River
Rhythm on the River is a 1940 musical comedy film starring Bing Crosby and Mary Martin as ghostwriters whose songs are credited to a composer played by Basil Rathbone. James V...
. Crosby played a songwriter trying to come up with a song called "Goodbye to Love." Although the song's title was mentioned several times in the movie, no such song ever existed. Richard Carpenter happened to see this movie on late-night television one night and decided that it was a great title. He and Bettis wrote the song on a Learjet for his sister Karen to sing. The song was Carpenters' third hit single in 1972, peaking at #7.
"Goodbye to Love" starts off slowly with Karen singing softly a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
, then builds up to an intense electric guitar solo in the middle. The second verse starts off calmly, then builds up again to a blistering drum and electric guitar fade-out. The fuzz-guitar solo was played by lead guitarist Tony Peluso
Tony Peluso
Tony Peluso was an American guitarist and record producer. He was lead guitarist for pop duo Carpenters from 1972 to 1983....
, who was called personally by Karen herself and asked to play on the song, thereby launching the genre which would come to be known as the power ballad. Peluso recalls that, at the time, he thought someone was playing a joke on him when a woman called and said she was Karen Carpenter. Peluso would ultimately be a part of Carpenters until their end in 1983.
"Top of the World
Top of the World (The Carpenters song)
"Top of the World" is the name of a 1972 song by The Carpenters. Originally recorded for and released on the duo's 1972 studio album A Song for You, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in late 1973, becoming the duo's second U.S. number-one single...
" was the group's biggest country hit. Lynn Anderson
Lynn Anderson
Lynn Rene Anderson is an American country music singer and equestrian known for a string of hits throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, most notably her Grammy Award-winning, worldwide mega-hit, " Rose Garden." Helped by her regular exposure on national television, Anderson was one of the most...
had heard the album cut version in 1972 and decided to record her own version. Anderson released her version in early 1973; Richard and Karen debated as to whether or not they should release their version on a single. Gil Friesen, an A&M co-worker, argued that they had released too many records from the A Song for You
A Song for You (Carpenters album)
A Song for You is the fourth album released by the Carpenters, released on June 13, 1972. According to Richard Carpenter, "A Song for You was intended to be a concept album with the title tune opening and closing the set and the bookended selections comprising the 'song'."In Cash Box's Top 100...
album already ("Hurting Each Other
Hurting Each Other
"Hurting Each Other" is a song popularized by the Carpenters in 1972. It was originally written by Gary Geld and Peter Udell in 1965, and was recorded multiple times by artists from Ruby and the Romantics to Rosemary Clooney.-Previous versions:...
", "It's Going to Take Some Time
It's Going to Take Some Time
"It's Going to Take Some Time" is a song written by Carole King and Toni Stern for her 1971 album, Music. It was redone by the Carpenters in 1972 for their fourth album, A Song for You. According to Richard Carpenter, he had to choose which songs he wanted to remake, and there was a big pile of 7"...
", "Goodbye to Love
Goodbye to Love
"Goodbye to Love" is a song composed by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis. It was released by the Carpenters in 1972. On the "Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters" documentary, Tony Peluso stated that this was one of the first, if not the first, love ballads to have a fuzz guitar solo.Upon...
", and later, "I Won't Last a Day Without You
I Won't Last a Day Without You
"I Won't Last a Day Without You" is a song composed by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols. Williams released his version as a single in 1973, but garnered only minor success. Maureen McGovern recorded the song and also released it as a single in 1973 , with results similar to those of Williams...
"). Regardless, they released "Top of the World" as a single in May 1973 in response to the heavy public demand, and it became Carpenters' second Billboard #1 hit, in December 1973.
Now & Then (1973)
Their Now & Then album from 1973 was named by mother Agnes Carpenter. It contained the popular Sesame Street song "Sing" and the reminiscent "Yesterday Once MoreYesterday Once More (song)
"Yesterday Once More", written by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis, is a hit song by The Carpenters from their 1973 album Now & Then. Composed in the key of E, "Yesterday Once More" preceded an "Oldies Medley" on the album, consisting of nine songs from the 1960s. At the end of the song a...
".
In 1974, Carpenters achieved a massive international hit with an up-tempo remake of Hank Williams's "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)
Jambalaya (On the Bayou)
"Jambalaya " is the title of a song written and recorded by American country music singer Hank Williams that was first released in July 1952...
". While the song was not released as a single in the U.S., it reached the top 30 in Japan, sold well in the United Kingdom, and became their biggest hit of all time in the Netherlands. In late 1974, a Christmas single followed, a jazz-influenced rendition of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
"Santa Claus is Coming to Town" is a Christmas song. It was written by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie, and was first sung on Eddie Cantor's radio show in November 1934....
".
The First World Tour (1974)
The Carpenters did not release a new album in 1974. In Richard's words, "there was simply no time to make one. Nor was I in the mood." The duo also had no Hot 100 top 10 hit in 1974. "Top of the World" was at #11 and dropping on 5 January 1974, while "Please Mr. PostmanPlease Mr. Postman
"Please Mr. Postman" is the debut single by The Marvelettes for the Tamla label, notable as the first Motown song to reach the number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart. The single achieved this position in late 1961; it hit number one on the R&B chart as well. "Please Mr...
" was at #11 and rising on 28 December 1974. In between these two singles, the pair released just one Hot 100 single, a Paul Williams/Roger Nichols composition called "I Won't Last a Day Without You
I Won't Last a Day Without You
"I Won't Last a Day Without You" is a song composed by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols. Williams released his version as a single in 1973, but garnered only minor success. Maureen McGovern recorded the song and also released it as a single in 1973 , with results similar to those of Williams...
". Originally recorded as an album track for their 1972 LP, A Song for You
A Song for You (Carpenters album)
A Song for You is the fourth album released by the Carpenters, released on June 13, 1972. According to Richard Carpenter, "A Song for You was intended to be a concept album with the title tune opening and closing the set and the bookended selections comprising the 'song'."In Cash Box's Top 100...
, the Carpenters finally decided to release their original two years after its original LP release and some months after Maureen McGovern
Maureen McGovern
Maureen Therese McGovern is an American singer and Broadway actress, well known for her premier renditions of the Oscar winning songs "The Morning After" from the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure, and "We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno in 1974.-Early life:McGovern was...
's 1973 cover. In March 1974, the single version became the fifth and final selection from that album project to chart in the Top 20, reaching #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the summer of 1974.
The Singles: 1969-1973The Singles: 1969-1973The Singles 1969-1973 is an album by the brother/sister pop duo The Carpenters. A greatest hits collection, it topped the charts in the U.S. and the United Kingdom and became one of the best-selling albums of the 1970s. Features of this compilation include a newly recorded version of "Top Of The...
(1974)
In place of the new album for 1974, their first greatest hits package this album was released, featuring new remixRemix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
es of their prior hit singles, some with a newly-recorded lead, and including newly recorded bridges and transition material so that each side of the album would play through with no breaks, giving the album a little bit of a live-concert feel. Some complete songs were recorded in addition to the aforementioned singles, however, as would happen with their non-Christmas songs recorded in 1978, most of these did not see the light of day until after Karen's passing. These songs were included on "Voice of the Heart
Voice of the Heart
Voice of the Heart is the eleventh album by American pop duo Carpenters. It was released in 1983 after Karen's death and contains material from her final recording sessions, as well as previously unreleased tracks from sessions over the years....
", "Lovelines
Lovelines
Lovelines is a 1989 album released by The Carpenters.In 1989, Richard Carpenter decided to release an album of unreleased Carpenters tracks along with selected solo tracks by his sister, Karen Carpenter ....
", the Carpenters box set From the Top, and their two outtake albums As Time Goes By
As Time Goes By (The Carpenters album)
The Carpenters album "As Time Goes By" was initially released in Japan on August 1, 2001.An international release was originally to follow soon thereafter, but the release of the album generated copyright discrepancies among several publishers...
and Interpretations
Interpretations: A 25th Anniversary Celebration
The Carpenters' compilation "Interpretations" was released in 1995 as both a cassette tape and a CD. Some songs on here were never before released, such as "Without a Song" and "From This Moment On"...
.
Their first compilation album was entitled The Singles: 1969-1973
The Singles: 1969-1973
The Singles 1969-1973 is an album by the brother/sister pop duo The Carpenters. A greatest hits collection, it topped the charts in the U.S. and the United Kingdom and became one of the best-selling albums of the 1970s. Features of this compilation include a newly recorded version of "Top Of The...
and it topped the charts in the U.S. for one week, on 5 January 1974, and it also topped the United Kingdom chart and became one of the best-selling albums of the decade, ultimately selling more than 7 million copies in the U.S. alone. According to Ray Coleman, The Singles: 1969-1973 went to number one on February 9, 1974, and exited #1 sixteen weeks later, on June 1, 1974, because of Rick Wakeman's
Rick Wakeman
Richard Christopher Wakeman is an English keyboard player, composer and songwriter best known for being the former keyboardist in the progressive rock band Yes...
Journey to the Centre of the Earth
Journey to the Centre of the Earth (album)
Journey to the Centre of the Earth is the second album from the English keyboardist and composer Rick Wakeman, released through A&M Records in May 1974. The album is a live recording from his second of two sold-out concerts on 18 January 1974 at the Royal Festival Hall in London...
.
HorizonHorizon (The Carpenters album)Horizon is the sixth consecutive platinum-certified album by American musical duo The Carpenters. It was recorded at A&M Records and recorded at 30 inches per second)...
(1975)
In 1975, The Carpenters gained another hit with a remake of The MarvelettesThe Marvelettes
The Marvelettes were an American singing girl group on the Tamla label. Motown's first successful female vocal group, the Marvelettes are most notable for recording the company's first #1 Pop hit, "Please Mr...
' chart-topping Motown classic from 1961, "Please Mr. Postman
Please Mr. Postman
"Please Mr. Postman" is the debut single by The Marvelettes for the Tamla label, notable as the first Motown song to reach the number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart. The single achieved this position in late 1961; it hit number one on the R&B chart as well. "Please Mr...
". Released in late 1974, the song soared to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1975, becoming the duo's third and final #1 pop single. It also earned Karen and Richard their record-setting twelfth million-selling gold single in America.
Richard Carpenter's and John Bettis's song "Only Yesterday
Only Yesterday (song)
"Only Yesterday" is a song recorded by The Carpenters in 1975. It was released on March 14, 1975, and was the Carpenters' last top-ten single in the United States. Composed by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis, it peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the easy listening...
" followed "Please Mr. Postman", and peaked at #4. Carpenter and Bettis did not believe that "Only Yesterday" would become a hit single, and bet against Roger Young that it would not enter the top 5. They each lost a thousand dollars to Young.
Both singles appeared on their 1975 LP Horizon, which also included covers of The Eagles' "Desperado
Desperado (song)
"Desperado" is a soft rock song by the Eagles, an American rock band, written by group members Glenn Frey and Don Henley. It first appeared on the 1973 album Desperado, and has later appeared on numerous compilation albums although it was not a single....
" and Neil Sedaka
Neil Sedaka
Neil Sedaka is an American pop/rock singer, pianist, and composer. His career has spanned nearly 55 years, during which time he has sold millions of records as an artist and has written or co-written over 500 songs for himself and other artists, collaborating mostly with lyricists Howard...
's "Solitaire", which became a moderate hit for the duo that year. Horizon was certified platinum, but owing to the disc's late release (after the second single was already dropping off the charts), it was their first album to fall short of multi-platinum status. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
reviewer Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden is an American writer, music critic, film critic, and poet.Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963...
acclaimed Horizon, calling it "the Carpenters' most musically sophisticated album to date."
The Carpenters were among the first American recording acts to produce music videos to promote their records. In early 1975, they filmed a performance of "Please Mr. Postman
Please Mr. Postman
"Please Mr. Postman" is the debut single by The Marvelettes for the Tamla label, notable as the first Motown song to reach the number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart. The single achieved this position in late 1961; it hit number one on the R&B chart as well. "Please Mr...
" at Disneyland as well as "Only Yesterday
Only Yesterday (song)
"Only Yesterday" is a song recorded by The Carpenters in 1975. It was released on March 14, 1975, and was the Carpenters' last top-ten single in the United States. Composed by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis, it peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the easy listening...
" at the Huntington Gardens.
A Kind of HushA Kind of Hush (album)A Kind of Hush is the seventh studio album by American popular music duo The Carpenters. It was released in May 1976.Of its three excerpted singles only the title track, "There's a Kind of Hush ," a cover of a 1960s song by Herman's Hermits, gave the pair a hit single - both the US Top Ten, and UK...
and PassagePassage (The Carpenters album)Passage is the eighth album by American popular music duo Carpenters. Released in 1977, it produced the hit singles "All You Get from Love Is a Love Song", "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" and "Sweet, Sweet Smile"....
(1976–1977)
Their subsequent album A Kind of HushA Kind of Hush (album)
A Kind of Hush is the seventh studio album by American popular music duo The Carpenters. It was released in May 1976.Of its three excerpted singles only the title track, "There's a Kind of Hush ," a cover of a 1960s song by Herman's Hermits, gave the pair a hit single - both the US Top Ten, and UK...
, released on June 11, 1976, achieved gold status
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
, but again owing to its late release, became the first Carpenters album not to become a platinum certified record since Ticket to Ride seven years earlier. Their singles releases in 1976 were successful, but at this time, contemporary hit radio was moving forward with changing musical styles, which ultimately made the careers of most "soft" groups like Carpenters suffer. The duo's biggest pop single that year was a cover of Herman's Hermits
Herman's Hermits
Herman's Hermits are an English beat band, formed in Manchester in 1963 as Herman & The Hermits. The group's record producer, Mickie Most , emphasized a simple, non-threatening, clean-cut image, although the band originally played R&B numbers...
' "There's a Kind of Hush (All Over the World)", which peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100. "I Need to Be in Love
I Need to Be in Love
"I Need to Be in Love" is a song written by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis. It was released as a single on May 21, 1976. It was featured on the "A Kind of Hush" album, which was released on June 11 of the same year. The single featured a version without the piano lead-in and starts immediately...
" (allegedly Karen's favorite song by Carpenters) charted at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, it followed "There's a Kind of Hush" to the top spot on the Adult Contemporary charts and became the duo's 14th #1 Adult Contemporary hit, far and away more than any other act in the history of the chart.
The disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
craze was in full swing by 1977, and adult-appeal "easy listening
Easy listening
Easy listening is a broad style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the 1950s, evolving out of big band music, and related to MOR music as played on many AM radio stations. It encompasses the exotica, beautiful music, light music, lounge music, ambient music, and space age pop genres...
" artists like Carpenters were getting less airplay. Their experimental album, Passage, released in 1977, marked an attempt to broaden their appeal by venturing into other musical genres. The album featured an unlikely mix of Jazz-fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
("B'wana She No Home"), calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
("Man Smart, Woman Smarter"), and orchestrated balladry ("I Just Fall in Love Again
I Just Fall in Love Again
"I Just Fall in Love Again" is a song written by Larry Herbstritt, with co-writers Steve Dorff, Harry Lloyd, and Gloria Sklerov. Herbstritt had composed the melody and chords for the chorus and a chord progression for the verse, which he took to his friend Steve Dorff. Harry Lloyd and Gloria...
", "Two Sides"), and included the hits, "All You Get from Love Is a Love Song
All You Get from Love Is a Love Song
"All You Get from Love Is a Love Song" is a song composed by Steve Eaton. It was popularized by the Carpenters in 1977. It was released to the public on May 2, 1977. Its B-side was "I Have You", a song released on the A Kind of Hush album in 1976...
", "Sweet, Sweet Smile
Sweet, Sweet Smile
"Sweet, Sweet Smile" is a C&W song composed by Otha Young and Juice Newton introduced by the Carpenters on their 1977 album Passage. The track features drummer Ronnie Tutt who regularly backed Elvis Presley....
", and "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
"Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft " is a song by Klaatu, originally released in 1976 on their first album 3:47 EST. The following year, The Carpenters covered the song, using a crew of 160 musicians...
". The most notable tracks included cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
s of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina
Don't Cry for Me, Argentina
"Don't Cry for Me Argentina" is a song from the 1978 musical Evita with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. Sung by the title character Eva Perón, it was titled “It's Only Your Lover Returning” before Rice settled on the eventual name...
" (from the rock opera
Rock opera
A rock opera is a work of rock music that presents a storyline told over multiple parts, songs or sections in the manner of opera. A rock opera differs from a conventional rock album, which usually includes songs that are not unified by a common theme or narrative. More recent developments include...
Evita) and Klaatu's "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft (the Recognized Anthem of World Contact Day)
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
"Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft " is a song by Klaatu, originally released in 1976 on their first album 3:47 EST. The following year, The Carpenters covered the song, using a crew of 160 musicians...
", both complete with choral and orchestral accompaniment. Ironically the latter song predated the release of Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
's film Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, and Cary Guffey...
by one month. Although the single release of "Calling Occupants" became a minor hit in the United Kingdom, peaking at number 32 on the U.S. pop charts, for the first time a Carpenters album did not reach the gold threshold of 500,000 copies shipped in the United States. The Carpenters' music videos of "All You Get from Love Is a Love Song" and "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" for the Passage album can be seen on the DVD Gold: Greatest Hits.
In early 1978, they scored a surprise Top 10 country hit with the up-tempo, fiddle-sweetened "Sweet, Sweet Smile", written by country-pop singer Juice Newton
Juice Newton
Judith Kay "Juice" Newton is an American Pop music and Country singer, songwriter and guitarist...
and her longtime musical partner Otha Young
Otha Young
Otha Young was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer and the longtime musical partner of Grammy-Award winning country-pop artist Juice Newton....
.
The Singles: 1974-1978The Singles: 1974-1978The Singles: 1974–1978 is a compilation album by American pop duo The Carpenters containing some of their singles released in the years mentioned in the title. It was released internationally, reaching #2 on the UK Album Chart but the declining popularity of the Carpenters in the U.S...
(1978)
In place of a new album for 1978, a second compilation, The Singles: 1974-1978The Singles: 1974-1978
The Singles: 1974–1978 is a compilation album by American pop duo The Carpenters containing some of their singles released in the years mentioned in the title. It was released internationally, reaching #2 on the UK Album Chart but the declining popularity of the Carpenters in the U.S...
, was released however, only in the UK. Meanwhile, in the United States, their first holiday album, Christmas Portrait
Christmas Portrait
Christmas Portrait is the first Christmas album recorded by The Carpenters , originally released on October 13, 1978 ....
, proved to be an exception to their faltering career at home and became a seasonal favorite, returning Karen and Richard to platinum status.
During the sessions, several non-holiday songs were also recorded such as Where Do I Go From Here, Slow Dance, and Honolulu City Lights
Honolulu City Lights
"Honolulu City Lights" is a song composed by Hawaiian singer/songwriter Keola Beamer in the 1970s which opens an album by the same name...
, most of which would not see the light of day until after Karen's passing as a part of numerous albums made up of outtakes.
Brief hiatus, Made in AmericaMade in America (The Carpenters album)Made in America is the tenth album by The Carpenters, and was the final album by the duo to be released during Karen Carpenter's lifetime...
and Karen's final days
Richard sought treatment for his addiction to quaaludes at a Topeka, KansasTopeka, Kansas
Topeka |Kansa]]: Tó Pee Kuh) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is situated along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
, facility for six weeks starting in January 1979. He then decided to take the rest of the year off for relaxation and rehabilitation. Richard first sought refuge at the home of his bandmate Gary Sims, before moving into the apparent anonymity of one of their apartment blocks bought at the outset of their career. Richard would live there for the next seven years, during Karen's treatment in New York, after her death and beyond it. Karen, at this point neither wanting to take a break from singing nor seek help for her anorexia, decided to pursue a solo album project with renowned producer Phil Ramone
Phil Ramone
Phil Ramone is a South-African violinist, composer, recording engineer, and record producer.-Biography:As a young child in South Africa, Ramone was a musical prodigy, beginning to play the violin at age three and performing for Queen Elizabeth II at age ten...
in New York. The choice of maverick record producer Ramone and more adult-oriented and disco/dance-tempo material represented an effort to retool her image. By spring 1980, the album was finished and the customary playback for record executives was booked. The album had already been assigned a catalogue number and stunning new artwork and photos of Karen taken for the cover. Staff at A&M were were prepared for its release and it was being talked up as a summer blockbuster for the label. Reaction to an earlier playback in New York had been fantastic, with champagne flowing and an ecstatic Karen jumping up and down. Playback in California, for Richard and A&M Executives met with a very different reaction. Song after song, the room was silent and the subsequent decision from the executives was unanimous: it had to be cancelled. Outside of the meeting, Karen crumpled in her producer's arms, devastated at the rejection. To add insult to injury, A&M Records confirmed that the debt for its production (more than half a million dollars) would be charged against Carpenters' future royalties.
Angry, but for the most part undismayed by the decision, Karen proceeded with plans to record a new album with her brother, who had now recovered from his addiction and was ready to go. Karen's solo album Karen Carpenter
Karen Carpenter (album)
Karen Carpenter is a solo CD released by A&M Records in 1996. All of the songs on the album were from the New York solo sessions recorded with producer Phil Ramone in 1979 and 1980. During this time, her brother Richard was being treated for an addiction to Quaaludes and Karen wanted to remain...
, went unreleased until October 1996, although Karen's fans got a taste of the album in 1989 when four of its tracks, "Lovelines", "If We Try", "Remember When Lovin' Took All Night" and "If I Had You", turned up, albeit remixed by Richard, on their third posthumous album Lovelines
Lovelines
Lovelines is a 1989 album released by The Carpenters.In 1989, Richard Carpenter decided to release an album of unreleased Carpenters tracks along with selected solo tracks by his sister, Karen Carpenter ....
. "If I Had You" was released as a single and reached the Top 20 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Two further tracks were drip fed to fans on the duo's box set 'From The Top'.
The Carpenters produced a final television special in 1980 called Music, Music, Music!, with guest stars Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
, Suzanne Somers
Suzanne Somers
Suzanne Somers is an American actress, author, singer and businesswoman, known for her television roles as Chrissy Snow on Three's Company and as Carol Lambert on Step by Step....
, and John Davidson
John Davidson (entertainer)
John Hamilton Davidson, Sr. is an American singer, actor and game show host known for hosting That's Incredible!, Time Machine, and Hollywood Squares in the 1980s, and a revival of The $100,000 Pyramid in 1991....
. This event was filmed the same year Karen married Tom Burris, and she had temporarily returned to a healthier weight. However, ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
was not at all happy with their special, as it was just music from start to finish, unlike the previous specials which included sketch-based comedy. ABC felt it was too much like a PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
program.
On June 16, 1981, the Carpenters released what would become their final LP as a duo, Made in America. Happy to see his favourite duo return to the fold, Herb Alpert hosted a 'Welcome Back' party for them on the lawns at the lot of A&M Records. The album sold only around 200,000 copies before Karen's death in 1983; however, it did spawn a final top 20 pop single, the romantic "Touch Me When We're Dancing
Touch Me When We're Dancing
"Touch Me When We're Dancing" is a song written by Terry Skinner, J. L. Wallace and Ken Bell. Skinner and Wallace headed the Muscle Shoals, Alabama session group Bama, who first recorded this song and released it as a single in 1979 reaching the Billboard Easy Listening chart at #42 and ranking on...
", which reached #16 on the Hot 100. It also became their fifteenth number one Adult Contemporary hit. Promotion for the album included a whistle-stop tour of America, Brazil and Europe, preceded by a disastrous live appearance for a Japanese Telethon event, filmed outdoors on the lot of A&M in August 1981. During their segment (the last of the show) and in the uncomfortably hot sunshine, the playback audio cut out midway through their performance of 'Touch Me When We're Dancing'. The ensuing scenes, coupled with Karen's furious reaction, left it obvious to viewers that the whole band had been miming live on TV. Three further singles from the album failed to ignite the charts, with its final selection 'Beechwood 4-5789' being released on Karen's birthday on March 2, 1982.
Karen's personal troubles dimmed the prospects of this modest return to the charts. After a whirlwind romance, Karen married real estate developer Thomas James Burris in a lavish wedding held in the Crystal Room of the Beverly Hills Hotel on August 31, 1980. A new song performed by Karen at the ceremony, "Because We Are in Love", surfaced in 1981 on Made in America (as well as the B-side of "Touch Me When We're Dancing"). By late 1981, though, with marriage troubles brewing and Karen firmly in the grip of anorexia, her physical appearance had changed drastically. Friends she visited did not recognise her and promotional TV appearances revealed her to be shockingly thin. The music videos produced to promote the Made in America album were ample evidence that Karen was now seriously ill. Vindicating the earlier views of many of her close friends, Karen's husband Tom Burris had also turned out not to be what he represented financially, at times demanded sums of up to $30,000 from her to keep his business dealings afloat. Knowing full well of Karen's wish to start a family, Tom had also deliberately concealed from her the fact that he had previously had a vasectomy, a fact which Karen only found out days before her wedding. Telephoning her mother beside herself, telling her that the wedding was off, Karen's mother replied, "The invites have gone out, People Magazine is going to be there. You made your bed, now you have to lie in it. You will walk down that aisle."
By November 1981, Karen's marriage reached a breaking point and after a family dinner, Karen and Tom returned to their parents' home in Downey and after a heated row upstairs, Tom announced to her perplexed parents "You can keep her," and stormed out. Shortly after this, Karen resolved to deal with her eating disorder and sought therapy with noted psychotherapist Steven Levenkron
Steven Levenkron
Steven Levenkron is a psychotherapist and writer known for his research into anorexia nervosa and self-injury. He now lives and still continues his practice in New York....
in New York City. Attending therapy sessions for an hour a day, Karen attempted to deal with her problem head on, but it was not without its complications. On one occasion, Karen admitted to her therapist that she was ingesting up to 100 laxatives a day. More alarmingly, Levenkron found out she was taking ten times the normal daily dose of thyroid medication, despite having a normal thyroid, in order to speed up her metabolism. Horrified by this revelation, he demanded she bring the bottle to him the following day and it remains in his drawer to this day. As Karen's self-imposed deadline of a year in therapy drew nearer, events took a frightening turn in September 1982 when she called her therapist to say her heart was beating funny and she felt dizzy and confused. Admitting herself into hospital, Karen was hooked up to an intravenous drip and had 30 pounds in weight put back on her. By November 1982, Karen left the hospital and despite pleas from family and friends, announced that she was returning home to California and that she was cured. Karen's last public appearance was in December, when she performed at her godparents' school in Sherman Oaks, CA, singing Christmas songs.
Several events between November 1982 and February 1983 caused family and friends to conclude that all was still not well with Karen. Richard insisted that although she had marvellous, big brown eyes, there was no life left in them. Raising the red flag to their long term advisor Werner Wolfen, he subsequently reported this back to Karen, who became furious. Calling a perplexed Richard to a meeting with Werner there and then, she reiterated that she had supported her brother through his difficulties with quaaludes and that he should do the same for her. They called a truce, but she reckoned without her brother's grim conviction of the truth. Karen also complained to friends about her concerns over her thumping heart and spots before her eyes. Alarmed, they wanted to tell her mother about such episodes but Karen allayed their fears and told them she would tell Agnes herself. She never did.
Karen's sudden death
Without the usual customary phone call to say she was on her way, Karen's red Jaguar swung into the driveway of her parents' Newville Avenue home on the afternoon of February 3, 1983. Karen told her mother of her need to buy a new washing machine and other plans she had for the following day and ultimately decided to spend the evening with her parents, watching a rerun of Shogun and talking with friends on the telephone, including the producer of her shelved solo album, Phil RamonePhil Ramone
Phil Ramone is a South-African violinist, composer, recording engineer, and record producer.-Biography:As a young child in South Africa, Ramone was a musical prodigy, beginning to play the violin at age three and performing for Queen Elizabeth II at age ten...
. The following morning, her mother Agnes heard Karen come down to hook up the coffee machine before returning upstairs. Agnes arose and came downstairs and dialled Richard's room where Karen had been sleeping to call her down to breakfast, but did not receive an answer. After shouting her name twice more with no response, Agnes went up the steps and found her daughter lying unresponsive on the floor of the walk-in closet. Screaming for Harold to call paramedics, Agnes then called Richard, who raced to the house. By the time he arrived, his sister was already in an ambulance. Noting Richard's distressed state, paramedics advised him to drive very carefully if he planned to follow the ambulance. Richard would later say that his hope at the time was that she had merely passed out, they would be able to revive her and that she would see the error of her ways. It was not to be. After spending 20 minutes in a waiting room, a doctor entered to tell Richard and his parents the grim news: at the age of just 32, Karen was dead. She was scheduled to sign her divorce papers later that day.
Karen Carpenter did not die from anorexia itself, but from sinister side-effects of the disease. After toying with her body for several years, her heart could not take the strain of a long period of poor eating habits followed by rapid weight gain. The autopsy stated that Karen's death was caused by emetine
Emetine
Emetine is a drug used as both an anti-protozoal and to induce vomiting. It is produced from the ipecac root.-Early emetine-based preparations:Early use of emetine was in the form of oral administration of the extract of ipecac root, or ipecacuanha...
cardiotoxicity
Cardiotoxicity
Cardiotoxicity is the occurrence of heart electrophysiology dysfunction or/and muscle damage. The heart becomes weaker and is not as efficient in pumping and therefore circulating blood...
resulting from anorexia nervosa. Under the anatomical summary, the first item was heart failure, with anorexia as second. The third finding was cachexia
Cachexia
Cachexia or wasting syndrome is loss of weight, muscle atrophy, fatigue, weakness, and significant loss of appetite in someone who is not actively trying to lose weight...
, which is extremely low weight and weakness and general body decline associated with chronic disease. Emetine cardiotoxicity suggested that Karen abused ipecac syrup, used medically to induce vomiting in patients who have ingested poison, but which taken in quantities actually is a poison in itself. Ipecac was easily obtainable at the time and for a long time after her death there was no evidence to suggest that Karen abused it.. Richard insisted that he had never seen any toxicology report supporting the use of ipecac, but since the publication of the Coleman account of their story in 1994, the long-lost toxicology report has surfaced, proving that Karen's heart had been damaged by the use of ipecac and previous use of synthoid, which Karen took in quantities to race her heart to burn off more calories. What no one could have anticipated was that between Karen leaving New York in November 1982 and the following February, Karen's sustained, secretive use of ipecac (to replace the laxatives Steven Levenkron had successfully weaned her off) meant that she had accidentally poisoned herself within just three months of leaving her therapist's care.
Between her death on February 4 and her funeral service on Tuesday, February 8, 1983, at the Downey United Methodist Church, Karen's body lay in state at Forest Lawns Memorial Park in an open white casket. Karen was dressed in a pink suit and mourners and fans turned up to pay their last respects. At her funeral, more than a thousand mourners turned up, among them her friends Dorothy Hamill
Dorothy Hamill
Dorothy Stuart Hamill is an American figure skater. She is the 1976 Olympic champion in Ladies' Singles and 1976 World Champion.-Early life:...
, Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
, Petula Clark
Petula Clark
Petula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...
, Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health....
and Herb Alpert
Herb Alpert
Herbert "Herb" Alpert is an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, or TJB. He is also a recording industry executive — he is the "A" of A&M Records...
. Prior to the funeral, Karen's husband Tom Burris had thrown his wedding ring into the casket. The Carpenters: the Untold Story).
On October 12, 1983, the Carpenters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
, a few yards from the Kodak Theater. Richard, Harold, and Agnes Carpenter attended the inauguration, as did many fans.
Karen's death brought lasting media attention to anorexia nervosa and also to bulimia. Karen's death encouraged celebrities to go public about their eating disorders, among them Tracey Gold
Tracey Gold
Tracey Gold is an American actress and former child star best known for playing Carol Seaver on the 1980s sitcom Growing Pains. In early 2009, she co-hosted with Fred Roggin on the live show GSN Live.-Early life:...
and later, Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...
. Medical centers and hospitals began receiving increased contacts from people with these disorders. The general public had little knowledge of anorexia and bulimia prior to her death, making the conditions difficult to identify and treat.
In December 2003, the remains of Karen and her parents were exhumed from Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Cypress, California, and reinterred in Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village, California, in the presence of her brother and his wife (and first cousin) Mary. She is buried with her parents in a pink marble tomb valued at around $600,000, which bears the Carpenter family name in gold lettering across its top.
Post-Carpenters (1983–present)
Voice of the Heart
Voice of the Heart is the eleventh album by American pop duo Carpenters. It was released in 1983 after Karen's death and contains material from her final recording sessions, as well as previously unreleased tracks from sessions over the years....
, an album that included some finished tracks left out of Made In America and earlier LPs, was released in late 1983. It peaked at #46 and was certified Gold. Two singles were released. "Make Believe It's Your First Time", a second version of a song Karen had recorded for her solo album (and a song which had been a minor hit in 1979 for Bobby Vinton
Bobby Vinton
Bobby Vinton is an American pop music singer of Polish origin. In pop music circles, he became known as "The Polish Prince".-Early life:...
), reached #7 Adult Contemporary but only reached #101 on the pop side. "Your Baby Doesn't Love You Anymore" got to #12 Adult Contemporary. Richard Carpenter married his first cousin, Mary Rudolph, on May 19, 1984. Kristi was born on August 17, 1987, Traci on July 25, 1989, Mindi Karen (named after her late aunt) on July 7, 1992, followed by Colin and Taylor.
For the second Christmas season following Karen's death, Richard constructed a "new" Carpenters Christmas album entitled, An Old-Fashioned Christmas
An Old-Fashioned Christmas
An Old-Fashioned Christmas is a Christmas album from The Carpenters, released in 1984 after the death of singer/drummer Karen Carpenter.The album project had its genesis in several unused tracks from the Carpenters' previous Christmas album, 1978's Christmas Portrait. Richard Carpenter took these...
, using outtake material from the duo's first Christmas album (A Christmas Portrait) and recording new material around it.
Documentaries
Richard's dedication to protecting the Carpenters image and recording legacy has sparked criticism, as Richard has insisted on substantial project oversight in any documentary or drama about them.That same year, he intervened to limit the distribution of the Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes is an American independent film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his feature films Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Poison, Velvet Goldmine, Safe, and the Academy Award-nominated Far from Heaven and I'm Not There.- Style and themes :The writes that "Haynes is...
short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story is a 43 minute film about the life of Karen Carpenter. It was directed by Todd Haynes and released in 1987. It was withdrawn from circulation in 1990 after Haynes lost a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Karen's brother and musical collaborator, Richard...
(which used Barbie
Barbie
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration....
dolls to tell the story of Karen's death). Although critics found Karen's portrayal sympathetic, the film depicted the Carpenter family in an unflattering light, and Richard prevailed in pulling the film from distribution on the basis that Carpenters tracks were used without permission. Two years later, a TV movie entitled The Karen Carpenter Story
The Karen Carpenter Story
The Karen Carpenter Story is a TV movie that aired on CBS on January 1, 1989. It was directed by Joseph Sargent. Richard Carpenter served as a producer for the film as well as the musical score. It was very popular in the ratings; it was the highest-rated two-hour TV movie of the year and the third...
featuring Cynthia Gibb
Cynthia Gibb
Cynthia Gibb is an American actress and former model who has starred in film and on television. She is 5'-2" tall.-Biography:...
and produced with Richard's cooperation, gained favorable notices and reached a wide audience. In the first few weeks after the original airdate in the fall of 1989, not only did many record stores sell out of their stock of the soundtrack album, but many more sold out of their traditional Carpenters stock as well.
Solo album
Karen CarpenterKaren Carpenter (album)
Karen Carpenter is a solo CD released by A&M Records in 1996. All of the songs on the album were from the New York solo sessions recorded with producer Phil Ramone in 1979 and 1980. During this time, her brother Richard was being treated for an addiction to Quaaludes and Karen wanted to remain...
, Karen's solo album, was finally released in October 1996, over 16 years after being recorded with an explanation from Richard in the CD's liner notes addressing the decision by A&M records to shelve the album in 1980. The collection of songs on the CD covers a wide range of musical styles, from rock ("Making Love in the Afternoon" with guest vocalist Peter Cetera
Peter Cetera
Peter Paul Cetera is an American singer, songwriter, bassist and producer best known for being an original member of the rock band Chicago, before launching a successful solo career...
) to blues ("Last One Singing the Blues") to lite jazz ("Guess I Just Lost My Head", "If We Try") and disco ("Remember When Lovin' Took All Night", "Lovelines"). The album's producer, Phil Ramone
Phil Ramone
Phil Ramone is a South-African violinist, composer, recording engineer, and record producer.-Biography:As a young child in South Africa, Ramone was a musical prodigy, beginning to play the violin at age three and performing for Queen Elizabeth II at age ten...
, produced several tracks for Cetera's former band, Chicago
Chicago (band)
Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The self-described "rock and roll band with horns" began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had...
.
Bootleg copies of nine additional solo songs Karen Carpenter recorded between 1979 and 1980 are in the possession of many Carpenters fans but there seems to be no possibility of the recordings' getting an official release. When approached with the subject, Richard has replied: "Outtakes are outtakes for a reason." Despite this, further albums of Carpenters outtakes, such as As Time Goes By
As Time Goes By (The Carpenters album)
The Carpenters album "As Time Goes By" was initially released in Japan on August 1, 2001.An international release was originally to follow soon thereafter, but the release of the album generated copyright discrepancies among several publishers...
, continue to be made available.
Richard solo and other post-Karen work
In 1987, Richard released his first solo album, TimeTime (Richard Carpenter album)
Time is the first solo album by American musician Richard Carpenter. Dionne Warwick and Dusty Springfield sang on the album, on the songs "In Love Alone" and "Something in Your Eyes", respectively. The song "When Time Was All We Had" is dedicated to Richard's sister, Karen...
, which generated one hit single, "Something in Your Eyes", sung by Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...
and ten years later he recorded and released an album aptly titled Pianist Arranger Composer Conductor. Around the same time, the British entertainer Jackie Clune developed a Karen Carpenter tribute act, which was partly credited with increasing record sales of genuine Carpenters albums in the U.K.
Richard Carpenter lives with his wife, Mary Rudolph-Carpenter, and their four daughters and one son in Thousand Oaks, California
Thousand Oaks, California
Thousand Oaks is a city in southeastern Ventura County, California, in the United States. It was named after the many oak trees that grace the area, and the city seal is adorned with an oak....
, where the couple are supporters of the arts. In 2004, Carpenter and his wife pledged a $3 million gift to the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza Foundation in memory of Karen Carpenter. The first annual "Richard Carpenter Scholarship Competition Award Show" was held at the Civic Arts Plaza on September 20, 2006. Richard and daughters Traci and Mindi performed after the show. Richard and his wife won the Philanthropists of the Year Award of Ventura County
Ventura County, California
Ventura County is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. It is located on California's Pacific coast. It is often referred to as the Gold Coast, and has a reputation of being one of the safest populated places and one of the most affluent places in the country...
in 2007.
More recently, Richard has actively supported the Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center
Carpenter Performing Arts Center
The Carpenter Performing Arts Center is a venue for a variety of events including films, forums, and musical and theater performances. It is located on the campus of California State University, Long Beach. It was built in 1994 and has seating for 1,074. The stage area was modeled after the New...
at his alma mater California State University, Long Beach
California State University, Long Beach
California State University, Long Beach is the second largest campus of the California State University system and the third largest university in the state of California by enrollment...
. He continues to make concert appearances, including fund raising efforts for the Carpenter Center. In 2001, he was a guest on the "Petula Clark
Petula Clark
Petula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...
: A Sign of the Times" concert in Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
and portions were recorded for CD and DVD release and for a PBS special. In 2002, he introduced Clark at the Carpenter Center and appeared on her Ultimate Collection CD.
In 2007 and 2008, the current owners of the former Carpenter family home on Newville Avenue in Downey
Downey, California
Downey is a city located in southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The city is best known as the birthplace of the Apollo space program, and is the city where folk singer Karen Carpenter lived and died...
, obtained permits from the city to tear down the existing buildings on the site to make room for newer and larger structures, in spite of ongoing protests from fans. In February 2008, a group of fans got their protest campaign covered in the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
. At that time an adjacent house that had once served as the band's headquarters and recording studio had already been demolished and the main house was on the verge of being demolished as well. The original house was immortalized on the Now & Then album cover and was the place where Karen Carpenter died: in the words of Carpenters fan Jon Konjoyan, "this was our version of Graceland
Graceland
Graceland is a large white-columned mansion and estate that was home to Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee. It is located at 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard in the vast Whitehaven community about 9 miles from Downtown and less than four miles north of the Mississippi border. It currently serves as...
."
The Carpenters logo
Carpenters (album)
Carpenters is the third studio album by the Carpenters. Released on May 14, 1971, the album was successful, reaching #2 on the Billboard 200 chart and #12 in the UK...
. "I recognized it to be a great logo as soon as I saw it", says Richard. A fan asked Carpenter on his "Fans Ask" section why there was no logo on Passage, and he replied: "To keep things consistent, ... every Carpenters album from the logo's inception shows the logo; it's on the back of the Passage album, bottom center."
Promotion and touring
Although the Carpenters had a rough start in 1969 with the lukewarm reviews of their first album, OfferingTicket to Ride (album)
-Charts:-Credits:*Producer: Jack Daugherty*Engineer: Ray Gerhardt*Guest Artist: Herb Alpert *Bass: Joe Osborn and Bob Messenger*Guitar: Gary Sims*Art Director: Tom Wilkes*Photographer: Jim McCrary-"Ticket To Ride":...
, they tried to promote themselves by being Burt Bacharach
Burt Bacharach
Burt F. Bacharach is an American pianist, composer and music producer. He is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David. Many of their hits were produced specifically for, and performed by, Dionne Warwick...
's opening performance. In a live concert in 1974 at The Riviera Hotel
Riviera (hotel and casino)
The Riviera is a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Winchester, Nevada. The hotel has over 2,100 rooms, many located in a 23-story tower. The casino has of gaming space.-History:...
, Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, Karen Carpenter explained:
One night, we were doing a benefit dinner after the premiere of "Hello, Dolly!", and Burt BacharachBurt BacharachBurt F. Bacharach is an American pianist, composer and music producer. He is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David. Many of their hits were produced specifically for, and performed by, Dionne Warwick...
walked up to us, and he asked us if we would like to open the show for him at another dinner that he was going to be doing later on in the year. And he asked us to do something that turned out to be very, very special for us.
Then, Richard took over, and said:
He wanted us to put together a medley of his songs; any tunes of his that we wanted to do, and it took a couple of months. We arrived at 8 tunes.
The medley eventually was abridged and released on their eponym
Eponym
An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...
ous album Carpenters
Carpenters (album)
Carpenters is the third studio album by the Carpenters. Released on May 14, 1971, the album was successful, reaching #2 on the Billboard 200 chart and #12 in the UK...
in 1971. The song was shortened from almost 13 minutes to only 5 minutes.
The band maintained a demanding schedule of concert tours and television appearances. Among their numerous television credits were appearances on such popular series as The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....
, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night....
, The Carol Burnett Show
The Carol Burnett Show
The Carol Burnett Show is a variety / sketch comedy television show starring Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway. It originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 278 episodes and originated from CBS Television City's Studio 33...
in 1971 and 1972, The Mike Douglas Show
The Mike Douglas Show
The Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that aired in syndication from 1961 to 1982, distributed by Westinghouse Broadcasting and for much of its run, originated from studios of two of the company's TV stations.The program featured light banter with...
in 1971, and The Johnny Cash Show
The Johnny Cash Show (TV series)
The Johnny Cash Show was an American television music variety show hosted by Johnny Cash. The Screen Gems 58-episode series ran from June 7, 1969 to March 31, 1971 on ABC; it was taped at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. The show reached No...
, also in 1971, where they played their hits "For All We Know" and "Rainy Days and Mondays". The duo appeared in a television special
Carpenters: Live at the BBC
The Carpenters is a videotaped studio concert performed by The Carpenters in 1971.The artists lip-synched some tunes, like "Help" and the Burt Bacharach Medley, but most of the songs on the BBC Concert were performed 'as live'. It was recorded on September 25 and aired on BBC1 on November 6, 1971...
on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in 1971 where they performed songs "live." They were also the featured performers in a summer replacement series, Make Your Own Kind of Music, which aired on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
every Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. in the United States. Both Karen and Richard would later state in a 1980 radio interview that they were often taken advantage of in their dealings with television during the early Seventies and wanted more control in the production of future projects.
In May 1973, the Carpenters accepted an invitation to perform at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
for President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
and visiting West German chancellor Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm , was a German politician, Mayor of West Berlin 1957–1966, Chancellor of West Germany 1969–1974, and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 1964–1987....
.
The Carpenters played numerous concerts from 1971 to 1975. They are taken straight from Richard's archived itineraries.
| Year | Number of concerts | Number of TV appearances |
|---|---|---|
| 1971 | 145 concerts | 10 TV appearances (as well as "Make Your Own Kind of Music Make Your Own Kind of Music (TV series) Make Your Own Kind Of Music is an American television series starring The Carpenters that aired on NBC from July 20, 1971 to September 7, 1971. Some guest stars were Don Knotts, Herb Alpert, Al Hirt, Mark Lindsay, Patchett & Tarses, and the Doodletown Pipers.The key concept of the series is that... ") |
| 1972 | 174 concerts | 6 TV appearances |
| 1973 | 174 concerts | 3 TV appearances |
| 1974 | 203 concerts | Not applicable |
| 1975 | 118 concerts + 46 postponed shows | Not applicable |
By the mid-1970s, extensive touring and lengthy recording sessions had begun to take their toll on the duo and contributed to their professional and personal difficulties during the latter half of the decade. Karen dieted obsessively and developed the disorder anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by refusal to maintain a healthy body weight and an obsessive fear of gaining weight. Although commonly called "anorexia", that term on its own denotes any symptomatic loss of appetite and is not strictly accurate...
, which first manifested itself in 1975 when she collapsed during a show in Las Vegas
Las Vegas Strip
The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada; adjacent to, but outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper. The Strip lies within the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester...
. Exhausted, Karen was forced to cancel concert tours in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, UK and Japan. Richard has said that he regrets the six- and seven-day work schedules of that period, adding that had he known then what he knows now, he wouldn't have agreed to it. Karen looked noticeably thin - although not sickly - in the music video produced for the "Only Yesterday" single. Richard developed an addiction to quaaludes, which began to affect his performance in the late 1970s and led to the end of the duo's live concert appearances in 1978.
The "Pepsodent image"
Carpenters' popularity often confounded critics. With their output focused on ballads and mid-tempo pop, the duo's music was often dismissed by critics as being bland and saccharine. The recording industry, however, bestowed awards on the duo, who won three Grammy Awards during their career (Best New ArtistGrammy Award for Best New Artist
The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The award was not presented in 1967...
, and Best Pop Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus
Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
The Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals was awarded between 1966 and 2011...
, for "(They Long to Be) Close to You
(They Long to Be) Close to You
" Close to You" is a popular song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It was first recorded by Richard Chamberlain and released as a single in 1963 as "They Long to Be Close to You," without parentheses. However, it was the single's flip side, "Blue Guitar," that became a hit...
" in 1970; and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group
Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
The Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals was awarded between 1966 and 2011...
for the LP Carpenters
Carpenters (album)
Carpenters is the third studio album by the Carpenters. Released on May 14, 1971, the album was successful, reaching #2 on the Billboard 200 chart and #12 in the UK...
in 1971.) In 1973, Carpenters were voted Favorite Pop/Rock Band, Duo, or Group at the first annual American Music Awards.
Richard would often state in interviews, that many critics usually judged them to "drink milk, eat apple pie and take showers."
I don't even like milk. Not that we're totally opposite from that, we're not. But there is an in-between - I don't drink ... a lot. I do have wine with dinner. I voted to make marijuana legal....
In Coleman's "The Carpenters: The Untold Story", Richard stressed repeatedly how much he disliked the A&M Executives for making their image "squeaky-clean", and the critics for criticising them for their image rather than their music.
I got upset when this whole "squeaky clean" thing was tagged on to us. I never thought about standing for anything! They (the critics) took Close to You and said: "Aha, you see that number one? THAT's for the people who believe in apple pie! THAT's for people who believe in the American flag! THAT's for the average middle-American person and his station wagon! The Carpenters stand for that, and I'm taking them to my bosom!" And boom, we got tagged with that label.
In interview sessions for the BBC in the 1990s, Richard gave further, extensive vent to his frustrations over their handling by the A&M Marketing team. Regarding the Now & Then album:
We were their biggest act, and they hadn't given it any thought. They said to us, stand out at your front door and we'll shoot your picture. I kid you not! I said 'what you mean like OUR MOTHER would do?!!! Like a snapshot to go in the family album?! We're supposed to stand out here?' I said 'were NOT doing it!'. So this went on, they were saying 'no we have to have it, the album's nearly out', so after all the bitching and griping...we got in the Ferrari. And if you look at that, you can tell I am pissed off. I am not smiling on that album cover. All they did was get us driving down the street, and they just shot us with me driving the car. That was it.
THEN to make it worse, they said 'this cover is going to be more of an artistic statement, 'we're going to have the picture painted'. If you look at that album, it folds out three ways , it cost a lot of money to make it. Of course by this time, we're not in the studio, we're out on the road, so we didn't get a chance to see what they were doing with it until we are out on the road. And they sent it. And it was wrong. If you look at the cover, there's this thing with the Ferrari Daytona, where it has a vent window. And it so happens that the way they took it, it cuts Karen's face in half. Again, if management had anything to say, they should have said 'what the hell are you taking a picture of Karen for [forget painting it!], and cutting our star's face in half?' So when they went to paint it, they just couldn't get this part of her face matched with the other part. So we'd send it back, they'd send another one, we'd send that back, they'd send another, and it's not right to this day. Because although they finally got that part right, they THEN went and painted 8x10s of us from a previous photo session and they painted Karen with an overbite! She never had an overbite, but you look at this thing, and she looks like a chipmunk! It's DREADFUL!
And that's my biggest regret, that I didn't just put my foot down and say, 'if this doesn't stop, we're just not going to cut any more records for you guys.' It was absolutely disgusting, the way they treated us. We should have just stood up to them and said 'get the hell out of here'. They should have been there to look after us, not just book us. You couldn't actually blame the critics for some of what they said. It was horrible. So if you look at Horizon, I finally did put my foot down on that one. So we BOTH look pissed off on that one!!! But at least our cheeks aren't together and we're not smiling!
Television specials
Their television specials also garnered solid ratings and kept them in the public eye during the late 1970s. They had a total of five television specials, all of which aired from 1976 to 1980. The Carpenters' Very First Television Special, which aired on December 8, 1976, was a hit, and went to #6 on the NielsensNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
. Their TV specials usually contained "schtick
Schtick
A shtick is a comic theme or gimmick. "Shtick" is derived from the Yiddish word shtik , meaning "piece"; the closely related German word Stück has the same meaning. The English word "piece" itself is also sometimes used in a similar context...
", which Richard highly disliked. However, Karen seemed to enjoy it, and her personality shone on camera. Their next one was The Carpenters at Christmas which aired on December 9, 1977. The following TV special was The Carpenters Space Encounters which aired May 17, 1978. Their fourth Special was The Carpenters: A Christmas Portrait
A Christmas Portrait TV Special
The Carpenters: A Christmas Portrait was the second Christmas TV special that the pop duo made. They filmed this special in October 1978 and was aired on ABC on December 19, 1978....
which aired December 19, 1978.
Carpenters' final television special Music, Music, Music!
Music, Music, Music!
The Carpenters: Music, Music, Music, was a Carpenters Television Special from 1980. It included guest stars such as Ella Fitzgerald, John Davidson and Nelson Riddle and his orchestra. Karen, Richard, Ella, and John sang "Without A Song" in the beginning...
, was aired in May 1980. It contained no "schtick
Schtick
A shtick is a comic theme or gimmick. "Shtick" is derived from the Yiddish word shtik , meaning "piece"; the closely related German word Stück has the same meaning. The English word "piece" itself is also sometimes used in a similar context...
" and included only music "from start to finish". Television host John Davidson
John Davidson (entertainer)
John Hamilton Davidson, Sr. is an American singer, actor and game show host known for hosting That's Incredible!, Time Machine, and Hollywood Squares in the 1980s, and a revival of The $100,000 Pyramid in 1991....
and renowned standard singer Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
guest starred, and performed various songs. Many of the songs performed on this television special were released on CD in 2004 on their album As Time Goes By. As evidenced on the Carpenters official website, five of the fifteen songs on As Time Goes By were from Music, Music, Music!. However, ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
wasn't satisfied with the Carpenters' decision to go purely musical. On their documentary, Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters
Close to You: Remembering The Carpenters
Close to You: Remembering The Carpenters is a 100 minute long documentary that was released on DVD by MPI Home Video. It features interviews by Richard Carpenter, John Bettis , Gary Sims , Petula Clark, et al....
, Richard quotes them, saying: "What the hell do they think this is? A PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
special?" Ironically, the documentary originally was aired on PBS until MPI Home Video
MPI Home Video
MPI Home Video is a home entertainment company that produces and distributes popular documentaries, films and television series on DVD & Blu-ray for the home video market. MPI Home Video is a subsidiary of MPI Media Group which was founded in 1976 by brothers Malik & Waleed Ali...
released it on DVD a year later, in 1998.
Legacy
A critical re-evaluation of Carpenters occurred during the 1990s and 2000s with the making of several documentaries produced in the United States, Japan, and Great Britain, like "Close to You: Remembering the CarpentersClose to You: Remembering The Carpenters
Close to You: Remembering The Carpenters is a 100 minute long documentary that was released on DVD by MPI Home Video. It features interviews by Richard Carpenter, John Bettis , Gary Sims , Petula Clark, et al....
" (United States), "The Sayonara" (Japan), and "Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story
Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story
Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story is a Carpenters documentary that aired on BBC One on April 9, 2007. It features interviews by Richard Carpenter, Jerry Moss , and others...
" (Great Britain). The superior technical quality of the recordings, the sorrowful undercurrents in many of their songs and the pain in Karen's voice as well as her life have attracted many fans. It's been said that her signature vocals helped spur more contralto
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
singers into pop music such as Anne Murray
Anne Murray
Morna Anne Murray CC, ONS is a Canadian singer in pop, country and adult contemporary styles whose albums have sold over 54 million copies....
, Rita Coolidge
Rita Coolidge
Rita Coolidge is a multiple Grammy Award-winning American vocalist. During the 1970s and 1980s, she charted hits on Billboard's Pop, Country, Adult Contemporary and Jazz charts.-Career:...
, and Melissa Manchester
Melissa Manchester
Melissa Manchester is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Beginning in the 1970s, she has recorded generally in the adult contemporary genre. She has also appeared as an actress on television, in films, and on stage....
. Even '90s R&B group Boyz II Men
Boyz II Men
Boyz II Men is an American R&B vocal group best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. They are the most successful R&B group of all time, having sold more than albums worldwide. In the 1990s, Boyz II Men found fame on Motown Records as a quartet, but original member Michael McCary...
list Carpenters among their influences. In 1990, the alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
recorded "Tunic (Song for Karen)
Goo (album)
Goo is the sixth album by the American alternative rock band Sonic Youth, released on June 26, 1990. Goo was the first album released after the band signed to major label Geffen Records.-Background and recording:...
", which depicted Karen saying goodbye to relatives as she got to play the drums again and meet her new "friends", Dennis Wilson
Dennis Wilson
Dennis Carl Wilson was an American rock and roll musician best known as a founding member and the drummer of The Beach Boys. He was a member of the group from its formation until his death in 1983...
, Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
and Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
. Despite some criticism that their sound was "too soft", major campaigns and petitions exist toward inducting Carpenters in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
.
A tribute album, If I Were a Carpenter, by contemporary artists such as Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
, Bettie Serveert
Bettie Serveert
Bettie Serveert are a Dutch indie-rock band. Their name translates to "Bettie Serves", or "Service to Bettie", which is the title of a book written by Dutch tennis player Betty Stöve, who made it to the Wimbledon ladies singles final in 1977.-Genesis:...
, Shonen Knife
Shonen Knife
Shonen Knife, written in Japanese characters as 少年ナイフ, which transliterates as Shōnen Naifu, literally "Boy Knife," is an all-female Japanese pop-punk band formed in Osaka, Japan, in 1981...
, Grant Lee Buffalo
Grant Lee Buffalo
Grant Lee Buffalo is a rock band based in Los Angeles, California, consisting of Grant-Lee Phillips , Paul Kimble and Joey Peters . All three were previously members of another Los Angeles band, Shiva Burlesque.-Career:...
, Matthew Sweet
Matthew Sweet
Sidney Matthew Sweet is an American alternative rock/power pop musician. He was part of the burgeoning Athens, Georgia music scene in the early and mid-1980s before gaining commercial success during the early 1990s...
, and The Cranberries
The Cranberries
The Cranberries are an Irish rock band formed in Limerick in 1989 under the name The Cranberry Saw Us, later changed by vocalist Dolores O'Riordan. The band currently consists of O'Riordan, guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler...
, also appeared in 1994 and provided an alternative rock interpretation of Carpenters hits. Sonic Youth's rendition of Superstar, as well as other tracks from this album, were later featured in the 2007 film Juno
Juno (film)
Juno is a 2007 comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody. Ellen Page stars as the title character, an independent-minded teenager confronting an unplanned pregnancy and the subsequent events that put pressures of adult life onto her. Michael Cera, Olivia Thirlby, J. K....
.
Several of their songs have achieved the status of popular standards. In particular, "(They Long to Be) Close to You
(They Long to Be) Close to You
" Close to You" is a popular song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It was first recorded by Richard Chamberlain and released as a single in 1963 as "They Long to Be Close to You," without parentheses. However, it was the single's flip side, "Blue Guitar," that became a hit...
" is frequently sung in karaoke
Karaoke
is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...
bars. This song is heard in the film Parenthood, and is used in two episodes of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
as well as The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons Movie is a 2007 American animated comedy film based on the animated television series The Simpsons. The film was directed by David Silverman, and stars the regular television cast of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Tress...
. A scene of the Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
episode "The One with the Blackout" features three of the friends passing time by singing "Top of the World
Top of the World (The Carpenters song)
"Top of the World" is the name of a 1972 song by The Carpenters. Originally recorded for and released on the duo's 1972 studio album A Song for You, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in late 1973, becoming the duo's second U.S. number-one single...
" while one of them strums her guitar. The duo's "signature tune", "We've Only Just Begun
We've Only Just Begun
"We've Only Just Begun" is the signature song of The Carpenters, written by Roger Nichols and Paul Williams , and is often used as a wedding song. The song was ranked at #405 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".The song was recorded by Smokey Roberds, a friend...
", is popular at weddings and receptions, and was featured in the film version of Starsky & Hutch
Starsky & Hutch (film)
Starsky & Hutch is a 2004 American comedy film directed by Todd Phillips. The film stars Ben Stiller as David Starsky and Owen Wilson as Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson and is a film adaptation of the original television series of the same name from the 1970s....
and 1408
1408 (film)
1408 is a 2007 American psychological horror film based on the Stephen King short story of the same name directed by Swedish director Mikael Håfström, who earlier had directed the horror film Drowning Ghost. The cast includes John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, and Mary McCormack. The film was released...
. The Song "Top of the World
Top of the World (The Carpenters song)
"Top of the World" is the name of a 1972 song by The Carpenters. Originally recorded for and released on the duo's 1972 studio album A Song for You, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in late 1973, becoming the duo's second U.S. number-one single...
" was heard in the movie Shrek Forever After
Shrek Forever After
Shrek Forever After, taglined as The Final Chapter, is a 2010 animated fantasy-comedy film, and the fourth and final installment in the Shrek film series, produced by DreamWorks Animation. The film was released by Paramount Pictures in cinemas on May 20, 2010 in Russia, and on May 21 in the United...
. "Superstar" has been covered by numerous artists, with popular recordings from Luther Vandross
Luther Vandross
Luther Ronzoni Vandross was an American singer-songwriter and record producer. During his career, Vandross sold over twenty-five million albums and won eight Grammy Awards including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four times...
and Ruben Studdard
Ruben Studdard
Christopher Theodore Ruben Studdard , best known as Ruben Studdard, is an American R&B, pop, and gospel singer. He rose to fame as winner of the second season of American Idol...
to Bette Midler
Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
, Shonen Knife
Shonen Knife
Shonen Knife, written in Japanese characters as 少年ナイフ, which transliterates as Shōnen Naifu, literally "Boy Knife," is an all-female Japanese pop-punk band formed in Osaka, Japan, in 1981...
, and Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
and even David Spade
David Spade
David Wayne Spade is an American actor, comedian and television personality who first became famous in the 1990s as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, and from 1997 until 2003 when he starred as Dennis Finch on Just Shoot Me!. He also starred as C.J...
and the late Chris Farley
Chris Farley
Christopher Crosby "Chris" Farley was an American comedian and actor. Farley was a member of Chicago's Second City Theatre and cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1995....
sing along with it on the radio in Tommy Boy
Tommy Boy
Tommy Boy is a 1995 road comedy film directed by Peter Segal, written by Bonnie and Terry Turner, and Fred Wolf. It stars former Saturday Night Live colleagues Chris Farley and David Spade. The film tells the story of a socially and emotionally immature man who learns lessons about friendship and...
. Clay Aiken
Clay Aiken
Clayton Holmes "Clay" Aiken is an American singer, songwriter, actor, producer and author who began his rise to fame on the second season of the television program American Idol in 2003. RCA Records offered him a recording contract, and his multi-platinum debut album Measure of a Man was released...
performed "Solitaire" on American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
and introduced the song to a new generation.
"Close To You", the Carpenters first number-one hit, has been remade and used for Nikkon commercials as well as being sung by Sue Heck in ABC-TV's "The Middle" in the third episode of the series entitled "Floating Anniversary."
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...
is an enthusiast for Carpenters music. He received permission to use some of their music in the Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider (film)
Ghost Rider is a 2007 superhero film written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson. Based on the character of the same name which appeared in Marvel Comics, the film stars Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze, a stunt motorcyclist who sells his soul to the Devil and transforms into thevigilante Ghost...
.
Both "We've Only Just Begun" and "(They Long to Be) Close to You" have been honored with Grammy Hall of Fame awards
Grammy Hall of Fame Award
The Grammy Hall of Fame Award is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance"...
for recordings of lasting quality or historical significance.
Modern entertainers such as Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...
, Gwen Stefani
Gwen Stefani
Gwen Renée Stefani is an American singer-songwriter and fashion designer. Stefani is the lead vocalist for the rock and ska band No Doubt. Stefani recorded her first solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. in 2004. The album was inspired by music of the 1980s, and was a success with sales of over...
, Shania Twain
Shania Twain
Shania Twain, OC is a Canadian country pop singer-songwriter. Her album The Woman in Me , brought her fame and her 1997 album Come On Over, became the best-selling album of all time by a female musician in any genre, and the best-selling country album of all time. It has sold over 40 million...
, Jann Arden
Jann Arden
Jann Arden is a Canadian singer-songwriter.-Life and career:Arden was born and raised near Calgary in Springbank, Alberta and attended Springbank Community High School. Her breakthrough came with her critically acclaimed 1993 debut album Time for Mercy and her first single "I Would Die For You"...
, Anastacia
Anastacia
Anastacia is an American singer-songwriter. Anastacia has been highly successful in Europe, Asia, South Africa and South America, but has had only minor success in her native United States...
, The Corrs
The Corrs
The Corrs are an Irish band which combine pop rock with traditional Celtic folk music. The brother and sisters are from Dundalk, Ireland. The group consists of the Corr siblings: Andrea ; Sharon ; Caroline ; and Jim .The Corrs came to international prominence with their performance at the...
, Mary J. Blige
Mary J. Blige
Mary Jane Blige is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actress. She is a recipient of nine Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards, and has recorded eight multi-platinum albums. She is the only artist with Grammy Award wins in Pop, Rap, Gospel, and R&B. Blige has...
, Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys
Alicia Augello Cook , better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age seven, Keys began playing the piano...
, Leann Rimes
LeAnn Rimes
LeAnn Rimes is an American country/pop singer. She is known for her rich vocals and her rise to fame as an eight-year-old champion on the original Ed McMahon version of Star Search, followed by the release of the Patsy Cline-intended single "Blue" when Rimes was only age 13, resulting in her...
, Michelle Wright
Michelle Wright
Michelle Wright is a Canadian country music artist. She is one of the country's most widely recognized and awarded female country singers of the 1990s, winning the Canadian Country Music Association's Fans' Choice Award twice...
, K.D. Lang
K.D. Lang
Kathryn Dawn Lang, OC , known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress...
, Kelly Jones of Stereophonics
Stereophonics
The Stereophonics are a Welsh rock band now living in turners x that formed in 1992 in the village of Cwmaman in Cynon Valley, Wales. The band currently comprises lead vocalist and guitarist Kelly Jones, bassist and backing vocalist Richard Jones, drummer Javier Weyler, guitarist and backing...
, Johnny Borrell of Razorlight
Razorlight
Razorlight are a UK based indie rock band formed in 2002. They are primarily known in the UK, having topped the charts with the 2006 single "America" and its parent self-titled album, their second...
, Jo O'Meara from S Club and Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
have listed Karen Carpenter as a huge influence on their careers.
Discography
Carpenters released 30 singles during their career. Of the thirty, ten were RIAA certified Gold and twenty-two peaked in the top 10 on the Adult Contemporary Charts. In addition, Carpenters also had ten albums from 1969-1983. Five of the albums contained two or more top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 (Close to YouClose to You (Carpenters album)
-We've Only Just Begun:We've Only Just Begun started out as a commercial for Crocker Citizen's Bank in 1970, composed by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols. The commercial showed a couple getting married and starting their life together...
, Carpenters
Carpenters (album)
Carpenters is the third studio album by the Carpenters. Released on May 14, 1971, the album was successful, reaching #2 on the Billboard 200 chart and #12 in the UK...
, A Song for You
A Song for You (Carpenters album)
A Song for You is the fourth album released by the Carpenters, released on June 13, 1972. According to Richard Carpenter, "A Song for You was intended to be a concept album with the title tune opening and closing the set and the bookended selections comprising the 'song'."In Cash Box's Top 100...
, Now & Then, and Horizon).
Grammy Awards and nominations
Throughout the 1970s, Richard and Karen were nominated numerous times for Grammy Awards. Richard Carpenter was also nominated for a Grammy Award for their instrumental song, "Flat BaroqueFlat Baroque
Flat Baroque is a song composed by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis in 1966, during their career at Disneyland. It lay dormant until 1970, when Carpenter and his sister, Karen Carpenter, appeared on a syndicated radio show, called "Your Navy Presents." They performed a slow, jazzy version of the...
". They won three Grammy Awards, and had two songs inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
| Year | Type of Award | Won/Nominated | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 Grammy Awards of 1971 The 13th Grammy Awards were held on 16 March 1971, and was the first time the ceremonies were broadcast on television by ABC. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1970... |
Best New Artist Grammy Award for Best New Artist The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The award was not presented in 1967... Best Contemporary Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal The Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals was awarded between 1966 and 2011... Record of the Year Grammy Award for Record of the Year The Record of the Year is one of the four most prestigious Grammy Awards presented annually. It has been awarded since 1959.-History:The honorees through its history have been:*1959-1965: Artist only.*1966-1998: Artist and producer.... Album of the Year Grammy Award for Album of the Year The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys. It has been awarded since 1959 and though it was originally presented to the artist alone, the award is now presented to the artist, the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer... Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) The Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist has been awarded since 1963. The award is presented to the arranger of the music.There have been several minor changes to the name of the award:... Song of the Year Grammy Award for Song of the Year The Song of the Year is one of the four most prestigious awards in the Grammy Awards ceremony, if not in all of the American music industry. It has been awarded since 1959 and unlike the Record of the Year award, which goes to the performer and production team of a single song, Song of the Year... Best Contemporary Song Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Song The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Song was awarded between 1960 and 1971. The award had several minor name changes:*In 1960 the award was known as Best Performance by a "Top 40" Artist... Best Engineered Recording Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical The Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical has been awarded since 1959. The award had several minor name changes:*In 1959 the award was known as Best Engineered Record - Non-Classical... |
Won Won Nominated Nominated Nominated Nominated Nominated Nominated |
Carpenters |
| 1971 Grammy Awards of 1972 The 14th Grammy Awards were held March 15, 1972, and were broadcast live on television in the United States by ABC; the following year, they would move the telecasts to CBS, where they remain to this date... |
Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal The Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals was awarded between 1966 and 2011... Album of the Year Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals Best Album of Original Score, Written for a Motion Picture Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album The Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album has been awarded since 1959. The award was given only to the album producer, and to the composer and lyricist who wrote at least 51% of the music which had not been recorded previously.... Best Engineered Recording |
Won Nominated Nominated Nominated Nominated |
Carpenters |
| 1972 Grammy Awards of 1973 The 15th Grammy Awards were held on March 3, 1973, and were the first to be broadcast live on CBS, after the first two ceremonies were on ABC. CBS has been the TV home for the Grammy Awards ever since. The awards recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1972... |
Best Instrumental Arrangement Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement The Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement has been awarded since 1963. The award is presented to the arranger of the music.There have been several minor changes to the name of the award:... |
Nominated | "Flat Baroque |
| 1973 Grammy Awards of 1974 The 16th Grammy Awards were held March 2, 1974, and were broadcast live on American television. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1973.- Award winners :* Record of the Year... |
Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Vocal Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals |
Nominated Nominated |
"Sing" |
| 1974 Grammy Awards of 1975 The 17th Grammy Awards were presented March 1, 1975, and were broadcast live on American television. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1974.- Award winners :*Record of the Year... |
Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals | Nominated | "We've Only Just Begun |
| 1977 Grammy Awards of 1978 The 20th Grammy Awards were held February 23, 1978, and were broadcast live on American television. They were hosted by folk music legend John Denver, and recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1977.- Award winners :*Record of the Year... |
Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals | Nominated | "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft |
External links
- Richard and Karen Carpenter: Carpenters – Official site
- Carpenters The Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center – Exhibit page official website
- Rolling Stone – Carpenters biography
- Society Music Theory – A musicologist's discourse on the song "Superstar"
- Chris Walter – Pictures of Carpenters in an official archive