The
Carpenters Biography
This
section of our website tells the story of Karen Carpenter
and Richard Carpenter, and how they made "The Carpenters"
one of the most famous and popular groups ever.
We want to give
a special thank you to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, which
is available to all internet users. It's a great free resource
for just about any topic. We aslo want to thank the producers
and writers of the TV Documentary Close To You: Remembering
The Carpenters, which is a woderful "summary" of
the Carpenters biography.
If
you would like more information about the Carpenters, from
a biographical standpoint, probably the best source we know
of for additional information is Ray Coleman's authorized
biography "The Carpenters: The Untold Story", published
by Harper Collins.
The
Carpenters Biography: Karen Carpenter and Richard Carpenter
Notable
Quotes:
"These
were two innocent kids from Downey that loved to make music,
and they did it with tender-loving-care. They admired each
other greatly. They had an enormous impact. They made a lot
of people happy and still continue to." - Herb Alpert
"Well,
there's never really been anyone like her since. She could've
sung anything. Karen's voice had mystery to it. There was
something inside of her, reaching out to be noticed. That's
the quality - that yearning." - Petula Clark
"Richard
knew how to put it together. He chose great songs. He understood
her talent and how to get the most out of it. So it was a
real combination between those two that made the Carpenters
special." - Herb Alpert
Carpenters
Biography
Richard
and Karen Carpenter were born in New Haven, Connecticut. Richard
was born on October 15, 1946, and Karen on March 2, 1950.
Richard and Karen's Father Harold had an extensive and ecclectic
collection of 78 records, which helped lead Richard and Karen
down the path of having an appreciation for all kinds of music.
This appreciation for musc eventually led to Richard taking
piano lessons around eight or nine yeas old, and by the time
he was twelve or thirteen he knew that his vocation would
be involved with music in some way.
1960s
The
Carpenter family moved from New Haven to Downey California
in 1963, for a couple of reasons, one was to further Richard's
career in music, because Richard's parents felt that southern
California was the best place to be for that. About a year
or so after the move to Downey, Karen also became more interested
in music, and eventually started playing the drums, and playing
them very well.
Around
1965, Richard and Karen Carpenter teamed-up with friend Wes
Jacobs, to create the Richard Carpenter Trio. This band would
eventually end up winning prizes for their "instrumental"
musical talent, Including the Hollywood Bowl "Battle
of the Bands" concert, where the trio came in first place.
Richard
and Karen would start trying to get more of their musical
talent heard by others, and they eventually wound up in Joe
Osborn's garage studio recording more of their musical sound.
Joe Osborn was a very talented bass player, who started his
own music label called "Magic Lamp Records." It
was here that Karen's voice would occasionally be added to
their musical recordings. Mr. Osborn, at that time, really
started to notice the quality of Karen's singing voice along
with Richard Carpenter himself, who upon hearing Karen's voice
professionally recorded and played back through studio monitors,
realized that his sister's voice would add a lot to the carpenters
sound.
Richard
and Karen would soon team up with four other student musicians
from Long Beach State, where Richard and Karen went to College,
to form the "Spectrum" band. Although this new group
got to perform at places like the Whisky A Go-Go, there would
be no record deal forthcoming. However, the Spectrum experience
proved rewarding for the Carpenters, because Richard found
a song lyricist for his original musical compositions with
fellow Spectrum band member John Bettis.
After
Spectrum ended, the Carpenters continued as a duo, with Richard
playing on keyboards and Karen on drums, and both of them
contributing vocals. They would continue to send out demo
tapes and over time attracted the attention of Herb Alpert,
who was the co-founder of A&M Records, and who eventually
signed Richard and Karen to his record label in 1969.
The
Carpenters first album, which was titled Offering, featured
several songs that Richard had written or co-written. The
most important song on the album was a ballad rendition of
The Beatles' hit "Ticket to Ride", which soon became
a minor hit for the Carpenters, and reached number 54 on the
billboard charts. The album was later retitled Ticket to Ride
with a marginal increase in sales.
1970s
The
Carpenters achieved their big breakthrough in 1970 with the
release of the Burt Bacharach-Hal David song, "(They
Long to Be) Close to You", which rose to #1 and stayed
on top of the music charts for a month. A follow-up song,
"We've Only Just Begun" (written by Paul Williams
and Roger Nichols), reached #2 on the charts and became the
duo's second major hit in 1970, and both of these songs helped
skyrocket the album "Close to You" to bestseller
status.
A
string of hit singles and albums followed, including "For
All We Know", "Rainy Days and Mondays", and
"Superstar" (all from the LP, Carpenters) in 1971;
"Hurting Each Other", "It's Going to Take Some
Time", and "Goodbye to Love" (from the LP,
A Song for You) in 1972; "Sing" and "Yesterday
Once More" (from the LP, Now and Then) in 1973. "Top
of the World", an album selection on the Song for You
LP, was covered by country artist Lynn Anderson, became a
word of mouth hit and was re-recorded for single release in
1973, reaching number one on the Top 40 late that year. A
greatest hits LP, titled The Singles: 1969-1973, topped the
charts in the U.S. and the United Kingdom and became one of
the bestselling albums of the decade, ultimately selling more
than 7,000,000 copies in the U.S. alone.
During
the first half of the 1970s, the Carpenters' music was a staple
of Top 40 playlists. The duo produced a distinctive sound
featuring Karen's expressive contralto on lead vocals, with
both siblings contributing background vocals that were overdubbed
to create densely layered harmonies. To his role as vocalist,
keyboardist, and arranger, Richard added that of composer
on numerous tracks. Several of his compositions with lyricist
John Bettis became hit records, including "Goodbye to
Love", "Yesterday Once More", and "Top
of the World".
To
promote their recordings, the Carpenters maintained a staggering
schedule of concert tours and television appearances during
this period. Among their numerous television credits were
appearances on such popular series as American Bandstand,
the Ed Sullivan Show, the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,
and the Carol Burnett Show. In 1971 the duo appeared in a
television special on the BBC in the United Kingdom and were
the featured performers in a summer replacement series, Make
Your Own Kind of Music, which aired on NBC-TV in the U.S.
In May 1973 the Carpenters accepted an invitation to perform
at the White House for President Richard M. Nixon and visiting
West German chancellor Willy Brandt.
The
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 bland and "saccharine".
The recording industry, however, bestowed awards on the duo,
who won three Grammy Awards during their career (including
Best New Artist, and Best Pop Performance by a Duo, Group,
or Chorus, for "Close to You" in 1970; and Best
Pop Performance by a Duo or Group for the LP Carpenters in
1971). In 1973, the Carpenters were voted Best Band, Duo,
or Group (Pop/Rock) at the first annual American Music Awards.
The
Carpenters scaled the charts with a remake of the Marvelettes'
hit "Please Mr. Postman" in early 1975 and scored
a final top five hit with the Carpenter-Bettis song "Only
Yesterday" later that year. Both singles appeared on
the 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. The LPs
Horizon and A Kind of Hush, released in 1975 and 1976 respectively,
achieved "gold" status but failed to peak as high
as previous efforts. Their singles releases in 1976 likewise
followed a pattern of diminishing returns. The duo's highest
charting single that year was a cover of Herman's Hermits'
"There's a Kind of Hush", which peaked at number
12. The follow-up single, the Carpenter-Bettis song "I
Need to Be in Love" charted no higher than 25, while
the novelty song "Goofus" failed to reach the Top
40 entirely.
Their
more experimental album, Passage, released in 1977, marked
an attempt to broaden their appeal by reaching into other
musical genres. The LP featured an unlikely mix of Latin rock,
calypso, and pop, and included the Top 40 hit "All You
Get From Love is a Love Song". The most notable tracks
included cover versions of "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina"
(from the rock opera Evita), and Klaatu's "Calling Occupants
Of Interplanetary Craft", both complete with choral and
orchestral accompaniment. Although the single release of "Calling
Occupants" became a top ten hit in the U.K., it stalled
at number 32 on the U.S. charts, and the album failed to cross
the gold threshold of 500,000 copies sold in the States.
Despite
their disappointing performance on domestic charts, the Carpenters
continued to enjoy enormous popularity. A second Singles album
(covering the years 1974-1978) was released in the U.K., while
in the States, their 1978 holiday album, A Christmas Portrait,
proved an exception to their faltering career at home and
became a seasonal favorite. (A second Christmas collection,
An Old Fashioned Christmas, was released in 1984 after Karen's
death.) Their television specials also garnered solid ratings
and kept them before the public eye during the late 1970s.
By
the mid-1970s, extensive touring and lengthy recording sessions
had begun to take their toll on the duo and contributed to
their professional difficulties during the latter half of
the decade. Karen dieted obsessively and developed the disorder
anorexia nervosa, which first manifested itself in 1975, when
an exhausted and emaciated Karen was forced to cancel concert
tours in the U.K. and Japan. Richard, meanwhile, 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.
1980s
Richard
sought treatment for his addiction at a Topeka, Kansas, facility
in early 1979. Karen, meanwhile, decided to pursue a solo
album project with renowned producer Phil Ramone in New York.
Her choice of more adult-oriented and dance-tempo material
represented an effort to retool their image. The resulting
product, however, met a tepid response from Richard and A&M
executives in early 1980, and Karen wavered in her dedication
to the project. Ultimately, she abandoned the solo effort
in favor of launching a new LP with her brother, now fully
recovered from his addiction. (The solo LP remained unreleased
until 1996.) Their LP Made in America, released in 1981, spawned
a final top 20 hit single, "Touch Me When We're Dancing".
Personal
troubles, however, dimmed the prospects of this modest return
to the charts, as Karen suffered a failed marriage and the
ongoing effects of her anorexia. In 1982, Karen sought therapy
with noted psychotherapist Steven Levenkron in New York City
for her disorder and returned to California later that year
determined to regain her professional career. The years of
dieting and abuse proved too much strain on her heart, however,
and on February 4, 1983, Karen suffered cardiac arrest at
her parents' home in Downey and was pronounced dead at Downey
Memorial Hospital at the age of only 32.
After
Carpenters
After
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.
A
1989 TV movie, produced with Richard's cooperation, gained
favorable notices and reached a wide audience. A critical
reevaluation of the Carpenters' musical output followed during
the 1990s, as interest in and appreciation for the duo's recorded
work increased. A 1994 biography, The Carpenters: The Untold
Story, by respected music journalist and biographer Ray Coleman,
covered the arc of the duo's career and personal lives. A
tribute album by contemporary artists also appeared that year
and provided an alternative rock interpretation of numerous
Carpenters hits.
Several
of the Carpenters songs have gained the status of popular
standards. In particular, "Close To You" is frequently
sung in karaoke bars, while the duo's signature tune, "We've
Only Just Begun", continues to be performed at weddings
and receptions. Both recordings have been honored with Grammy
Hall of Fame awards for recordings of lasting quality or historical
significance: "We've Only Just Begun" was inducted
in 1998, while "Close to You" followed in 2000.
Today,
Richard Carpenter lives in Thousand Oaks, California with
his wife Mary, and is an important supporter of the arts there.
In 2004, Richard and his wife pledged a generous $3 Million
gift to the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza Foundation in memory
of Karen Carpenter.
"When
I look back on the years that Karen and I worked together,
and recorded together, I feel they were amongst the most magical
of my life. I was born with a love for music. To be able to
make my living doing something I love, I feel very grateful
for. But what even makes it that much better is that my sister
happened to be one of the finest female singers who ever lived
and enjoyed making the records with me as much as I enjoyed
making them. I consider her a very special soul, and I know
the world misses her, and I do to this day, and always will,
but am very proud of what she and I accomplished." -
Richard Carpenter
The
Carpenters Biography References
The
Carpenters: The Untold Story;
Ray Coleman;
Harper Collins Publishers;
ISBN 0-06-018345-4 (1st edition, paperback, 1994).
Close
To You: Remembering The Carpenters;
Televison Documentary
Executive Producers: JoAnn Young, Paul Surratt
Portions
of this Carpenters biography is also provided by Wikipedia
and is distributed under GNU
Free Documentation License.
