The Carpenters Legacy Lives On...

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.

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