Carpenters (Karen and Richard - Not the woodworking variety)

[IAMWHATIAM]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 6:14pm

I'm in a nostalgic mood and have played the album The Singles 1969 - 1973 repeatedly these past few days. Playlist:

1. We've Only Just Begun
2. Top Of The World
3. Ticket To Ride
4. Superstar
5. Rainy Days And Mondays
6. Goodbye To Love
7. Yesterday Once More
8. It's Going To Take Some Time
9. Sing
10. For All We Know
11. Hurting Each Other
12. (They Long To Be) Close To You

I don't necessarily think its their best album, but it's probably my favorite. I'm generally more of a rock than pop fan, but I just can't get these songs out of my head (even Sing, my least favorite). Karen's voice is just so lush and beautiful - what an incredible, special instrument she had. Any other fans?

Updated On: 1/12/09 at 06:14 PM

[nygrl232]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 6:18pm

Me! I love the Carpenters. Have loved them ever since I was wittle. I was just watching a true hollywood story about KC on youtube the other day.
Updated On: 1/13/09 at 06:18 PM

[StockardFan]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 6:36pm

Oh that was so sad....I saw that one.

And Superstar is one of the best songs ever!

[nmartin]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 6:38pm

I love the scene in Parenthood when Rick Moranis goes to his wife's public school classroom and sings Close to You.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 6:40pm

Yes! That scene was great!

That whole movie was great!

[vbplayer]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 7:06pm

Try youtube for an old clip of Carol Burnett singing a medley with Karen and Richard Carpenter. Cute.

[nmartin]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 7:09pm

Damn you, IamwhatIam, I can't get Close to You out of my head!
Stockard, I feel the same way about Parenthood!

[nygrl232]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 7:29pm

I loved that clip, vbplayer. Three geniuses on stage together.

[vbplayer]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 7:32pm

I loved it also. You could tell that Carol Burnett was having a blast.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 1/12/09 at 11:43pm

Karen Carpenter's voice is the most beautiful sound I've ever heard. Richard's arrangements were perfectly suited to show off her lower register, which was where her money notes resided. The more years that pass, the more I appreciate it, and I've always loved it. No one comes close to her purity. Her voice cuts through to my very soul. Dramatic? Yes; but, it's how I feel. There simply isn't another human being who's ever been recorded, that I'd rather hear. I guess you could say I'm a fan. I own every single recording, and I saw them live, multiple times.

[vbplayer]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 12:52am

Karen Carpenter's voice is the most beautiful sound I've ever heard.

JohnBoy2....yes. And always will be.

[Q]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 1:02am

I love her voice.

But I also love some others' that 'feel' the same to me - like kd's.

And Richard, like Mr. Mannilow, has always been an underappreciated musical arranger.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 8:16am

The Carpenters was the first concert I ever went to. I think I was 4.

[nygrl232]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 8:53am

I've been humming the tune from "Aurora" ever since I saw this thread.

[madbrian]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 8:57am

I would not argue with those who suggest that Karen's voice is the most beautiful ever recorded. I would also add another voice that died far too young to that category - Cass Elliot.

[Broadwayboobs]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 9:05am

I've said this before, if we could hear angels sing it would be Karen's voice.

[broadwayjim42]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 9:15am

They were my first concert too--at 12.

Karen is one of those people I could listen to forever and I think one of her best vocal performances is a demo track that appears on Carpenters Gold. It was recorded, with somewhat different lyrics, later by Barry Manilow, but her "Tryin' to Get the Feeling Again" is subtle perfection...blows BM's overblown version out of the water.
Updated On: 1/13/09 at 09:15 AM

[GYPSY1527]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 9:29am

Karen Carpenter is my all-time favorite singer! Glad there are other fans out there.

[Jon]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 11:54am

I don't know if people realize this, but the background vocals on all their records were just Karen and Richard, multi-tracked.

Of course, they had to hire back-up singers for their live concerts.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 11:57am

I'll agree about the incredible beauty of Karen Carpenter's voice. I have to say that I don't think those arrangements have aged very well, but nothing can dim her brilliance.

I still think it is a shame she didn't get to record a serious album of serious standards. Imagine what she would have done with someone like Nelson Riddle's arrangements. A real loss.

[nygrl232]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 8:35pm

Imagine what she would have done were she not surrounded by saboteurs. I think a lot of people either sheltered her or made her feel like crap, or both. JMO based on her bio and documentary info.

[Radiana]

Posted: 1/13/09 at 11:14pm

I have to agree with everyone about Karen's beautiful voice. Put me down as a fan of her's.

[GYPSY1527]

Posted: 1/14/09 at 10:41am

Ohh Karen's "Tryin' to Get the Feeling Again" is most certainly a classic in the Carpenter's songbook. I also adore "I Believe You" and "Now". She did cover alot of standards through out her career. Unfortunatley, none of them were released as singles so you have to dig through their albums to find them...but when you do they are treasures!

I believe that for their concerts, they did not hire backup singers but used their more than qualified musicians to increase the chorus sound.

Nygrl, it's easy to point the fingers at others when talking about Karen's illness of anorexia nervosa but remember that what she suffered from was not talk about in those days to the extend it is today. The treatment was radicially different and thus proved to be ineffective with many clients at the time.

[broadwayjim42]

Posted: 1/14/09 at 11:18am

There's another song from one of the albums released after her death (I believe it's "Lovelines") called "The Uninvited Guest" that sends chills down my spine. I've always loved it when she stepped out of the sanitized Carpenters box a little; the results on a song like this are absolutely stunning.

[IAMWHATIAM]

Posted: 1/14/09 at 11:52am

I've always loved the Carpenters rendition of A Song for You (but nothing beats Donny Hathaway's rendition of that song).
Carpenters