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CARPENTERS
GOLD
35th Anniversary Edition
   
“Let’s hope we have some hits.”
Those were Herb Alpert’s parting words to Karen and me following our brief first
meeting in April of 1969. Moments earlier, Karen and I had been signed by
Alpert’s partner, Jerry Moss, to their successful seven year-old label, A&M
Records.
There was nothing more that Karen and
I wanted than to prove ourselves and “have some hits.” Looking back, it could
have been that Herb said “we” instead of “you,” because compared to the
phenomenal successes the label had enjoyed from 1965 through 1968, particularly
with Alpert’s Tijuana Brass, 1969 was proving to be a rather lackluster sales
year at A&M. Our initial album Offering and single “Ticket to Ride,”
released that fall, did nothing to change things, although the latter did make
the Billboard Hot 100 for several months, crossing into 1970 and peaking
at #54. Events took a positive, almost breathtaking turn for all concerned,
however, with the release, in May 1970, of our second single, “(They Long To Be)
Close To You.” Within weeks it was the number one record in the country, (the
first #1 single for A&M since Herb Alpert’s recording of “This Guy’s In Love
With You” two years earlier) and was followed by many more hits, both singles
and albums, all around the world.
Karen and I turned out to be the
number one American born hit-makers of the 1970s and to date, with successes in
every decade following our debut, our worldwide sales have topped 100 million
units. Not too shabby for a pair of siblings from middle-class suburbia, who at
first were more interested in listening to music than performing it.
I was born in New Haven, Connecticut,
in October 1946 to Harold and Agnes Carpenter, with Karen following in March
1950. For the most part, we were pretty close, sharing the same tastes in
music, and listening to the eclectic collection of records my dad owned, and to
newer releases which I would pester my folks to purchase. By age 9, at my
parents’ urging, I had learned the basics of piano, and a few years later
actually wanted to play, and experiment with my own little tunes.
In 1963, the family moved to Southern
California where, a little over a year later, Karen became interested in playing
the drums, which she could do quite well almost immediately. To a much lesser
extent, and with some urging from me, Karen also tried her hand at singing. I
had enrolled in California State University, Long Beach, in the fall of 1964 and
with my collegiate pal, Wes Jacobs, on upright bass and tuba, Karen and I, as
the Richard Carpenter Trio, won a prestigious amateur competition, the Hollywood
Bowl Battle of the Bands, in June 1966. Our performances were strictly
instrumental, with both selections being on the light jazz side.
Karen, by now, was becoming more
interested in singing. Two months earlier, she and I had met pre-eminent West
Coast studio bassist, Joe Osborn. Osborn had recently had his garage
transformed into a recording studio, outfitting it with state-of-the-art gear,
including a Scully 4-track recorder, 4-track console, Neumann U87 microphones
and Altec 604 studio monitors. He and a partner were also the founders of a
fledgling record label, Magic Lamp. Already on the roster were Johnny Burnette
and Vince Edwards, amongst others, but Osborn was still looking for new acts to
sign. As Joe routinely worked in the studios until midnight, Karen and I did
not meet him until the wee small hours of an April morning. It was of little
concern to us. Karen sang, I provided the accompaniment and on May 9, 1966
Karen signed with Magic Lamp as an artist, and I signed two days later as a
writer with the publishing arm, Light Up Music. (Actually, neither one of us
actually “signed”; our parents did, as we were both minors, 16 and 19
respectively.) Karen and I recorded a number of tunes in Joe’s studio, but due
to lack of promotion and distribution, only one single by each of the label’s
artists was pressed and “released” before the venture folded in late 1967.
During this time my choir director at
CSULB, Frank Pooler, whose knowledge in, and approach to choral singing had
awakened a latent talent I turned out to possess for vocal arranging, introduced
me to a Poli-Sci major with an innate ability for writing lyrics, John Bettis.
Bettis and I hit it off, started writing together and went on to work as a
piano/banjo act at Disneyland in the summer of 1967. Concurrently, he and I
formed a vocal/instrumental group, along with Karen and some college friends,
called “Spectrum.” Even though there was some interest from a couple of record
labels and we did play a night at the Whiskey A Go Go, as well as opening the
show for Steppenwolf at a rock venue called the Blue Law, nothing really
materialized, and by mid-1968, Spectrum was no more.
Karen and I really didn’t miss a
beat, however; the charts for Spectrum were mine and between the two of us,
Karen and I could overdub all of the vocal parts, and trade the leads. After
much thought, we decided to name the act “Carpenters” (No “the”; we thought it
sounded hipper without it-like Buffalo Springfield or Jefferson Airplane.) Joe
had not lost faith in us and in the early morning hours or on weekends, he would
get behind the console and let us record; even playing bass, gratis, on a number
of tracks. A demo tape from these sessions ultimately found its way to Herb
Alpert’s desk in early 1969.
As mentioned previously, our success
was not long in coming and was massive in scope. Everything career-wise that
Karen and I had dreamt of came true: worldwide concert tours, gold records (10
gold singles, 11 gold albums in the United States alone), award nominations and
awards, guest-shots on the most popular variety shows, stints in Vegas, Tahoe
and much, much more. From 1969 to 1981, we delivered, and A&M released, 10
albums – not including compilations or live albums – and from 1976 to 1980, we
hosted five prime-time television specials for ABC.
As I look back on it now, I feel this
may have all been too much, too soon. Karen and I were pretty young, quite
naïve and not too well-equipped to properly handle all of the responsibilities
that presented themselves. Karen was all of 20 when things hit and, being the
star of the show, received the lion’s share of the attention, for good or ill.
This may, or may not, explain why Karen, who was always sensitive about her
weight, developed the eating disorder, anorexia nervosa. Symptoms started
appearing in 1974 and she struggled with it for the next nine years. Karen
passed away from complications due to the disorder on February 4, 1983, at the
age of 32. Since her passing, interest in our music has not diminished. I have
overseen the production of four albums of previously unreleased recordings, as
well as numerous compilations for various countries. This is bittersweet work,
but I feel I owe it to Karen and her legacy, as well as ours as a duo.
Thirty-five years. In January 2004,
A&M Records will have released this two-CD compilation, Carpenters Gold,
to commemorate the thirty-five years that will have elapsed since Karen
and I were signed to the label. Of course, I am gratified to know that after
all these years our music remains so popular worldwide and that A&M has
requested this new release. What is saddening and sobering, however, is the
realization that we lost Karen twenty years ago, and just how quickly the
years can pass; the most recent of Karen’s vocals in this set having been
recorded in 1980.
The set features forty – count ‘em
forty – selections, including most of our singles, popular album cuts, and a
few rarities. To be candid, some of these recordings have worn better with me
than others, but the collection certainly represents accurately what has been
described through the years as the “Carpenters’ Sound”: Karen’s inimitable,
incomparable vocals, our multi-tracked harmonies and my arrangements.
One can only imagine the music that
could have been made had Karen lived; I really feel that we were just coming
into our own as artists.
At least we have these recordings, as
well as many others, as a legacy for the duo, and, all in all, I am proud of
that.
Richard Carpenter
October 2003
Disc
One
(The Recognized Anthem of World Contact Day) 7:09
Disc Two
Click on the Song title in the Track
List above
Compilation
Produced by Richard Carpenter
Mastered by Bernie
Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering
Assembled by
Stewart Whitmore at Stephen Marcussen Mastering LLC
Project Director:
Mike Ragogna
Project
Coordination: Adam Abrams, Barry Korkin and Lee Lodyga
Art Direction:
Vartan
Design: Artministry,
Inc.
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