The Carpenters |
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Thu. October 15.1998 3:00 AM EDT |
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Richard Carpenterby Frank Tortorici |
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Richard Carpenter has released two solo albums since his sister Karen's death. ( ) |
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On this day in 1946 in New Haven, Conn., Richard Carpenter was born. Carpenter and
his sister, vocalist/drummer Karen, were the Carpenters -- the highly successful
easy-listening duo who scored with such '70s hits as "Close To You" and "We've
The Carpenter family moved to Downey, Calif., in 1963. With Richard on keyboards and Karen on drums, the Carpenter kids formed a jazz-pop trio with friend Wes Jacobs. In 1966, Karen was signed to the Magic Lamp record label, backed by Richard and Jacobs. That led to the trio signing with RCA as the Richard Carpenter Trio. But songs recorded by the trio were never released and the label dropped them. Jacobs then quit, leaving Richard and Karen to form Spectrum with another friend, John Bettis, and three other harmony-vocalists. When Spectrum disbanded, the Carpenter siblings decided to become a duo, naming themselves the Carpenters. Herb Alpert, head of A&M Records, heard a Carpenters demo and signed them in 1969. While the Carpenters' appeal was based on Karen's smooth voice, Richard wrote and arranged some of their songs. Offering, the Carpenters' 1969 debut-LP, featured a cover of the Beatles' "Ticket to Ride." (The album was later re-issued as Ticket to Ride.) The Carpenters hit paydirt with their recording of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "(They Long To Be) Close To You," from the 1970 Close To You LP. The song spent four weeks at #1 in the U.S. and was a global hit. The Carpenters' reign as one of the world's most popular groups was just beginning. Originally written for a bank commercial, their next single, appropriately titled "We've Only Just Begun," hit #2. In 1971, the Carpenters took "For All We Know" (which won the Academy Award as Best Song) to #3. That year the duo won Grammys for Best New Artist and Best Contemporary Vocal Performance By a Duo or Group, the latter for "Close To You." Three #2 hits followed: "Rainy Days and Mondays," "Superstar" and "Hurting Each Other." "Sing," a song written for the children's TV show "Sesame Street," made #3 in 1973, the same year that "Yesterday Once More" went to #2. The Carpenters then hit #1 with "Top Of The World" as they released The Singles 1969-1973, one of the best-selling hit collections of the '70s. Another #1 came in 1975, with their cover of the Marvelettes' 1961 #1 "Please Mr. Postman." But after enjoying a top-20 hit with their 1976 remake of Herman's Hermits' smash "There's A Kind of Hush (All Over the World)," the Carpenters struggled to reach the upper Top 40. The following year, the Carpenters had a strange, minor hit with a cover of the mysterious Canadian-band Klaatu's song, "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft (The Recognized Anthem of World Contact Day)." Also in 1977, Richard received damages in the U.K. High Court for a Daily Mail article alleging that the Carpenters could not write their own songs. Richard soon began battling an addiction to prescription drugs. In 1981, Made In America yielded a top-20 single, "Touch Me When We're Dancing." But on Feb. 4, 1983, Karen died from extreme weight-loss brought on by anorexia nervosa. After Karen's death, Richard spent more time producing. He also supervised a number of Carpenters compilations. In 1987, he issued his solo debut, Time, featuring vocals by Dusty Springfield and Dionne Warwick. This year, Richard released Pianist-Arranger-Composer-Conductor, which uses some of Karen's vocals and drumming. Though it differed drastically from the glam-rock in vogue at the time, the Carpenters' squeaky-clean pop sold a tremendous amount of records in the '70s. Their music caught the ears of various modern rockers, including Matthew Sweet and Sheryl Crow, who contributed to the 1994 tribute album If I Were A Carpenter. Other birthdays: Barry McGuire, 63, and Tito Jackson (Jacksons), 45. |
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