Posted on 12/12/2015 7:03:46 PM PST by Fai Mao
Karen Carpenter certainly had a golden voice.
She did. I so admired her growing up and would sing along and harmonize to my sister’s records. I was an ‘alto’, too, even at a young age.
Love The Carpenters. Reminds me of my Mother and days long gone by!
Lol.
And.....she always ‘smacked the pitch’. NO AUTOTUNE. Back when we had actual talent.
Days long gone by are fun to remember and cherish, especially at Christmas time.
Amen, and Merry Christmas!
So did I.
I am a big time Carpenters fan.
I love a story Karen told on their summer replacement series.
As you may remember, Burt Bacharach was with A&M records. The “A” was Herb Alpert (of Tijuana Brass fame.
Now, what normally happened was that Bacharach and lyricist Hal David would write a song, give it to Dionne Warwick, and they’d hve a hit.
Well, they had a song that Dionne had done and nothing had happened. They tried several others. Nothing. they even had Richard Chamberlain talk-sing teh song on an album. Nothing.
Bacharach was commenting on this to Alpert one day, when Herb said to him, “You know, Burt, I have these kids I just signed. they just won The Battle of the Bands at the Hollywood Bowl. I think they’d do great with your song.”
So Burt agreed and those “kids” recorded his song. Suddenly, it took off.
It went something like this:
Why do birds suddenly appear
Every time you are near?
Just like me, they long to be close to you.
She did, and we lost it way too soon.
Even now, she would only be in her 60s. She could still be making lovely music at that age.
I also discovered Skeeter Davis, End of the World; Petula Clark (knew about her), Time to Say Good Bye?; Nancy Sinatra and ?, Some Velvet Morning; and Roger Whittaker, The Last Farewell.
Gotta run, check out my vanity on Larry Kudlow on live, has changed his mind, is very passionate about it, I never post vanities but did for this. It's commercial now, then I must concentrate on just that.
Karen had a great upper range too. One day she and a friend were out driving around, singing along to all the songs on the radio.
“Karen,” her friend said, “you have a beautiful upper range. Why don’t you ever use it?”
To which Karen responded; “The money’s in the basement.”
Thank you for posting these.
Check out the Carpenters’ summer replacement series, “Make Your Own Kind of Music”.
Thanks for posting. My husband and I got to see the Carpenters at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California. They were a class A act. What a loss.
Hehe! Well the ‘basement’ was beautiful!
Yes, it was. She was one of the few popular singers who was an alto.
When my mother first heard “For All We Know”, she said Karen reminded her of a Big Band singer anmed Margaret Whiting.
Yes, it was. She was one of the few popular singers who was an alto.
When my mother first heard “For All We Know”, she said Karen reminded her of a Big Band singer named Margaret Whiting.
Their Christmas album is one of my favorites.
I loved that song.
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