Karen Carpenter certainly had a golden voice.
Love The Carpenters. Reminds me of my Mother and days long gone by!
Lol.
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.
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.
Thank you for posting these.
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.
Their Christmas album is one of my favorites.
Thank you for posting, harmony is hard to find on the radio nowadays.
I watched the 2015 British documentary, "Amy" the other day and immediately thought about Karen Carpenter.
She was such a talent.
What a shame we lost her so soon.
Thanks, What a wonderful voice she had. I’ve been following her daughters career and that voice comes out sometimes.
Rumer - Thankful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PQ5FdwFElE
Bfl.
Thanks!
Back when pop music was beautiful and not just stupid.
You do a good job. Karen has a great voice.
Crystal clear and effortless with perfect phrasing , what a voice!
First concert I ever attended was in 1972 at the Budokan, Tokyo-Japan...The Carpenters! We were so far up in the nose-bleed section...had to use binoculars, but the music sure was good!
Thank you SO MUCH for posting the links to the two videos. Remembered watching the Christmas specials as a kid and enjoyed them even MORE watching them as an adult. :-) FReegards.
I met and had dinner with Karen and Richard in Jan 1970 at a wedding rehearsal dinner, sat right across from her. She was a cousin to the grooms 1st wife that died giving birth to his 3rd child (caught something in hospital, her mom also caught it visiting her and died). She sang “Ava Maria” at the wedding. That was just before they made it, the only chart song they had at that time was a remake of “Ticket To Ride”. Richard was talking about just meeting with Bert Bacharach who heard them somewhere and liked the sound. Even then she seemed very high strung, not as ease, was constantly tapping the table or moving. After a few beers and wine she did seem to relax. I may have had a few too many because I suggested to Karen and the wedding party that Karen should sing “Ticket to Ride” instead of “Ava Maria” at the wedding the next day. If I recall correctly all laughed except the bride.
Just think how musical history could have been changed if Mama Cass had just given Karen Carpenter her ham sandwich...