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Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

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THE CARPENTERS

The Carpenters are a vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter. With their brand of melodic pop, they charted a score of hit recordings on the American Top 40, becoming leading exponents of the soft rock or adult contemporary genre and ranking among the foremost recording artists of the decade. It has been estimated that The Carpenters' album and single sales total more than 100 million units, easily making them part of the list of best-selling music artists.

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, lived at 55 Hall Street, New Haven, Connecticut, Richard Lynn on October 15, 1946, and Karen Anne on March 2, 1950, the Carpenter siblings moved with their parents Harold (November 8, 1908 - October 15, 1988) and Agnes (March 5, 1915 - October 1, 1996) to California in 1963 and settled in the Los Angeles suburb of Downey, California, at 13024 Fidler Avenue. The house was razed for the 105 Century Freeway project. The Carpenters also resided at two other Downey addresses, 9828 Newville Avenue, the home the Carpenters bought for and shared with their parents, and 8341 Lubec Street, the home Richard and Karen bought. Richard had developed an interest in music at an early age, becoming a piano prodigy. The move to Southern California was intended in part to foster his budding musical career. Karen, meanwhile, did not manifest her musical talents until high school, when she joined her high school band Downey High School, 11040 Brookshire Avenue, where an outdoor performance stage is dedicated in their honor and found an interest in drums. She soon taught herself to play the drums and mastered them. Around this time she also realized her singing ability.

During the mid to late 1960s, the two attempted to launch a musical career but failed to gain a successful recording deal until the decade's end. In May 1966 Karen joined Richard in attending a late-night session in the garage studio of L.A. bassist Joe Osborn, where Richard was to accompany an auditioning trumpet player. Asked to sing, Karen performed and landed a short-lived recording contract as a solo artist with Osborn's fledgling label Magic Lamp. The resulting single included two of Richard's compositions, "Looking for Love" and "I'll Be Yours", but the label was soon defunct, bringing this promising start to a close. This single is now considered to be a rare collector's item. Only 500 were pressed at the time of release. Richard Carpenter owns five in near mint condition.

During this period the pair, joined by bassist friend Wes Jacobs, formed the Richard Carpenter Trio, a jazz instrumental group. Winning the Hollywood Bowl "Battle of the Bands" in 1966, the trio was picked up by the RCA label. The label chose not to release their songs, however, and doubting their commercial potential, RCA soon dropped the trio. Richard and Karen next teamed with four other student musicians from Long Beach State to form the sextet Spectrum. Although the new group landed club dates at such venues as the Whisky a Go Go, no record deal was forthcoming. Nevertheless, the experience proved rewarding for the siblings, as Richard found a lyricist for his original compositions in fellow Spectrum member John Bettis.

After Spectrum disbanded the Carpenters decided to continue as a duo, with Richard ..boards and Karen on drums, and both contributing vocals. They sent out demo tapes and attracted the attention of A&M Records co-owner and trumpeter and vocalist Herb Alpert, who signed the duo in 1969. Their initial LP, titled Offering, featured numerous selections that Richard had written or co-written during their Spectrum period. The most significant track on the album was a ballad rendition of The Beatles' hit "Ticket to Ride", which soon became a minor hit for the Carpenters at #54 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the LP was subsequently repackaged and retitled Ticket to Ride with somewhat improved sales. Following the autumn release of Ticket to Ride, their label arranged for the duo to perform at the film premieres of Goodbye, Mr. Chips and Hello Dolly in December.

Richard and Karen received their breakthrough with the 1970 release of the Burt Bacharach-Hal David song "(They Long to Be) Close to You", which rose to #1 and stayed atop the charts for four weeks. The Carpenters' version of "We've Only Just Begun" written by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols, reached #2 to become the duo's second major hit in the fall of 1970, and is considered by Richard Carpenter as the group's signature song. It has been re-recorded over 100 times by other singers. Both songs featured on the album Close To You, which became a bestseller, earning Richard and Karen two Grammy Awards. The duo rounded out the year with a holiday release, "Merry Christmas Darling", which Richard co-wrote with Frank Pooler, who had been the duo's choral director at Long Beach State. The single scored high on the holiday charts in 1970 and made repeat appearances on the charts in subsequent years.

A string of hit singles and albums kept the Carpenters on the charts through the early 1970s, including "For All We Know", "Rainy Days and Mondays", and "Superstar" all from the LP Carpenters in 1971; "Hurting Each Other", "It's Going to Take Some Time", and "Goodbye to Love" an early example of the power ballad, from the LP A Song for You in 1972; "Sing" and "Yesterday Once More" from the oldies-oriented LP Now & Then in 1973. "Top of the World", an album selection on the Song for You LP, was covered by country artist Lynn Anderson, became a country and western hit and was rerecorded for single release in 1973, reaching number one on the Popular Music Top 40 charts late that year. A greatest hits LP, titled The Singles: 1969-1973, topped the charts in the U.S. and the United Kingdom and became one of the best-selling albums of the decade, ultimately selling more than 7 million copies in the U.S. alone.

During the first half of the 1970s, the Carpenters' music was a staple of Top 40 playlists and Middle-of-the-Road, Easy Listening and Adult Contemporary radio. The duo produced a distinctive sound featuring Karen's expressive contralto on lead vocals, with both siblings contributing background vocals that were overdubbed to create densely layered harmonies. To his role as vocalist, keyboardist, and arranger, Richard added that of composer on numerous tracks. Several of his compositions with lyricist John Bettis became hit records, including "Goodbye to Love", "Yesterday Once More", and "Top of the World".

To promote their recordings, the Carpenters maintained a demanding schedule of concert tours and television appearances. Among their numerous television credits were appearances on such popular series as American Bandstand, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, and the The Carol Burnett Show. In 1971 the duo appeared in a television special on the BBC in the United Kingdom and were the featured performers in a summer replacement series, Make Your Own Kind of Music, which aired on NBC-TV in the U.S. In May 1973, the Carpenters accepted an invitation to perform at the White House for President Richard Nixon and visiting West German chancellor Willy Brandt.

The Carpenters' popularity often confounded critics. With their output focused on ballads and mid-tempo pop, the duo's music was often dismissed by critics as bland and "saccharine". The recording industry, however, bestowed awards on the duo, who won three Grammy Awards during their career including Best New Artist, and Best Pop Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus, for "Close to You" in 1970; and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group for the LP Carpenters in 1971. In 1973, the Carpenters were voted Best Band, Duo, or Group Pop/Rock at the first annual American Music Awards. Extensive touring in 1973–74 left the duo with little time for recording new material. As a result, the Carpenters did not issue a new album in 1974. Instead, the pair chose for single release the Williams-Nichols composition "I Won't Last a Day Without You". Originally recorded as an album track for 1972's A Song for You LP, the single version became the fifth and final selection from that album project to chart in the Top 20, reaching #11 on the U.S. charts. Also in 1974, the Carpenters achieved a massive international hit with an up-tempo remake of Hank Williams' "Jambalaya", which, while not released as a single in the U.S., reached the top 30 in Japan and sold well in United Kingdom, among other countries. In late 1974 a Christmas single followed, a jazz-influenced rendition of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town".

In early 1975, the Carpenters scaled the charts with a remake of the Marvelettes' hit "Please Mr. Postman". Released in late 1974, the single soared to #1 on the U.S. charts in January 1975, becoming the duo's third and final number one single. Later that spring, the pair scored a final top five hit with the Carpenter-Bettis song "Only Yesterday" peaking at #4. Both singles appeared on the LP Horizon, which also included covers of The Eagles' "Desperado" and Neil Sedaka's "Solitaire", which became a moderate hit for the duo that year. The LPs Horizon and A Kind of Hush, released in 1975 and 1976, respectively, achieved "gold" status. The duo's highest charting single that year was a cover of Herman's Hermits' "There's a Kind of Hush", which peaked at number 12. The follow-up single, the Carpenter-Bettis song "I Need to Be in Love" Karen's favorite of all of the duo's singles, charted at #25. The disco craze was in full swing by 1977, and adult-appeal "easy listening" artists like the Carpenters, as well as John Denver, Helen Reddy, and Olivia Newton-John were getting somewhat less airplay.

Their more experimental album, Passage, released in 1977 marked an attempt to broaden their appeal by venturing into other musical genres. The LP featured an unlikely mix of Latin rock, calypso, and pop, and included the Top 40 hit "All You Get from Love Is a Love Song". The most notable tracks included cover versions of "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina" Karen's reading of this song is considered to be one of the best of all time from the rock opera Evita and Klaatu's "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft", both complete with choral and orchestral accompaniment. Although the single release of "Calling Occupants" became a top ten hit in the UK, it went to number 32 on the U.S. charts. Richard has said that he felt another track from Passage, "I Just Fall in Love Again", could have become a success had A&M decided to release it as a single. The song did become a hit in 1979 for Anne Murray, proving Richard's feelings about the song's appeal.

The Carpenters continued to enjoy enormous popularity. In 1978 they had a top 10 hit on the country chart with the up-tempo "Sweet, Sweet Smile", written by country pop star Juice Newton. A second Singles album covering the years 1974–78 was released in the UK, while in the States, their 1978 holiday album, Christmas Portrait, became a seasonal favorite. Their television specials also garnered solid ratings and kept them in the public eye during the late 1970s. Karen dated such celebrities as Alan Osmond, Steve Martin and Mike Curb.

By the mid-1970s, extensive touring and lengthy recording sessions had begun to take their toll on the duo and contributed to their professional difficulties during the latter half of the decade. Karen dieted obsessively and developed the disorder anorexia nervosa, which first manifested itself in 1975 when an exhausted and emaciated Karen was forced to cancel concert tours in the UK and Japan. Richard developed an addiction to quaaludes, which began to affect his performance in the late 1970s and led to the end of the duo's live concert appearances in 1978.

Richard sought treatment for his addiction at a Topeka, Kansas facility in early 1979. Karen decided to pursue a solo album project with renowned producer Phil Ramone in New York. The choice of more adult-oriented and disco tempo material represented an effort to retool her image. The resulting product met a tepid response from Richard and A&M executives in early 1980, and Karen wavered in her dedication to the project. She abandoned the solo effort to launch a new LP with her brother, now recovered from his addiction. The solo LP, Karen Carpenter, remained unreleased until October 1996, although Karen's fans got a taste of the album in 1989 when one of its tracks, "If I Had You," turned up on the compilation album Lovelines and was also released as a single, making #18 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

The Carpenters' next LP as a duo, Made in America (1981), spawned a final top 20 hit single, "Touch Me When We're Dancing" peaking at #16 (also their final #1 Adult Contemporary hit), with three other singles, including another Motown cover version, "Beechwood 4-5789".

Personal troubles dimmed the prospects of this modest return to the charts, with Karen's marriage to Tom Burris and the effects of her anorexia nervosa. After a whirlwind romance, Karen married real estate developer Thomas James Burris in a lavish wedding held in the Crystal Room at the Beverly Hills Hotel on August 31, 1980. A new song performed by Karen at the ceremony, "Because We Are In Love," surfaced in 1981 on Made In America and as the B-side of "Touch Me When We're Dancing." The marriage turned out to be a disaster, and the couple separated in November 1981. In 1982 Karen sought therapy with noted psychotherapist Steven Levenkron in New York City for her disorder and returned to California later that year determined to regain her professional career and finalize her divorce. Karen was rumoured to be abusing syrup of ipecac during this time, possibly straining and damaging her heart, however no evidence of this was ever found. Karen, who had a normal thyroid, was also found to be taking ten times the normal daily dose of thyroid medication in order to speed up her metabolism. This, combined with large amounts of laxatives between 90 to 100 a day, weakened her heart.

Karen Carpenter gained a total of 30 lbs. over a two month stay in a New York Hospital, but the sudden weight gain further strained her heart, which was already damaged from years of dieting and abuse. On February 4, 1983, at the age of 32, Karen suffered cardiac arrest at her parents home in Downey and was taken to Downey Community Hospital, 11500 Brookshire Avenue, where she was pronounced dead twenty minutes later. Karen was planning to sign her divorce papers on the day she died.

Her funeral service took place on Tuesday, February 8, 1983, at the Downey United Methodist Church in Downey. Karen Carpenter, dressed in a rose colored suit, lay in an open white casket, and a thousand mourners passed through to say goodbye, among them her friends Dorothy Hamill, Olivia Newton-John, Petula Clark, Cristina Ferrare and Dionne Warwick. Karen's estranged husband appeared at her funeral, and took off his wedding band and threw it into the casket according to the Ray Coleman Book The Carpenters: the Untold Story.

On October 12, 1983, the Carpenters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a few yards from the Kodak Theater. Richard, Harold, and Agnes Carpenter attended the inauguration, as did many fans.

Karen's death brought lasting media attention to anorexia nervosa and also to bulimia. Karen's death encouraged celebrities to go public about their eating disorders, among them Tracey Gold and Diana, Princess of Wales. Medical centers and hospitals began receiving increased contacts from people with these disorders. The general public had little knowledge of anorexia nervosa and bulimia prior to her death, making the conditions difficult to identify and treat.

In December 2003, the remains of Karen and her parents were exhumed from Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Cypress, California and reinterred in Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village, California.

Following Karen's death, Richard Carpenter has continued to produce recordings of the duo's music, including several albums of previously unreleased material and numerous compilation albums.

Released in November 1983, Voice of the Heart, an album that included some finished tracks left out of Made In America and earlier LPs The album peaked at #46, and two singles were released. "Make Believe It's Your First Time", a second version of a song Karen had recorded for her solo album and a song which had been a minor hit in 1979 for Bobby Vinton, got up to #101 on Billboard's "Bubbling Under the Hot 100" chart, and "Your Baby Doesn't Love You Anymore". Both songs did well on the Adult Contemporary charts.

Richard Carpenter married his cousin Mary Rudolf on May 19, 1984. Kristi was born on August 17, 1987, Traci was born on July 25, 1989, Mindi was born on July 7, 1992, Collin and Taylor were his other sons.

In 1984, using outtake material from the duo's first Christmas album A Christmas Portrait and recording new material around it, Richard constructed a new Carpenters Christmas album, An Old Fashioned Christmas. In 1987 Richard released his first solo album, Time which generated one hit single, "Something in Your Eyes" sung by Dusty Springfield.

A 1989 TV movie, The Karen Carpenter Story, (with Cynthia Gibb), produced with Richard's cooperation, gained favorable notices and reached a wide audience. In the first few weeks after the movie's airdate, many record stores sold out of their Carpenters stock. A critical reevaluation of the Carpenters' followed during the 1990s. The superior technical quality of the recordings, the sorrowful undercurrents in many of their songs and the pain in Karen's voice as well as her life attracted many fans. Even '90s R&B group Boyz II Men list the Carpenters among their influences. In 1990 the alternative rock band Sonic Youth recorded "Tunic (Song for Karen)", which depicted Karen saying goodbye to relatives as she got to play the drums again and meet her new "friends", Dennis Wilson, Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin. A 1994 biography, The Carpenters: The Untold Story, by music journalist and biographer Ray Coleman, covered the duo's career and personal lives. A tribute album, If I Were a Carpenter, by contemporary artists (such as Sonic Youth, Shonen Knife, Grant Lee Buffalo, Matthew Sweet, and The Cranberries), also appeared that year and provided an alternative rock interpretation of Carpenters hits. Karen Carpenter, Karen's solo album, was released in October 1996. In 1997 Richard recorded and released an album that displayed his talents as a pianist, arranger, and composer aptly titled Pianist, Arranger, Composer, Conductor.

In Japan the Carpenters' popularity reached large proportions and continued after Karen's death. Singles by non-Japanese artists typically do not sell well in Japan although albums often do, but the Carpenters were one exception. Three of the Carpenters' singles "Superstar", "Yesterday Once More", and the double-sided "I Need to Be in Love"/"Top of the World" made the top 10 on Japan's Oricon chart, and seven others reached the top 40. In 1995, a compilation assembled by Richard for the Japanese market, 22 Hits of the Carpenters, topped the charts and sold over two million copies, and received a tenth-anniversary re-release in 2005.

Several of their songs have achieved the status of popular standards. In particular, "(They Long to Be) Close to You" is frequently sung in karaoke bars. This song is heard in the film There's Something About Mary; it also appears in two episodes of The Simpsons. The duo's signature tune, "We've Only Just Begun", is popular at weddings and receptions, and was memorably featured in the film version of Starsky & Hutch. Both have been honored with Grammy Hall of Fame awards for recordings of lasting quality or historical significance. "Superstar" has been covered by numerous artists, with popular recordings from Luther Vandross and Ruben Studdard. Clay Aiken performed "Solitaire" on American Idol and introduced the song to a new generation.

Richard Carpenter lives with his wife Mary Rudolf-Carpenter and their four daughters and one son in Thousand Oaks, California, where the couple are supporters of the arts. In 2004 Carpenter and his wife pledged a $3 million gift to the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza Foundation in memory of Karen Carpenter. The first annual "Richard Carpenter Scholarship Competition Award Show" was held at the Civic Arts Plaza on September 20, 2006. Richard and daughters Traci and Mindi performed after the show. Richard is affiliated with the Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center at California State University, Long Beach. He continues to make concert appearances, including fund raising efforts for the Carpenter Center. In 2001 he was a guest on "Petula Clark: A Sign of the Times" concert in Norfolk, Virginia and portions were recorded for CD and DVD release and for a PBS special. In 2002 he introduced Clark at the Carpenter Center and appeared on her Ultimate Collection CD. Carpenter is a collector of classic cars, including a Chrysler 300 convertible from the '60s, which he has owned for over 25 years.

As metioned above, Downey High School has an outdoor stage named in honor of Karen Carpenter, and Karen & Richard were added to the school's hall of fame in 1999. There is also an exhibit dedicated to the Carpenters at the Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Long Beach, Ca; and another one at the front entrance to the Downey City Library, 11121 Brookshire Avenue.