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Carpenters fans always have lots of
questions about the music and lives of Karen & Richard
Carpenter. Listed below are some of the most common queries. If
you have a question you'd like answered, please send an email to
Paul
Are there any unreleased Carpenters songs? There
are many songs on tape in A&M's vaults. Jerry Crenshaw did wrote an article
on these Buried Treasures in August 1992.
Richard Carpenter denies that many of these songs are complete, although at the
time of the box set he stated there were "a couple of albums worth of material
in the vaults". Carpenter's biographer Yuko Ougra provided some more detail in
a December 1996 article posted to the Newville list.
Yuko also conducted an interview with Richard
Carpenter where he discusses many of the songs on the list.
Are the Carpenters Fan Club newsletters available
anywhere? Masaru "Rocky" Kurita used to have these
available on his Close To You web page. The page is now defunct, so I
have included them here on the Carpenters FAQ
site.
What Grammy Awards were the
Carpenters nominated for and which did they win? Jose Casillas has compiled the
following list of Grammy Award nominations by the Carpenters and/or related
artists or producers (awards won are shown in bold):
1970 Best New Artist:
Carpenters
1970 Record of the Year: Close To You (Produced by
Jack Daugherty)
1970 Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with
Vocal: CarpentersClose To You
1970 Album of the Year: Close To You (Produced by
Jack Daugherty)
1970 Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying
Vocals: Richard Carpenter
Where do Richard and Karen get the songs from? How are they
put together in the studio? Vickie Dalen
wrote: this interview segment caught my attention because it once again
reminded me of how much work went into the making of the songs... how some
songs can be left unfinished... and also to the musical genius of
Richard. Now, there are some things concerning
Richard's ideas that I don't agree with, but when it comes
down to imagining how he can hear in his mind all the different parts that all
the different instruments will play - what the flute will play, what the oboe
will play, what the drum will do... for all the songs he writes... it's just
overwhelming. Of course, Karen's giggles throughout all her
interviews are contagious, and her little humorous comments add life to what
could otherwise get a bit dull...
Interviewer:
We talked about the Carpenters' music and got
some of their thoughts that went into the make-up of the finished product. You
listen to their singles and their albums and each track or performance sounds
so darn clean, uncluttered, and it sounds as if so much tender-loving care went
into each one that they do, and I mentioned to Richard and
Karen the fact that each album track was done... it sounded as
if it was going to be a single record. And I asked them to give us an idea
about the planning of a Carpenters' album... what went into
the planning?
Richard:
It's a long process. We have a person at A&M records who
works for us and all the stuff comes from the publishers, and from people we
meet on the road, and unknown people who just see what label different artists
that are interested are on, they send it all and it all goes to A&M. And he
goes through the thousands of things and narrows it down to hundreds of things
that he thinks I'll be interested in. Then I take the hundreds home. And,
uh...
Karen:
(laughs) you don't see him for days!
Richard:
... yeah, listening, listening, listening... and of course they
come in a variety of recorded ways - cartridges, cassettes, dubs, singles,
little local record company singles, just...
Karen:
Singing telegrams...
Richard:
... tapes, and you have to have all the different machines to
play everything on.
Interviewer:
And all the different speeds, too.
Richard:
Oh, yeah... 45, 33...
Karen:
And some of them are right in the middle. (giggles)
Richard:
... 15... so it takes time to do. And I listen to all of them,
and of course I write some of the tunes, myself, and John
Bettis writes the lyrics, so we usually don't get ALL the material
that's going to go onto the album at once and then go into the studio. We start
with several things, go in... and do the tracks... by tracks I mean we work it
bass, piano, and drums - basic foundation to the tune. And...then we'll start
with usually something like overdubbing guitar next, or electric piano on top
of what we've got. And we do one thing at a time, to achieve better sound. So
you don't have... if you do it all at once in a studio you can have different
instruments 'leaking' into the drum microphones, whatever, it doesn't give you
as clean a sound.
Interviewer:
How many tracks do you usually have, total, to work with?
Richard:
24. And that, again, takes time. So instead of in one hour where
you could get 35 musicians say, on one song, we start with three and add one,
add one, add another, add another, and then do the vocals, and then move on to
the next song, and the next. Then when we have four done, we call in a string
section. Because the union allows you to do four tunes in one session. And we
complete it, and put it aside, to be mixed, then start in again.
What are other celebrities opinions of Karen & Richard
Carpenter? Greg has
collected the following quotes:
Madonna. Source: Calgary Herald. April 27, 1989.
(but quoted from a Q Magazine article) Q Magazine recently listed the faves
of two of todays' top female artists. ... Said Madonna:
"Two of my inspirations were Karen Carpenter and
Nancy Sinatra. Karen Carpenter had the
clearest, purest voice. I'm completely influenced by her harmonic sensibility."
k.d. lang. Source: Toronto Star. May 13
1989. Never mind Patsy Cline. Canada's k.d.
lang has a new list of favorites to add to her gallery of great
voices. They include Nat King Cole, Carmen
MacRae and yes, even Karen Carpenter. "She
(Carpenter) had a voice like chocolate,"lang, 27, enthused in Toronto this week during a round of
interviews to advance her newest album, Absolute Torch 'N
Twang. "It was thick and flawless. Every time she sang, you
knew what you were getting, and it came at you this wide
(lang spreads her arms to shoulders' width). Listening to
that is like swimming inside the thickness of the voice."
Jann Arden. Source: Chatelaine, October
1995. Arden got her music, she thinks, from her dad's
mother, "a stormin' Mormon" who was outspoken and flinty and played a tough
two-fisted piano. "And when I was 8 or 9, Dad let us join the Columbia
Record Club. My brothers, Patrick (now 28) and Duray (36), each had a pick.
Mine was the Carpenters. I loved Karen
Carpenter."
Joan Rivers. Source: PLAYBOY from November
1986 PLAYBOY: How about the Karen
Carpenter jokes? RIVERS: All I said was she
was skinny enough for David Brenner. The point I always made
with Karen Carpenter was how everyone suddenly loved her the
minute she died; but for two years before she died, not one person bought an
album or went to see her. So why are we all so bereft over this poor
girl?
Suede sings, in the chorus of the song He's
Gone: "Like the leaves on the trees Like a
Carpenters song Like the planes and the trains and the
lives that were young He's gone And it feels like the words to a
song."
Rosie O'Donnell & Willie
Nelson on ROSIE, October 2, 1996: Rosie talks
about the first concert she ever saw at West Minster, the
Carpenters. She snuck backstage and touched
Karen's sweater when she walked by. Willie says, "Oh yeah, she was great."
Jann Arden (interview for MW magazine, September
1995) MW: Who are your real life heroes? Jann: Singer/songwriter Shawn Colvin is
a wonderful, unbelievable guitar player... unbelievable singer. My mom.
Meryl Streep. Karen Carpenter is one of my
all-time favorites. I emulate her. She was one of the biggest reasons I started
singing. MW: And yet she had so many
problems... Jann: A devastating personal
life, but I didn't know much about that until after her death. And then, all
those little secrets came to light. But you know, she wanted to protect herself
from that as much as anybody else does. She was a private person and a public
person all at the same time. MW: If you could
own only two CDs, which would they be? Jann:
I would definitely own a Carpenters selection -- their
greatest hits, or the singles album with the singles from '68 (sic) to '78.
That's a great record. I would probably own a Shirley Bassey
record -- any of them.
Babyface (in Entertainment Weekly magazine,
September 10, 1993) "I don't have a hit gauger that says -- This is
gonna be a smash!" says Babyface, who counts the
Carpenters among his influences.
Kim Gordon: Sonic Youth
(Toronto Star newspaper, October 12, 1990) "At the time they came out
they were so conservative. They were the music your parents would rather you
listened to. But the songs have held up. Surprisingly, I found their music
incredibly... beautiful. And Karen was held up as the figure
of wholesome American success, but given how tragic her life was, those songs
take on different meaning. In a way, she's the classic repressed American
female; the only control she had was over her body and she chose to make
herself disappear."
Martika (No. 1 magazine, August 16, 1989)
"When I'm mellow I like to listen to stuff like Basia
and Sade but I'm really into the Carpenters
right now -- I've got the whole back catalogue!"
Steve McDonald: Bassist with Red
Kross (Entertainment Weekly magazine, Summer 1994) "As a
kid, I never let my older brother know that I liked the
Carpenters because he'd probably have made fun of me
endlessly."
Matthew Sweet (Entertainment Weekly magazine,
Summer 1994) "... The thing I found going through the
Carpenters' records was that there's an underlying sadness in
Karen's voice that lends a depth to what would otherwise be
more sappy."
Shania Twain (in Bullet - September/October 1993) "She
[Karen] has the voice of perfection. It's just so soothing, so
easy to listen to. The Carpenters' music was full of so many
beautiful sounds and harmonies. When I was five years old, I sat for hours with
a headset on listening to The Carpenters and just mocking
harmonies and different things like that. She was definitely my earliest
influence. I'm very sad that Karen Carpenter is not alive
today -- very, very, sad."
Shania Twain (in People Magazine, December 30.
1996) Various celebs were asked whom they 'd most like to talk to in the
"great beyond." "Karen Carpenter -- probably my
favorite singer of all time. She's the one person I always wished had
lived."
Carnie Wilson: Wilson Phillips
(Vanity Fair magazine, December 1993) Responding to the question "Who
inspires you?" "I get my inspiration as a singer from
Karen Carpenter, Annie Lennox, Barbra
Streisand, and I love Sade..."
Leter,
in her book Gut Feelings, Carnie
Wilson wrote: "I knew I wanted to be a singer when I heard
voices like Barbara Streisand and Karen
Carpenter. My parents loved the Carpenters, and we
played their records all the time at home. It didn't matter whether you liked
that style of music or not. It was the magic in Karen's voice
that was so soothing, and the lushness of the layered harmonies that were like
soft clouds of sound."
Roberta Q. contributes:
In January 1998 Alice Cooper was interviewed at
the AT&T Golf tournament at Pebble Beach CA. When asked what helps him to
relax, he replied "Carpenters music. They're the best.
The Carpenters." The surprised interviewer asked,
"Not Metallica?" Cooper replied
sternly: "The Carpenters."
Why are there so many different Christmas CDs/albums? What do
I need to get everything? Ken
Tucker provided this excllent article
summarizing the different configurations.
Have the Carpenters, or their music, appeared in any
films? Jorge Moraga
has researched and compiled the following list: (with contributions from Jean,
Kala, Jena, Babs, Rodney, Mario Casillas, Vicki, Laura, Heather Duthie, Deb,
Fabian E. Vera, W.C, Invacuohrt, Kjjacobsen, Mariam Tariq.) More details and
more sightings welcome, email
Jorge! Check out
for more details about these movies.
Lovers And Other Strangers (1970)
Features the song For All We
Know, made famous by the Carpenters.
Bless The Beasts And Children
(1972) The Carpenters sang the
title song in the film
and on the original soundtrack recording.
St Elmo's Fire (1985) Andrew McCarthy's character is talking about a woman he
remembered from high school -- his first crush -- where she "sang We've Only Just Begun as sweet
as Karen Carpenter".
The Experts (1989) It starred
John Travolta and was probably made in the late 70's. He and a
friend are in a strange town and they end up in a bar with no one else around.
There is a jukebox, and John picks Close To You to play.
Parenthood (1989) Rick
Moranis goes into his wife's classroom while she's teaching and tries
to win her back by singing Close To
You to her. It's hilarious--esp. the "waaaa" part at the end...too
funny!!
The Spirit Of 76 (1990) with
Red Kross and the same guy from the Patridge
Family. In one scene, the Red Kross parents appear
and Top Of The World is
played in their car's radio.
My Girl (1991) Vada has a Carpenters poster on her bedroom
wall. (A Song For
You inside cover photo)
Us (1991 - TV) It was
Michael Landon's last movie, and a song sung by
Karen was in the movie, Rainy Days And Mondays.
12:01 (1993 - TV) A science fiction
movie that became the basis for Groundhog Day. (Or is
it 12:01 PM (1990) ... or both?)
Wayne's World 2 (1993) Superstar is sung by Bette
Midler in one scene. Recording by Superfan on the
original soundtrack.
My Girl II (1994) Vada has a Carpenters poster on her bedroom
wall (from the same photo shoot as the A Kind Of Hush
cover)
Boys On The Side (1995) Mary Louise Parker was talking about how she used to sing when
she was younger. She says she was in some sort of contest, and she sang Close To You. "You know...the
Carpenters. 'Just like me, they long to b--' " And
Whoopi Goldberg goes, "I know." and she says, "It was the
seventies"
In The Mouth Of Madness (1995) the
principal character, Sam Neill, is inside a mental hospital,
and We've Only Just
Begun is suddenly played in the place, and all the patients begin to
sing, so Neill says something like "Oh no, the
Carpenters, that was the last I needed."
Tommy Boy (1995) The two characters
are riding in the car and Superstar comes on. At first they joke
about how corny it is, but after the camera cuts away and then cuts back to
them, they are singing along loudly and crying!
for more details about these movies.
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