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Carpenters is a very famous band consisted of Richard Carpenter and his sister Karen Carpenter. It was formed in 1965.And in 1969 ,with the release of the single ‘close to you’ ,Carpenters became known to every family. In 1970’s, Carpenters became quite famous in the world and certainly had many fans all around the world. There are many famous songs left such as ‘Yesterday once more’ ‘close to you’ and ‘Top of the world’ , though the band does not exist now.

Basic information

Richard Carpenter was born in 1947,and his sister Karen Carpenter was three years younger than him. Richard Carpenter is gifted in music. With the influence of her brother, Karen Carpenter began to learn to play instruments . They stepped into music circles with the help of a famous broker . Carpenters acquires great achievement and left their name in music history. However, Karen Carpenter died of bulimia nervosa in1983 .It’s really a pity and a lose of human spiritual wealth .

Road to legend

Carpenters is formed in 1965,and in 1968 signed a contract with RCA ,but RCA didn’t release their songs and abandoned them. In 1969 , they signed a contract with A&M. This indicated that a new brand time had came : the time of Carpenters.

Road to Legend

In 1969, Carpenters released their first album ‘offering’ ， and a single in the album reached at the No.54 spot on the Billboard charts.

In 1970 ,the good time began. In this year, Carpenters performed his own version of a song called ‘close to you’ which has been forgotten and made a great success. The following single ‘We’ve only just begun’ landed at the NO.1 place on the Billboard charts and became a hymn in wedding. At the end of the year ， Richard and Karen gained five Grammy-nominations ， and were honored with the ‘Breakout Performer of the Year Award’. This made them outstanding in the music zone.

Road to Legend

In 1971,they released their second album ‘Carpenters’. The number of order bill had gotten to one million and the real sales came to the second place in the nation. During the whole half year it stood at top ten firmly and three singles in the album sold out more than one million copies--‘For all we know’ ‘Rainy days and Mondays’ ‘Super star’. And in this year, Richard and Karen got three Grammy-nominations .The disc ‘Carpenters’ was honored with the ‘Best Album’. In December ,they were honored with the ‘Best group of the year’ awarded by ASCA .

Road to Legend

In 1973 , Carpenters cooperate with John Bettis, composed many famous songs ,including ‘Yesterday once more ’ and ‘Top of the world’. These two songs reached at the top of Billboard charts .In 1974 Carpenters held many concerts around the world and came to Japan. They were so famous and over five thousand fans came to the airport to met them.

Road to Legend

In 1975 and 1976, Karen was unlucky to be stricken by bulimia nervosa ,and their compositions were not so familiar to us. But that doesn’t mean the songs are not good enough. In fact,

many songs are at

Billboard charts such as

‘Only yesterday’ ‘Solitaire’

and so on .

Road to Legend

In 1977,the most important thing is that Karen sang a selective part of Web Reyles’s opera ‘Eva’ and got a great success.

The performance attracted a

lot of attention from media.

In this year ,

they released their ninth

album.

Road to Legend

In 1980, Karen got married

with Tom Bruce.

Richard and John Bettis

composed the song

‘Because We Are In Love’

for Karen’s wedding .

But Karen and Tom Bruce

got divorced

fifteen months later.

Road to Legend

In 1982 and 1983, Karen went to New York to receive treatment , but she still can’t escape from the disease. Karen died in her parents’ home. A super star fell down. Maybe God wants to listen to music, so he takes away Karen.

Road to Legend

After Karen passed away ,her

Brother Richard still went on

working on music ， And in 1983 ,

he released his disc

‘Voice Of The Heart’ and in 1989

released the another disc. After

that Carpenters has little

compositions.

Style of Carpenters

Carpenters didn’t follow the Pop-rock route , which was popular in 1970s. Karen’s voice was very soft .Listening to her songs , we can clearly feel kind natural and a little sad. We can get the point from the song ‘Yesterday once more’ . So many people sort Carpenters’ songs as Soft-rock.

Compositions of Carpenters

Carpenters not only has many original compositions ,but also has many covers . Among the covers, there are a great many excellent ones . I dare to say that we know these songs not by original singers but by Carpenters. ‘Superstar’ ‘Jambalaya’ and ‘Close to you’ belong to the covers . The song ‘Jambalaya’ also has a Chinese cover .That’s the song in Chinese we call ‘小冤家’ sung by Zhao wei .

The Carpenters were a vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter. The Carpenters were the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and press materials is simply "Carpenters", without the definite article. During a period in the 1970s when louder and wilder rock was in great demand, Richard and Karen produced a distinctively soft musical style that made them one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

The Carpenters' melodic pop charted a record-breaking score of hit recordings on the American Top 40 and Adult Contemporary charts, becoming leading sellers in the soft rock, easy listening and adult contemporary genres. The Carpenters had three #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and fifteen #1 hits on the Adult Contemporary Chart (see The Carpenters discography). In addition, they had twelve top 10 singles (including their #1 hits). To date, The Carpenters' album and single sales total more than 100 million units.

During their fourteen-year career, The Carpenters recorded eleven albums, five of which contained top 10 singles (Close to You, Carpenters, A Song for You, Now & Then and Horizon), thirty-one singles, five television specials, and one short-lived television series. They toured in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, the Netherlands and Belgium. Their recording career ended with Karen's death on February 4, 1983. Karen died after cardiac arrest due to complications of anorexia nervosa. Extensive news coverage of the circumstances surrounding her death increased public awareness of the consequences of eating disorders.

Yesterday once more

This is one of the songs I love most . If I have enough time ,I’ll tell you about the experience about the song.

Songs worth listening

1. A Song for You

2. Top of the World

3.Hurting Each Other

4. Jambalaya

5. Yesterday Once More

6. Close To You

7. We've Only Just Begun

8. I'll Never Fall in Love Again

9.Rainy Days And Mondays