Carpenters 1969-1981 compilation released

The Singles 1969-1973 Carpenters

Recorded: 1969-1973 Released: November 9, 1973 Peak: 11 US, 117 UK, 11 CN, 19 AU Sales (in millions): 7.0 US, 0.30 UK, 11.30 world (includes US and UK) Genre: adult contemporary

Rating: 4.084 out of 5.00 (average of 13 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

The Singles 1969-1981 Carpenters

Recorded: 1969-1981 Released: May 23, 2000 Peak: 45 US, 65 UK Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.1 UK Genre: adult contemporary

Rating: 4.125 out of 5.00 (average of 7 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

Tracks (Chronological Order with Original Studio Albums Noted: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Offering (aka “Ticket to Ride”) (1969) Ticket to Ride (12/27/69, 54 BB, 78 CB, 86 HR, 19 AC) 73, 81 Close to You (1970) They Long to Be Close to You (5/14/70, 1 BB, 1 CB, 1 GR, 1 HR, 1 AC, 6 UK, 2 CN, 3 AU, 3 DF, sales: ½ million) 73, 81 We’ve Only Just Begun (9/12/70, 2 BB, 1 CB, 1 GR, 1 HR, 1 AC, 28 UK, 1 CN, 6 AU, 15 DF, sales: ½ million, airplay: 4 million) 73, 81 Carpenters (1971) For All We Know (2/5/71, 3 BB, 6 CB, 2 GR, 4 HR, 1 AC, 18 UK, 5 CN, 10 AU, sales: ½ million, airplay: 3 million) 73, 81 Rainy Days and Mondays (5/7/71, 2 BB, 2 CB, 1 GR, 2 HR, 1 AC, 53 UK, 3 CN, 35 AU, 12 DF, sales: ½ million) 73, 81 Superstar (8/27/71, 2 BB, 2 CB, 1 GR, 1 HR, 1 AC, 18 UK, 3 CN, 35 AU, sales: ½ million, airplay: 2 million) 73, 81 Tom Jones London Bridge Special (TV special, 1972) For All We Know (Reprise) 81 A Song for You (1972) Hurting Each Other (1/14/72, 2 BB, 2 CB, 4 GR, 1 HR, 1 AC, 2 CN, 4 AU, sales: ½ million) 73, 81 It’s Going to Take Some Time (4/21/72, 12 BB, 17 CB, 12 GR, 13 HR, 2 AC, 14 CN, 24 AU) 73, 81 Goodbye to Love (6/30/72, 7 BB, 7 CB, 5 GR, 6 HR, 2 AC, 9 UK, 4 CN, 25 AU) 73, 81 I Won’t Last a Day Without You (9/72, 11 BB, 9 CB, 11 GR, 9 HR, 10 RR 1 AC, 9 UK, 7 CN, 63 AU) 81 Top of the World (4/23/73, 1 BB, 1 CB, 1 GR, 3 HR, 2 RR, 2 AC, 5 UK, 1 CN, 1 AU, 8 DF, sales: ½ million) 73, 81 Now & Then (1973) Sing (2/16/73, 2 BB, 5 CB, 4 GR, 4 HR, 1 AC, 55 UK, 4 CN, 24 AU, sales: ½ million, airplay: 1 million) 73, 81 Yesterday Once More (6/1/73, 2 BB, 1 CB, 3 GR, 1 HR, 1 AC, 2 UK, 1 CN, 9 AU, sales: ½ million) 73, 81 Horizon (1975) Please Mr. Postman (11/23/74, 1 BB, 1 CB, 2 GR, 1 HR, 2 RR, 1 AC, 2 UK, 1 CN, 1 AU, 34 DF) 81 Only Yesterday (3/28/75, 4 BB, 8 CB, 7 GR, 6 HR, 7 RR, 1 AC, 7 UK, 2 CN, 16 AU) 81 A Kind of Hush (1976) I Need to Be in Love (6/5/76, 25 BB, 31 CB, 27 GR, 38 HR, 32 RR, 1 AC, 36 UK, 24 CN, 47 AU) 81 Passage (1977) All You Get from Love Is a Love Song (5/21/77, 35 BB, 43 CB, 27 GR, 63 HR, 4 AC, 54 UK, 38 CN, 89 AU) 81 Made in America (1981) I Believe You (11/18/78, 68 BB, 70 CB, 87 HR, 9 AC, 81 AU) 81 Touch Me When We’re Dancing (6/19/81, 16 BB, 17 CB, 14 GR, 19 HR, 14 RR, 1 AC, 78 AU, 23 DF) 81 Those Good Old Dreams (12/12/81, 63 BB, 78 CB, 75 HR, 21 AC) 81 73 The Singles 1969-1973 81 The Singles 1969-1981

About the Album: Richard and Karen Carpenter were a brother-sister duo from Connecticut who signed to A&M Records in 1969. Over the next four years, they landed ten top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including “We’ve Only Just Begun, with its hopeful, dreamy lyrics” AMG and the #1 songs They Long to Be Close to You and Top of the World. They were all gathered on the compilation The Singles 1969-1973, which all included “their gorgeous and original slow ballad interpretation of Ticket to Ride and their cover of Carole King’s It’s Going to Take Some Time.” AMG After 1973, the Carpenters fell out of vogue a bit, although they still landed two more top-ten hits, including their #1 version of Please Mr. Postman. Those songs, and four more top-40 hits, are assembled alongside the twelve songs featured on the 1969-1973 collection on the expanded version, The Singles 1969-1981. “Listening to this material, it’s easy to accuse the Carpenters of being hopelessly retro even in their own time…But the lush melodies brought out in Richard Carpenter’s arrangements and Karen’s singing are justification in themselves.” AMG Sadly, the duo’s days of making music came to an end in 1983 when Karen, just 32, died from anorexia.

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide review of The Singles: 1969-1973 by Bruce Eder W73 Wikipedia page for The Singles: 1969-1973 Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 5/29/2008; last updated 5/12/2024.

Carpenters hit #1 with “They Long to Be Close to You”

They Long to Be Close to You Carpenters

Writer(s): Burt Bacharach (music), Hal David (lyics) (see lyrics here) Released: May 14, 1970 First Charted: June 5, 1970 Peak: 14 US, 12 CB, 14 GR, 12 HR, 16 AC, 6 UK, 12 CN, 13 AU, 3 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.2 UK, 1.24 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 99.02 video, 134.19 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “The Carpenters didn’t invent easy listening music…But the Carpenters took that music, with all its lush and syrupy orchestration, and fused it with the starry-eyed sensibilities of late-’60s rock. In doing so, they became a commercial juggernaut and helped to invent the somnambulant sound of ’70s studio-pop. It’s not hard to figure out why a lot of people might resent them.” SG The brother and sister duo of Richard and Karen Carpenter were born in Connecticut, but the family moved to Los Angeles in 1963 when their parents realized the sibilings’ musical ambitions. After failed efforts with a jazz trio called the Carpenter Trio FB and a band named Spectrum, Richard and Karen signed to A&M as a duo. Their 1969 debut went nowhere, but their cover of the Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride” caught the attention of songwriter Burt Bacharach. FB Herb Alpert, who co-owned A&M and had hits of his own, suggested the Carpenters record “They Long to Be Close to You,” FB an obscure song Bacharach wrote with Hal David for TV star Richard Chamberlain. It was released as a B-side to “Blue Guitar,” which reached #42 in 1963. Dionne Warwick, Dusty Springfield, and Alpert all recorded versions, but they were all “big, traditional showstopping ’60s orchestral-pop ballads.” SG Richard didn’t listen to any of them, instead coming up with his own piano arrangement. The Carpenters’ recording included members of the famed Wrecking Crew group of session musicians who served as the de facto house band for famous producer Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound in the 1960s. The “lyrics are exaggerated to the point of absurdity…Birds and stars and all the girls in town are hovering around this mythical beloved figure. The day this person was born, angels sprinkled gold dust in this person’s hair and starlight in his eyes of blue.” SG THe recording is “toothache-sweet and impeccable to the point of being antiseptic” SG but Karen’s “warm, controlled delivery…manages to get across both sadness and silliness.” SG When Albert asked Richard how he though the song would do, Carpenter said “it would either be number one of the biggest stiff the label had ever released.” FB It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks and earned the Carpenters a Grammy for Best Contemporary Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Carpenters FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 278. SG Stereogum (1/8/2019). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan WK Wikipedia First posted 11/28/2022.