The Carpenters

I'm a rock-n-roll guy; have been for a long time. But I started out listening to my parents' record collection. And because I had a stay-at-home Mom, I spent my early childhood listening to her favorites, which included Johnny Mathis, Mamas and Papas and one seminal album from a brother-sister duo:

THE CARPENTERS.

The album was 1970's "Close To You," offering up the duo's first NUMBER ONE hit, the title track of the album. Mom loved it because of the layered harmonies and Karen's silky smooth alto voice. Mom was also an alto who could match harmonies with ANY melody. She had a knack for that.

Their music is nostalgic to me on an intrinsic level. Richard Carpenter's opening piano riff on "Close To You" is iconic and it immediately takes me back to Race Street in Princeton, Indiana. That's where we lived when I started kindergarten. Other than my Sesame Street record collection on 45, that Carpenters album was the soundtrack to my early childhood. By the time they hit the "wah" section, I'm five years old again!

Their early hits have been playing on repeat in my head. As a follow-up to their first #1, they released their second hit, "We've Only Just Begun," which was a California bank commercial tune. Richard saw it on TV one day and said, "That's a hit record!" He happened to know the duo who wrote it and rang them.

I ran across a YouTube video chronicling their meteoric rise to stardom in the '70s, appearing on Ed Sullivan, Bob Hope Special, Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, their own special...they were all over television during my childhood. But they're not an act I seek out or regularly listen to. Had it not been for this random YT video I watched, I wouldn't have them on repeat in my head.

But there's something about nostalgic music and how it works like an instant portal. Like comfort food, this music takes me back to the warmth of living at home under mother's care, back to my innocence, a time when I didn't have a worry or care in the world. That's what their music has done for me here lately during this time of uncertainty and change.

Sadly, the world lost Karen Carpenter at 32. She was but a teenager when Herb Alpert signed them to A&M records and suggested the Burt Bacharach tune, "Close To You," which was originally written for Alpert to record, thus the excellent trumpet solo part. A&M left the arrangement to Richard, who had a George Martin-like knack for that sort of thing. I've even heard other artists and admirers compare him to the incomparable Brian Wilson. And as I said, that opening piano riff was all Richard Carpenter. But the silky smooth lead vocal was uniquely Karen. I don't know if sudden stardom contributed to her eating disorder, but it weakened her heart and she died young of respiratory failure.

SEE HOW PERFECTLY SHE SANG:

There was no better easy listening music from that period than Karen and Richard Carpenter. I think they played in heavy rotation on WXTC, Indianapolis. Dad would always have that easy listening station playing at low volume in the living room when I was in grade school, after we'd moved from Princeton. I think I remember falling asleep to the trumpet solo way back then.

The Carpenters, for me, are comfort music.