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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 recordbreaking 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