The Carpenters set themselves apart in the 1970s with delicate, floating melodies and carefully assembled, spare productions that drew listeners across many tastes, creating a sharp counterpoint to the flamboyant excess of the era’s pop and rock. Still, they emerged as one of the decade’s biggest successes, claiming four Grammy Awards, twelve Top Ten singles, and three number-one hits, among them the enduring “(They Long to Be) Close to You” from the 1970 album Close to You. Karen Carpenter’s tranquil, graceful singing formed the clearest signature of their sound, resting naturally within the exacting, full-bodied settings her brother Richard supplied. Although their audience gradually shrank as the decade advanced, the siblings kept working together until Karen’s untimely death in 1983.
The Carpenters came together in Downey, California, toward the end of the 1960s after the family relocated from New Haven, Connecticut. Richard had already performed piano in a cocktail-jazz trio at several Connecticut clubs. After settling in California he resumed piano studies while backing Karen in a group that included Wes Jacobs on tuba and bass. With Jacobs and Richard supporting her, Karen signed to the local Magic Lamp label, which issued two singles that failed to chart. The trio captured first place in a 1966 Battle of the Bands at the Hollywood Bowl, earning a contract with RCA. Recording as the Richard Carpenter Trio, they cut four tracks that remained unreleased; Jacobs departed at the start of 1968.
Once Jacobs left, Richard and Karen formed Spectrum with John Bettis, a college friend of Richard’s. Spectrum disbanded by year’s end, yet the siblings continued as a duo. They cut demos at the home of session player Joe Osborn; the tape reached Herb Alpert, head of A&M Records, who signed them to the label in early 1969.
Their debut album, Offering, appeared in November 1969. Neither the LP nor its single, a reading of the Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride,” gained traction. Their second single, however—a Burt Bacharach–Hal David composition titled “(They Long to Be) Close to You”—changed everything. Pulled from the album Close to You, the track rose to number one and held the summit for four weeks. The song also became a worldwide success, launching a five-year stretch in which the Carpenters ranked among the planet’s most popular acts. During that run they won two Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist of 1970, and delivered a string of Top Ten hits such as “Rainy Days and Mondays,” “Superstar,” “Hurting Each Other,” “Goodbye to Love,” “Yesterday Once More,” and “Top of the World.”
Following the number-four single “Only Yesterday” in 1975, their commercial standing slipped. Personal difficulties overshadowed the second half of the decade: Richard grew dependent on prescription medication and checked into a treatment center in 1978, where he overcame the addiction. At the same time Karen developed anorexia nervosa, an illness that persisted until her death. Their singles also stopped reaching the Top Ten and, by 1978, missed the Top 40 altogether. Karen therefore attempted a solo career, cutting an album with Phil Ramone in 1979 that was never finished; she rejoined her brother later that year. The reunited pair issued their final collection of new material, Made in America, in 1981. The album signaled a modest rebound when “Touch Me When We’re Dancing” climbed to number 16. Karen’s condition nevertheless worsened, removing the duo from public view. On February 4, 1983, she was discovered unconscious at her parents’ home in Downey and died in the hospital that morning of cardiac arrest brought on by anorexia.
After Karen’s passing, Richard focused on production and on assembling compilations of the Carpenters’ catalog. In 1987 he released the solo album Time, which included guest appearances by Dusty Springfield and Dionne Warwick. Additional posthumous releases followed, among them 1989’s Lovelines, pairing previously unheard Carpenters recordings with selected Karen solo tracks. As Time Goes By appeared in Japan in 2001. In 2018 Richard supervised Carpenters with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded at Abbey Road Studios and featuring many of the duo’s original songs augmented by new orchestral arrangements from the London-based Royal Philharmonic.
