"Goodbye to Love" was the only good record the Carpenters ever recorded.
Let me get the first thing out of the way: I don't get the Carpenters. When I think of songs like "Rainy Days and Mondays," "Sing," "Close to You," "Top of the World," and "We've Only Just Begun" ... well, thinking of them makes me wanna puke, but that's better than actually listening to them. What a pile of insipid tripe! I have friends, smart friends with good taste in music ... you know who you are, you're nodding your heads in disapproval as you read this ... who seem to have a fondness for the crap that was the Carpenters, a fondness apparently lacking in irony. I don't share that fondness; like I say, I don't get the Carpenters. Explain to me the excellence of this:Sing, sing a songNow, one thing about Karen Carpenter, she played the drums while she sang, and that ain't as easy as it sounds.…
Sing out loud
Sing out strong
Sing of good things not bad
Sing of happy not sad
Article comments
26 - Ritchie Blackmore
Steve, You're talking bollocks. Hundreds of millions of people all over the world disagree with you.
27 - Jon Lord
You have to "listen without prejudice", Steve. Lie down in a dark room and play Carpenters Gold, whilst trying to forget the image you have of the Carpenters. Listen to whole songs at a time without interruption. If you just focus on the songs themselves and forget the album covers, you'll realise just how brilliant the Carpenters are.
28 - Ian Paice
OK, so Hal Blaine played on some of the records. No shit. He also played live for the ballads when Karen sang out front.
29 - Christopher Rose
It's nice to see 4/5ths of the entire membership of Deep Purple turning up in support of The Carpenters and Tony Peluso, although the odds of the four of you all being at the same computer at the same time must be astronomical! And what's the matter; aren't you guys talking to Ian Gillan any more?
30 - Chuck Brown
I was young when I first discovered the Carpenters (probably 13), and was a huge fan of a lot of pop music at the time. I loved Karen's voice, and devoured their first 2-3 albums. Eventually, I moved on to different styles, of course. But they simply WERE the sound of adult contemporary music in the early Seventies. I think you're not only being way too harsh, but also ignoring a huge factor here: The Carpenters were single-handedly (well, I guess they had 4 hands between them...) responsible for exposing some really great songs to the world. Some excellent Burt Bacharach stuff, a couple really fine Leon Russell compositions and more. Leon Russell may have been much "hipper" by your definition, but there's no way he reached nearly as many people with his renditions of Superstar and This Masquerade...both of which were hellaciously well-written songs, whether or not you liked The Carpenters versions. Paul Williams was also a heck of a writer (Old Fashioned Love Song and Out in the Country for Three Dog Night, plus Rainbow Connection), and they had big hits with 3 of his best pieces. By the way, Sing (which you make such a point of loathing), was written by Joe Raposo for SESAME STREET. It's a children's song. You may notice the CHILDREN singing thru much of it. It still happens to be a well-crafted pop piece, but maybe you just should admit that you're not the target demographic there and move on, eh? ;-)
31 - rob
The Carpenters is the wrong title.Carpenters would be correct and they were really good at what they did.You never heard karen miss a note.
32 - bill walker
who cares that they made pop music gosh music is for us the people if we like it bugger the critics