Karen Carpenter
| Karen Carpenter | |
|---|---|
 Karen Carpenter during a photo session to promote her solo album.
| |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Karen Anne Carpenter |
| Born | March 2, 1950 |
| Origin | New Haven, Connecticut |
| Died | February 4, 1983 (age 32) |
| Genre(s) | Pop |
| Years active | 1969—1983 |
| Label(s) | A&M Records |
| Associated acts | Carpenters |
| Website | Richard and Karen Carpenter |
Karen Anne Carpenter (March 2, 1950 – February 4, 1983) was an American singer, drummer, and, with her brother, Richard, made up the band The Carpenters .
Early life
Carpenter was born in New Haven, Connecticut, USA to Agnes Reuwer Tatum and Harold Bertram Carpenter.[1]They resided at 55 Hall Street, New Haven, Connecticut. Harold, her Father was known to have been a collector of music albums. Being exposed to music at an early age is credited for nourchuring his two children's musical apptitudes.
When Karen was around 13 years old, their family moved to Downey, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. Her older brother Richard had developed an interest in music at an early age, becoming a piano prodigy. The move to Southern California, with its many recording studios and record companies was intended, in part, to foster Richard's budding musical career.
Karen attended Downey High School. The conductor agreed to take her into the band, and gave her the glockenspiel to play. It was her first encounter with a rythmn instrument. She later learned to play the drums upon admiring the performance of a friend. [2] Drumming came naturally to Karen, and she practiced for several hours a day - her drumming can be heard in many of The Carpenters songs.
Music career
Karen joined a band formed by her brother, Richard Carpenter, called "The Richard Carpenter Trio" (1965-1968). In the Trio, Karen played the drums, Richard, the keyboard and a friend, Wes Jacobs, was the bands bassist and tuba player. The jazz trio played at numerous nightclubs, and a television show called "Your All American".
Karen and Richard attended college in Long Beach California. There, along with two other musicians, Gary Sims and John Bettis, they formed an ensemble known as "Spectrum". After "Spectum" disbanded, Karen and Richard performed with the bassist Joe Osborns (from the Magic Lamp Records). This was a garage studio and was the beginning of Karen's vocal career.[3]
Karen Carpenter and her brother send out many demos until they attracted the attention of A&M Records co-founder Herb Alpert. He eventually signed Karen and Richard as "The Carpenters" to his record label in early 1969. There the "Carpenters" cut their 1st album "Offering" in which Karen sang most of the tunes.
Their only popular single released from that album, the main track, a remake of The Beatles' "Ticket to Ride", reached only to #54 on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts. Their next release, 1970's Close to You was a certified #1 smash record, with the title track and "We've Only Just Begun" as major hits. This began a long and very successful career,Among their numerous television credits were appearances on such popular series as American Bandstand, the Ed Sullivan Show, the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and the Carol Burnett Show. In 1971 the duo appeared in a television special on the BBC in the United Kingdom and were the featured performers in a summer replacement series, Make Your Own Kind of Music, which aired on NBC-TV in the U.S. In May 1973 the Carpenters accepted an invitation to perform at the White House for President Richard M. Nixon and visiting West German chancellor Willy Brandt. The Carpenters' popularity often confounded critics. With their output focused on ballads and mid-tempo pop, the duo's music was often dismissed by critics as bland and "saccharine". The recording industry, however, bestowed awards on the duo, who won three Grammy Awards during their career (including Best New Artist, and Best Pop Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus, for "Close to You" in 1970; and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group for the LP Carpenters in 1971). In 1973, the Carpenters were voted Best Band, Duo, or Group (Pop/Rock) at the first annual American Music Awards.
Health Issues
By the mid-1970s, extensive touring and lengthy recording sessions had begun to take their toll on the duo and contributed to their professional difficulties during the latter half of the decade. Karen dieted obsessively and developed the disorder anorexia nervosa, which first manifested itself in 1975. Exhaustion and emaciation forced Karen to cancel concert tours in the UK and Japan. She fainted once, on stage during one of her performces of the "Top of the World". At the same time, Richard developed an addiction to quaaludes, which began to affect his performance by the late 1970s and led to the end of the duo's live concert appearances for several years. On September 4, 1978 The Carpenters gave a concert at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, not performing on stage again until the 1981 Made in America (Carpenters album) album, which would include their final live performances together.
Solo Album
While Richard sought treatment for his addiction at a Topeka, Kansas facility in early 1979, Karen, who was currently at the age of 30, made a solo album with producer Phil Ramone entitled "Karen Carpenter," which she dedicated to her brother Richard.
The choice of more adult-oriented and disco/dance-tempo material represented an effort to retool her image. Arguably, her best ever performance is a song on the album by Paul Jabara and Jay Asher, called "Something's Missing (In My Life)." Many who have heard the work-lead feel it truly relates to Karen's personal struggles and depth of her feelings. The song remains unmixed and without strings.
The resulting product met a tepid response from Richard and A&M executives in early 1980, and Karen wavered in her dedication to the project. The whole album was shelved by A&M executive Herb Alpert. Karen's fans got a taste of the album in 1989 when one of its tracks, "If I Had You," (as remixed by Richard) turned up on the compilation album Lovelines and was also released as a single, making #18 on the Adult Contemporary chart. 16 years later in 1996, the entire album, featuring mixes as approved by Karen and one unmixed bonus track, finally saw release.
There are 10 unreleased tracks from the album: eight of them are work-leads, while the remaining two are considered outtakes: "I Love Makin' Love to You," and "Truly You." When A&M Records folded in 2000, six out of the eight demos began surfacing on the Internet.
Personal life
Carpenter lived with her parents until her mid-20s, although ironically after the Carpenters became successful during the early 1970s, she and her brother bought two apartment buildings in Downey. Called "Close To You" and "Only Just Begun," the "Close To You Apartments" can still be found at 8356 East 5th, Downey, CA.
In 1976 Karen bought two Century City apartments, gutted them, and turned them into one condominium. Located at 2222 Avenue of the Stars, the doorbell chimed the first six notes of "We've Only Just Begun". As a housewarming-gift her mother gave her a collection of leather-bound classic works of literature. Karen collected Disney memorabilia, loved to play softball and among her friends were Petula Clark, Olivia Newton-John, and Dionne Warwick.
After a whirlwind romance, on August 31, 1980 Karen married real estate developer Thomas James Burris. At the time they met, Tom was a 39-year-old divorcé with an 18-year-old son Mark; while Karen was 30 years old. The couple were married at the Beverly Hills Hotel in the Crystal Room, and a new song performed by Karen at the ceremony, "Because We Are In Love," surfaced in 1981. The couple went to Bora Bora for their honeymoon ( Karen called her family from the island and described it as "Boring Boring.."). The marriage turned out to be a disaster and they separated in November 1981.
The song "Now", recorded in April 1982, was the last song Karen ever recorded. It was recorded in California while Karen took a two week intermission in her therapy with noted psychotherapist Steven Levenkron in New York City for her anorexia, a relatively unknown disease at the time. In the midst of her therapy, she befriended recovered anorexic Cherry Boone, and crocheted a sign above her hospital bed that read "You Win, I gain!" After her recovery, she planned to go public about her battle with anorexia.
Karen returned to California permanently later that year, determined to regain her professional career, finalize her divorce and begin recording a new album with Richard. Karen had gained a total of 30 lbs. over a two-month stay in New York, but the sudden weight gain (much of which was intravenously fed) further strained her heart, which was already taxed and weak from years of dieting and abuse. At the height of her illness, Karen, who had a normal thyroid, was taking ten times the normal daily dose of thyroid replacement medication (equivalent to 1mg, as opposed to the normal 100mcg dose) in order to speed up her metabolism, which combined with large amounts of laxatives (between 90 to 100 a day), weakened her heart, digestive and nervous system even further.
Death
On February 4, 1983, at the age of 32, Karen suffered cardiac arrest at her parents' home in Downey and was taken to Downey Community Hospital, where she was pronounced dead twenty minutes later. Karen was planning to sign her divorce papers on the day she died.
The autopsy stated that Karen's death was due to emetine cardiotoxicity due to anorexia nervosa. Under the anatomical summary, the first item was heart failure, with anorexia as second. The third finding was cachexia, which is extremely low weight and weakness and general body decline associated with chronic disease. Emetine cardiotoxicity implies that Karen abused ipecac syrup, an easily obtained emetic medicine that is intended for people to take who have accidentally swallowed a poisonous substance. (Reference Ray Coleman's: The Carpenters, The Untold Story, page 21-24)[4]
Her funeral service took place on February 8, 1983, at the Downey United Methodist Church in Downey. Karen, dressed in a rose colored suit, lay in an open white casket. Over a thousand mourners passed through to say goodbye, among them her friends Dorothy Hamill, Olivia Newton-John, Petula Clark, Cristina Ferrare, and Dionne Warwick. Karen's estranged husband Tom appeared at her funeral, and he took off his wedding band and threw it into the casket (according to the Ray Coleman Book The Carpenters: the Untold Story).
After death
Karen's death brought lasting media attention to anorexia nervosa and also to bulimia. it also encouraged celebrities to go public about their eating disorders, among them Tracey Gold and Diana, Princess of Wales. Medical centers and hospitals began receiving increased contacts from people with these disorders. The general public had little knowledge of anorexia nervosa and bulimia prior to her death, making the conditions difficult to identify and treat. Her fame and her "wholesome" image may have made people reluctant to suggest the possibility that she had a problem, much less to intervene directly.
Her family started the "Karen A. Carpenter Memorial Foundation", which raised money for research on anorexia nervosa and eating disorders. Today the title has been changed to "Carpenter Family Foundation," and in addition to eating disorders, the foundation now funds the arts, entertainment and education (including arts in education).
On October 12, 1983, the Carpenters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It is located at 6931 Hollywood Blvd, a few yards from the Kodak Theater[5] Richard, Harold, and Agnes Carpenter attended the inauguration, as did many fans.
On December 11, 2003, at 12:30pm PST, Agnes, Karen, and Harold, who remained in their original caskets and occupied 3 out of the 6 spaces in the Carpenter Private Masoleum, were exhumed from the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress, California and re-interred at the Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village, California. Their mausoleum is a 46,000-pound, Partenope-style structure and was constructed in Texas over seven months. It is polished sunset red, and features crystal patterns. It is located in the Tranquility Gardens section of the cemetery. Similar structures constructed at the time had a price range around $600,000.
"A Star on Earth - A Star in Heaven" is written on Karen's mausoleum stone.
Albums
Studio albums
- Offering (Carpenters album) (1969)
- Close to You (Carpenters album) (1970)
- Carpenters (Carpenters album) (1971)
- A Song for You (Carpenters album) (1972)
- Now & Then (1973)
- The Singles: 1969-1973 (1973)
- Horizon (Carpenters album) (1975)
- A Kind of Hush (Carpenters album) (1976)
- Passage (Carpenters album (1977)
- Live at the Palladium (Carpenters album) (1978)
- Christmas Portrait (1978)
- The Singles: 1974-1978 (1978)
- Made in America (Carpenters album)|Made in America (1981)
- Voice of the Heart (Carpenters album) (1983)
- Lovelines (Carpenters album) (1989)
Solo albums
- Karen Carpenter (1996)
Footnotes
External links
- Richard and Karen Carpenter - Official site
- Karen Carpenter at the Internet Movie Database
- The Karen Carpenter Story at the Internet Movie Database
- Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story at the Internet Movie Database
[[Category:Art, music, literature, sports and leisure}}
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