Post by erik on Apr 9, 2022 12:32:16 GMT -5
The brother/sister pair of Richard and Karen Carpenter are in this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight with one of their many enduring (and melancholic) classic hits from the 1970's.
I NEED TO BE IN LOVE (The Carpenters; A&M; 1976)—It is often easy nowadays (and perhaps it was even more so back in the day) to severely underrate the brother/sister team of Richard and Karen Carpenter as being in any way important to the popular music of the 1970’s, simply because they weren’t “rock and roll enough”. But the Carpenters, natives of the Los Angeles suburb of Downey, California, and students from Cal State University Long Beach, did indeed have an enormous impact upon that decade’s music in terms of craftsmanship. Karen, in fact, was one of the very few female drummers anywhere in popular music, let alone in a culturally important act, which was quite the big deal then. While more than a few of the Carpenters’ Top Ten hits were cover songs (such as their #1 hit of 1975, “Please Mr. Postman”, a cover of the Marvelettes’ 1961 Motown hit), they were also able to have sizeable hits that were of original creation. One such song was an enduring fixture of the sibling duo’s repertoire, the melancholy pop ballad “I Need To Be In Love”, which was written by Richard, along with frequent Carpenters collaborator John Bettis, and Albert Hammond (he of “It Never Rains In Southern California” fame). The clear but subtle power of Karen’s voice and the smooth arrangement was more than enough to make “I Need To Be In Love” a sizeable hit, reaching #25 on the Hot 100 in July 1976, as well as topping Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart. Even after the hits dried out near the end of the decade, they still had a following. Sadly, however, and unbeknownst to the vast majority of the public, Karen was fighting a battle with anorexia nervosa that, in the end, left her painfully depleted. On February 5, 1983, she died a tragically early death at the age of 32, though her death put a greater spotlight on anorexia nervosa, and allowed her and her brother Richard’s legacy to live on.
I NEED TO BE IN LOVE (The Carpenters; A&M; 1976)—It is often easy nowadays (and perhaps it was even more so back in the day) to severely underrate the brother/sister team of Richard and Karen Carpenter as being in any way important to the popular music of the 1970’s, simply because they weren’t “rock and roll enough”. But the Carpenters, natives of the Los Angeles suburb of Downey, California, and students from Cal State University Long Beach, did indeed have an enormous impact upon that decade’s music in terms of craftsmanship. Karen, in fact, was one of the very few female drummers anywhere in popular music, let alone in a culturally important act, which was quite the big deal then. While more than a few of the Carpenters’ Top Ten hits were cover songs (such as their #1 hit of 1975, “Please Mr. Postman”, a cover of the Marvelettes’ 1961 Motown hit), they were also able to have sizeable hits that were of original creation. One such song was an enduring fixture of the sibling duo’s repertoire, the melancholy pop ballad “I Need To Be In Love”, which was written by Richard, along with frequent Carpenters collaborator John Bettis, and Albert Hammond (he of “It Never Rains In Southern California” fame). The clear but subtle power of Karen’s voice and the smooth arrangement was more than enough to make “I Need To Be In Love” a sizeable hit, reaching #25 on the Hot 100 in July 1976, as well as topping Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart. Even after the hits dried out near the end of the decade, they still had a following. Sadly, however, and unbeknownst to the vast majority of the public, Karen was fighting a battle with anorexia nervosa that, in the end, left her painfully depleted. On February 5, 1983, she died a tragically early death at the age of 32, though her death put a greater spotlight on anorexia nervosa, and allowed her and her brother Richard’s legacy to live on.