Carpenters charts information*

USA Charts: Christmas Portrait....upward bound....#78 today and climbing....
Album: Carpenters Gold - 35th Anniversary Edition

iTunes:
#23 Thailand (NE)

Album: Carpenters: Gold - Greatest Hits

iTunes:
#36 Philippines (+8)
#47 Vietnam (+28)
#119 Hong Kong (+14)
#170 Taiwan (+15)
#185 Ireland (+3)

Apple Music:
#57 Cayman Islands (NE)
#66 Philippines (-21)
#137 Hong Kong (NE)
#142 Vietnam (-49)
#155 Saudi Arabia (NE)
#178 United Arab Emirates (NE)
#183 Thailand (-40)

Album: Christmas Portrait

iTunes:
#78 United States (+28)
 
USA Charts: Christmas Portrait....upward bound....#78 today and climbing....
Album: Carpenters Gold - 35th Anniversary Edition

iTunes:
#23 Thailand (NE)

Album: Carpenters: Gold - Greatest Hits

iTunes:
#36 Philippines (+8)
#47 Vietnam (+28)
#119 Hong Kong (+14)
#170 Taiwan (+15)
#185 Ireland (+3)

Apple Music:
#57 Cayman Islands (NE)
#66 Philippines (-21)
#137 Hong Kong (NE)
#142 Vietnam (-49)
#155 Saudi Arabia (NE)
#178 United Arab Emirates (NE)
#183 Thailand (-40)

Album: Christmas Portrait

iTunes:
#78 United States (+28)
Today Christmas Portrait

#69 +9
Carpenters - Christmas Portrait (The Special Edition) :eek::goodie:

(US iTunes Top Albums )
 
On Dec. 13, 2017, the Christmas Portrait album (Special Ed.) had reached No. 51 on the US iTunes album chart. Good to see this great album is still so popular.
Now it's No. 48. May be that all the exposure on the PBS promotions is having a positive effect and exposing the album to a larger potential audience.
 
In my quest to find out whether 'Top of the World' was released as a single first in Australia or Japan, (it spent four weeks at Number One in Australia at the beginning of 1973), I found this information about Japanese sales and chart information of Carpenters' singles:-

'Yesterday Once More' released July, 1973, peaked at No. 5, sold 592,000 copies.

'I Need to Be in Love' / 'Top of the World' released July, 1976, peaked at Number 5, sold 569,050 copies.

'I Need to Be In Love', released November 1995, peaked at Number 5, sold 419,200 copies in 1996.

'Please Mr. Postman' released December, 1974, peaked at Number 11, sold 315,000 copies.

'Superstar', released October 1971, peaked at Number 7, sold 271,000 copies.

'Only Yesterday' released April 1975, peaked at Number 12, sold 236,000 copies.

'Jambalaya', released November 1973, peaked at Number 28, sold 186,000 copies.

I'm not sure which Japanese chart was used. (I know there's one called the Oricon chart).

I didn't get any closer to finding out whether Australia or Japan was first with 'Top Of The World'.
 
Hi
Top of the world. Charted on 5th february 1972 in Australia.
Charted 5th November 1972 in Japan peaked at no 21 and charted for 22 weeks.
Charted again in Japan on 5th December 1973 peaked at 52 charted for 12 weeks.
 
"The Nations Favourite Carpenters Songs" is currently at #20 in the UK on the ITunes (Apple) charts.

In an hour 3 hours of Carpenters tv will start with "Karen Carpenter: Goodbye To Love" followed by "Carpenters: Their Greatest Hits"
Lets see if that pushes it up.
 
Record World Magazine
Japan Album Charts
December 1973 :
Carpenters Gem #3
Carpenters Now & Then #5

July 13, 1975
Japan and UK Album Charts:
Horizon #1

1974 World Disk Grand Prix Golden Prize,
Single Of The Year: I Won't Last A Day Without You
Artist of the Year, Group: Carpenters

November 19, 1977:
Japan
Passage #9

Here is something interesting for the recording business (Record World, March 27,1976):
"...we have 20 years in which to amortize our recording costs."
 
Record World Magazine
Japan Album Charts
December 1973 :
Carpenters Gem #3
Carpenters Now & Then #5

July 13, 1975
Japan and UK Album Charts:
Horizon #1

1974 World Disk Grand Prix Golden Prize,
Single Of The Year: I Won't Last A Day Without You
Artist of the Year, Group: Carpenters

November 19, 1977:
Japan
Passage #9

Here is something interesting for the recording business (Record World, March 27,1976):
"...we have 20 years in which to amortize our recording costs."

The above info from Record World way understates the Carpenters' actual extraordinary album success in Japan and UK in the 1973-75 timeframe. See Splashing Rocks: WHEN CARPENTERS WERE ON TOP OF THE WORLD -- OF MUSIC . For example, Carpenters had the #2 and #4 albums in Japan for the entire year of 1974 ("Golden Prize #2" was No. 2 for that entire year and "Now and Then" was #4; both of those albums also peaked at No. 1 in either 73 or 74 or both). As the linked article demonstrates with lots of data, Carpenters were almost certainly the best-selling pop or rock group internationally during their peak period of 1973-75, mainly because they were so superior in Japan and UK, the world's No. 2 and No. 3 record markets, respectively, while they were also near the top in the U.S., the No. 1 market.
 
Carpenters had a few singles and albums that, in Australia, were amongst the biggest sellers of the year when they were released. Details:-

'Close to You' - 2nd biggest hit in Australia for 1970.

'Hurting Each Other' - 23rd biggest of 1972.

'Great Hits of the Carpenters' - 16th biggest LP of 1972.

'Top of the World' - 14th biggest of 1973.

'Now and Then' - 12th biggest LP of 1973.

'Please Mr. Postman' - 7th biggest of 1975.

'Very Best of the Carpenters' spent 6 months on the charts and reached Number One at the beginning of 1983 but doesn't appear on the Top 25 for that year.

'Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft' was Carpenters' second longest-lifed hit ever in Australia with over seven months on the charts.

'Close to You' spent 15 weeks on the charts in 1971. If it had spent those weeks on the charts in 1970, maybe it would have been the biggest hit of the year. (Eight months on the charts in total). 'Let it Be' by The Beatles, the Number One song of the year, (1970), spent all of its 31 weeks on the charts in the same year.

I'll attempt to post links to the relevant charts, below.

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The above info from Record World way understates the Carpenters' actual extraordinary album success in Japan and UK in the 1973-75 timeframe. See Splashing Rocks: WHEN CARPENTERS WERE ON TOP OF THE WORLD -- OF MUSIC . For example, Carpenters had the #2 and #4 albums in Japan for the entire year of 1974 ("Golden Prize #2" was No. 2 for that entire year and "Now and Then" was #4; both of those albums also peaked at No. 1 in either 73 or 74 or both). As the linked article demonstrates with lots of data, Carpenters were almost certainly the best-selling pop or rock group internationally during their peak period of 1973-75, mainly because they were so superior in Japan and UK, the world's No. 2 and No. 3 record markets, respectively, while they were also near the top in the U.S., the No. 1 market.

It was amazing to read just how popular Carpenters were in Japan from 1973 to 1975. To have both the Number 2 and the Number 4 album of the entire year in 1974 was a great feat. They must really have won the hearts of the Japanese people. They were still popular enough there in 1995 / 1996 to sell three million copies of '22 Hits of The Carpenters'.

The writer of the blog attached to the link has presented some very interesting facts. It would be good to know which charts they used for the information about peak positions in Australia, though. They have stated that 'Yesterday Once More' reached Number One there, yet the Kent Music Report, which was used by The Australian Record Industry Association until 1988, shows that this song only peaked at Number 9. The writer also stated that 'Now and Then' hit Number One but the Kent Music Report shows that it reached Number 3. It stayed on the charts for a massive 43 weeks, however.

I guess it depends which chart you use, but I'm not aware that there were any other official Australian charts apart from the Kent Music Report / Australian Record Industry Association chart.

The writer of the blog was correct in saying that 'Please Mr. Postman' and 'Top of the World' both got to Number One in Australia.

I'm not sure about the sentences, "In a darkening age when Western culture is epitomized by the triumph of a bearded Austrian drag queen at the highly publicized Eurovision musical contest, the preservation and perpetuation of genuinely beautiful and edifying musical treasures is more critical than ever". Seems like a bit of a put-down. A lot of people must have liked this Eurovision song, otherwise it wouldn't have won. And if this passage is a put-down of the actual person and like-minded people, which I think it might be, that's not on. People need to be called out for this type of stuff. Ironic that this writer bemoans the unfairness of Carpenters being discriminatorily excluded from true recognition of their talents, yet does exactly the same thing to another artist.

Apart from this ugly passage that has nothing whatsoever to do with Carpenters' music, the blog presented a strong argument about just how popular Karen and Richard really were in their heyday and that they were, in fact, the top of the world at the time.
 
Carpenters had a few singles and albums that, in Australia, were amongst the biggest sellers of the year when they were released. Details:-

'Close to You' - 2nd biggest hit in Australia for 1970.

'Hurting Each Other' - 23rd biggest of 1972.

'Great Hits of the Carpenters' - 16th biggest LP of 1972.

'Top of the World' - 14th biggest of 1973.

'Now and Then' - 12th biggest LP of 1973.

'Please Mr. Postman' - 7th biggest of 1975.

'Very Best of the Carpenters' spent 6 months on the charts and reached Number One at the beginning of 1983 but doesn't appear on the Top 25 for that year.

'Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft' was Carpenters' second longest-lifed hit ever in Australia with over seven months on the charts.

'Close to You' spent 15 weeks on the charts in 1971. If it had spent those weeks on the charts in 1970, maybe it would have been the biggest hit of the year. (Eight months on the charts in total). 'Let it Be' by The Beatles, the Number One song of the year, (1970), spent all of its 31 weeks on the charts in the same year.

I'll attempt to post links to the relevant charts, below.

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Hi
Here are some Carpenters info on UK charts.

They long to be close to you. 49th best seller of 1970

Yesterday once more.28th best seller of 1973

Now and then . 12th best selling album of 1973.

Singles 1969 to 1973. best selling album of 1974 and was also in the top 20 best sellers of 1975.

Please mr postman no 28th best seller of 1975

Horizion .5th best seller of 1975.
 
1975 top 100 singles in the UK.

No 100.Only yesterday.

1977 top 100 singles in the UK.

no 96.Calling occupants of interplantary craft.
 
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