Karen's Solo album

Status
Not open for further replies.
I seem to recall years ago that there WAS a planned duet on Karen's solo album with Cheryl Lynn. She had the big dane hit in the late 70's with "Got to Be Real". Does anyone know if this was true?

Tim
 
Thats a new one to me. Never heard that before, but who knows. I met John Bettis a few years ago and talked with him extensively. He said he wanted Karen to duet with Donna Summer (John Bettis wrote the lyrics for Donna's 1982 single, "The Woman In Me"), but not for a Karen solo project, but as part of a Carpenters album. He also wanted Karen to meet Donna because she was "tough as nails" when it came to the business side of the music industry and thought that would be good for Karen personally and professionally. He went so far as to set up a dinner/theater date for the three of them but Karen called and cancelled because she was not feeling well.
(For those of you who don't know, I'm a flight attendant and when I had John Bettis locked in a silver tube for 3 hours, I asked many many questions...and he happily obliged! )
Cheryl Lynn would have been an interesting duet.
Ah, what might have been...
Miss ya, Karen!
 
In 1979 I bought the 'Fate For Breakfast' album by Art Garfunkel simply because I thought that I heard Karen in the background vocals. I won the Coleman book from this website and have just been reading it. In this book Coleman comments that 'Karen guested on an Art Garfunkel track and was pleased...' or something like that. Was Karen on this album while in New York recording her solo?
 
As I recall, the recording Karen made with Art Garfunkle never made the album. I think maybe elsewhere in the book it states that.
 
I have to ask this having seen the picture as goodjeans' avatar - what exactly was Karen doing in this picture??

5623266849f1dc8f08b52.jpg
 
It's from some solo album photo outtakes and she's leaning on the arm of the chair -- her right hand is sort of brushing the fabric and left is in her pocket. It's (slightly) similar to the one on the back of the solo album CD.

Randy
 
There is a rumor that when the Carpenters catalog received the remastering overhaul that this cd was going to have the same attention and be retitled "The Complete New York Sessions." I had the opportunity to hear...

I found this quote somewhere on the internet and Sakura mentioned previously the number of copies that "Karen Carpenter' sold in it's first week of release. Does anyone know if her solo album broke even financially or how many copies it sold worldwide? I guess I am asking if 'The Complete New York Sessions' is a possibility.

off topic: Will 'Time' by Richard ever be re-released? I love that CD too.
 
GOOD JEANS-Richard's solo album will never be reissued.A&M lost a ton of money on that album,and it's actually one of the worst selling albums in A&M history.
But,there is a possibility that Karen's solo could be reissued with unreleased tracks-But,it's not likely.That disc sold less than 100,000 in the US.(compare that with 2 or 3 million for most of their 70's albums!)
I think all this goes to prove that Karen and Richard both needed eachother! Karen couldn't succeed without Richard and Richard couldn't succeed without Karen.
 
It's definitely unfair to judge the success of Karen's solo album by sales it generated (or failed to) in 1996. That album was geared for a 1980 audience at a time when Karen's name would have sold many more albums that it did in 1996, with little or no publicity from A&M.

The duo was most certainly magic, but that was fading. By 1979 Karen had outgrown the Carpenters. I think the family had a hard time seeing that the "growth" didn't have to signify the END of the Carpenters but even just a "break" was too risky.

Is there a way to find out what the solo album has sold to date?
 
This is for "Good Jeans"...the site owner got back to me and all "My Body Keeps Changing My Mind" refers to is the 1996 release of the Karen Carpenter entire cd; no 12" as you/we were to believe.
BUT, there has GOT to be a great DJ/Producer that reads this and says "this is a track that, with a little more pronounced, read "funky", guitar and bass we could have a dance floor hit...here in2009!
Quincy, Niles....are you reading this???? :?:
 
I would agree with Randy, I think it's time that we stop judging Karen's solo album based on sales....then comparing them to sales of the Carpenters albums. I believe Karen's solo album was meant to be a gift to the fans, wasn't it yet the fans that kept pressing Richard to release it? Do we seriously believe Karen solo album was going to surpass sales of Carpenters after Karen was already gone? Of course not. It was released, she was already gone. It was not to be judged it was what it was and recorded in a difference period in time.
 
If a double album were ever released (which I don't see happening..) it would almost be another gift to the fans. I don't see the multitudes going out and purchasing it and making it a million seller. What a cool gift it would be though....with some new pictures never seen before and maybe interviews with those that worked on the album with Karen....

Just a thought.
Jonathan
 
In Japan Karen's solo album, for her 20th anniversary, is available.

I love "Something's Missing (In My Life)".

How about her 60th birthday edition of her solo album with "Something's Missing"? I want it as Deka jake with original art work, too.

Sakura
 
Thank you MrJ and Dave! I had my hopes up and I appreciate your checking and replies. I love this site. I also liked the "Time" CD a lot and had no idea what a bomb it was. :rolleyes:
 
I remember reading around the time of the release of the solo album, that a dual CD/DVD had been proposed. Apparently there were a number of photos and video taken during during the production and recording sessions. Upon review of the material for a pending release Richard, and I believe Phil, both had reservations about including it. In a lot of the footage they felt she looked too thin and frail and they did not want her to be remembered that way.
 
CLOSETOYOU-No one is judging the success of
karen's solo album.It simply didn't sell particularly well,it went out-of-print and that's it!In all likelihood,it will never be reissued.The exact sales figures?It's under 100,000-somewhere between 60,000-75,000 copies.
 
Mr J, but in a round about way what you wrote was sorta judging her solo album by stating that because sales were low you believed it proved that Karen couldn't make it without Richard and vice versa. I can understand why Randy thought what he wrote because I took it the same way. But what you wrote is really unfounded in my opinion because Karen never had a chance to further her career as a solo artist. Her album was never suppose to be released yet when it does, long after it was created, release in a different time period in the music industry and after she passed, sales from her one solo album is used to determine whether she could make it as a solo artist?

vze4rkna, did you have inside info that there were really videos made from her solo sessions? I've always wondered this, I would think that her solo album photo shoot had to be shot prior and why would she have gone to that extent and money if she thought this was not going forward. If what you said is true, Karen must have thought her album was a sure thing.
 
I spoke with Karen "Itchie" Ramone recently and she said the sessions were never videotaped and now looking back she is unsure why. Although she also said that if the album HAD been released in a timely manner, promo videos (even those showing KC in the studio) would have most likely been lip-sync'd after the fact. She did recall someone in the band or crew having one of those old Canon video cams around during that time, so footage COULD exist. There was just never any professional videoing done with the intention of promoting the album. There were many, many photographs taken -- in studio by Bonnie Schiffman and the professional shots were of course by Claude Mougin.

Mr. J., thanks for the clarification. You did say the poor sales of both solo albums proved that neither Karen nor Richard could have succeed without the other, so it sounded like a judgment to me. Richard's albums WERE released during his lifetime and on his own timeline, so I agree that it is a fair representation of his success without Karen. But hers was released 16 years late.
 
Taken from the book "Close To You...The Story of Richard and Karen Carpenter" by Ronald Garcia...

Meanwhile, A&M was preparing for the release of Karen's upcoming album, though the tentative release date was a few months away. Most of Karen's songs were being filmed while she was recording them in the studios for a possible documentary on the Karen Carpenter album, and for promotional films (videos) of singles as well. Promotional materials were also being drafted, including a life-size cardboard cut-out of Karen.
I am not sure if the above posting is allowed so am taking a risk here. It sure sounds to me that there are videos around somewhere. I would also like one of the cardboard cut-outs...but who wouldn't!
 
Thanks for posting, Jim. Is the quote from the book with Chris' art work? I don't have the book.
And it must be the source that many fans think that there is video. But I wonder why Mr. & Mrs. Ramone and Otis denied it or don't remember.

A young fan had a life-size cardboard cut-out of Karen. I thought that a CD shop made it. Was it made in '79 or '80?

Randy, thanks for sharing. I'm looking forward to reading your new book.
Have you asked her about the LP size photo with Karen's message to Itchie?

Sakura
 
Karen signed several of those photos (approx. 11x14) and gave them to her friends -- I know Itchie has one, as does Frenda, her matron of honor. Itchie's story matches what she said in the 1996 NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE feature about the solo album... how when Karen saw the proofs from the Mougin photo session she exclaimed "I look PRETTY! I really look pretty..."

I am sure I have said this before, but my feeling about the solo album is that Karen could have taken public rejection of her work long before the rejection of those she knew and loved. Herb Alpert felt A KIND OF HUSH was inferior but trusted the Carpenters and released it anyway. Karen's solo album was deemed unreleasable. Reactions were pretty brutal, from what I have been told.

Unsure about the cardboard cut-outs... never heard that anywhere but this book mentioned above...

Randy
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom