Carpenters In The UK

Simon KC1950

Well-Known Member
The Carpenters have been and are hugely successful in the United Kingdon of Great Britain, and have seen enormous longevity, so let's take a look at their chart positions of albums and singles in chronological order.

ALBUMS

-"Close To You" #23

-"Carpenters" #11
Platinum Certified

-"Ticket To Ride" #20

-"A Song For You" #13

-"Now And Then" #2
Gold certified
Year End:
1973 #12
1974 #25

-"The Singles 1969-1973" #1 (17 weeks)
Platinum certified
Year End: #1
Decade End: #6

-"Horizon" #1 (5 weeks)
Gold certified
Year End: #4

-"A Kind Of Hush" #3
Gold Certified

-"Live At The Palladium" #28
Gold Certified

-"Passage" #12
Gold Certified

-"The Carpenters Collection"
Silver Certified

-"Singles 1974-1978" #2
Silver Certified

-"Made In America" #12
Silver Certified

-"Voice Of The Heart" #6
Gold Certified

-"Yesterday Once More" #10
Platinum Certified

-"Lovelines" #74

-"Only Yesterday" #1 (7 weeks)
4x Platinum Certified
Year End #7

-"Interpretations" #29
Gold Certified

-"Karen Carpenter" #174

-"Love Songs" #47
Gold Certified

-"The Best Of"
Gold Certified

-Reflections
Silver Certified

-"Gold" #4
4x Platinum

-"The Ultimate Collection" #53
Gold Certified

-"40/40" #21
Gold Certified

-"Singles 1969-1981" #65
Gold Certified

-"The Nations Favourite Carpenters Songs" #2
physical sales: #1



SINGLES

-Close To You #6
Year End#49

-We've Only Just Begun #28

-For All We Know #18

-Superstar #18

-Rainy Days And Mondays#53

-Goodbye To Love #9
Year End: #78

-Top Of The World #5
Silver Certified

-Sing #55

-Yesterday Once More #2
Silver Certified
Year End: #18

-Jambalaya #12

-I Won't Last A Day Without You #32

-Please Mr. postman #2
Silver Certified
Year End: #28

-Only Yesterday #7
Year End: #100

-Solitaire #32

-Santa Clause Is Coming To Town #37

-There's A Kind Of Hush #22

-I Need To Be In Love #36

-All You Get From Love Is A Love Song #54

-Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft #9

-Sweet, Sweet Smile #40

-Beechwood 4-5789 #78

-Make Believe It's Your First Time #60

-Close To You/Merry Christmas Darling #25

-Tryin To Get That Feeling Again #44
 
The single, Trying To Get The Feeling Again,
really, really should have charted higher !
I'm thrilled it charted, in any event !
Fantastic --I have the UK 45-vinyl and the promo-cd....
 
I didn’t realize that the 74-78 album went so high. Guess “Happy” and “Can’t Smile Without You” hit the Top Of the charts.

And “The Carpenters Collection”, is that the same as the Arc release here in Canada?
 
I didn’t realize that the 74-78 album went so high. Guess “Happy” and “Can’t Smile Without You” hit the Top Of the charts.

And “The Carpenters Collection”, is that the same as the Arc release here in Canada?
If I'm not mistaken it's a 4lp box set. I have it.
 
Although they were never as big in the UK in the 1970s as they were in the US in terms of their singles, they've remained a consistent feature on the album charts in more recent years. Certainly these days their standing is higher in the UK than it is in the US.

There are a few mistakes on that list of chart positions though. 'Sing', 'All You Get From Love is a Love Song' and 'Beechwood' didn't officially chart in the UK - the singles chart was only a Top 50 when the former two were released and a Top 75 when 'Beechwood' came out, so those positions given in the list are not verified. 'Rainy Days and Mondays' also didn't chart on its original release in 1971, although it finally charted at #63 when it was reissued in 1993.
 
Of some interest....
"Carpenters Strike New Gold"By Paul Sexton June 27, 2016
"The latest sales awards from UK industry body the BPI show that the Carpenters have struck gold again.
Their 2000 compilation The Singles 1969-1981 has just been certified gold for sales in that country of 100,000 copies."
"For Carpenters fans in the UK, it seems, it's always yesterday once more."

Complete Article:
Carpenters Strike New Gold - uDiscover
 
Of some interest....
"Carpenters Strike New Gold"By Paul Sexton June 27, 2016
"The latest sales awards from UK industry body the BPI show that the Carpenters have struck gold again.
Their 2000 compilation The Singles 1969-1981 has just been certified gold for sales in that country of 100,000 copies."
"For Carpenters fans in the UK, it seems, it's always yesterday once more."

Complete Article:
Carpenters Strike New Gold - uDiscover

That is quite impressive, given that, unlike pretty much all of the other compliations of the 1990s and 2000s, this compliation was given a soft release in the UK in the sense of getting no promotion - it just started appearing in the back catalogue racks of record shops. However, I've often seen it in supermarkets priced quite cheaply, so presumably it's accrued a good number of steady sales in the 16 years since its 'release'.
 
I've actually seen this today whilst out shopping at the garden centre, £4.99. Almost bought it but got distracted then forgot!
 
No its a white cover with the Carpenters logo in a rainbow colour. I don't know how to upload photos !

Is it this one?
39986110241_edc178fab3_b.jpg
 
The Carpenters have been and are hugely successful in the United Kingdon of Great Britain, and have seen enormous longevity, so let's take a look at their chart positions of albums and singles in chronological order.

ALBUMS

-"Close To You" #23

-"Carpenters" #11
Platinum Certified

-"Ticket To Ride" #20

-"A Song For You" #13

-"Now And Then" #2
Gold certified
Year End:
1973 #12
1974 #25

-"The Singles 1969-1973" #1 (17 weeks)
Platinum certified
Year End: #1
Decade End: #6

-"Horizon" #1 (5 weeks)
Gold certified
Year End: #4

-"A Kind Of Hush" #3
Gold Certified

-"Live At The Palladium" #28
Gold Certified

-"Passage" #12
Gold Certified

-"The Carpenters Collection"
Silver Certified

-"Singles 1974-1978" #2
Silver Certified

-"Made In America" #12
Silver Certified

-"Voice Of The Heart" #6
Gold Certified

-"Yesterday Once More" #10
Platinum Certified

-"Lovelines" #74

-"Only Yesterday" #1 (7 weeks)
4x Platinum Certified
Year End #7

-"Interpretations" #29
Gold Certified

-"Karen Carpenter" #174

-"Love Songs" #47
Gold Certified

-"The Best Of"
Gold Certified

-Reflections
Silver Certified

-"Gold" #4
4x Platinum

-"The Ultimate Collection" #53
Gold Certified

-"40/40" #21
Gold Certified

-"Singles 1969-1981" #65
Gold Certified

-"The Nations Favourite Carpenters Songs" #2
physical sales: #1



SINGLES

-Close To You #6
Year End#49

-We've Only Just Begun #28

-For All We Know #18

-Superstar #18

-Rainy Days And Mondays#53

-Goodbye To Love #9
Year End: #78

-Top Of The World #5
Silver Certified

-Sing #55

-Yesterday Once More #2
Silver Certified
Year End: #18

-Jambalaya #12

-I Won't Last A Day Without You #32

-Please Mr. postman #2
Silver Certified
Year End: #28

-Only Yesterday #7
Year End: #100

-Solitaire #32

-Santa Clause Is Coming To Town #37

-There's A Kind Of Hush #22

-I Need To Be In Love #36

-All You Get From Love Is A Love Song #54

-Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft #9

-Sweet, Sweet Smile #40

-Beechwood 4-5789 #78

-Make Believe It's Your First Time #60

-Close To You/Merry Christmas Darling #25

Seems outside of the US carpenters were most successful in UK and Japan.Long may their success continue
 
July 7th, 2018: #143 UK Charts
The Nation's Favourite Carpenters Songs
---60,000copies---
Polydor/Umc Silver Album, Cert date: August 25th, 2017
 
It was great to see the 'Only Yesterday' album become such a massive seller in the UK in the 90's.

I have an original UK TV station video of Richard being presented with an award for the record on the UK programme, 'The Word'.

A number of the U.K. compilations had big TV advertising campaigns behind them. I also have original UK TV station advertising videos for 'Interpretations' and 'Only Yesterday', plus one for 'Trying to Get the Feeling'.

The fact that the 'Only Yesterday' LP sold well over a million copies in the UK in the 90's is incredible.
 
I remember writing to Ev, their secretary and telling them that I heard that ONLY YESTERDAY hit Number One in the UK and was RC happy that it went double platinum. She said "Yes, he had to send it back because it went triple platinum!" I guess they had sent him the double platinum award and then it sold well that it went triple platinum. I remember reading all the Rolling Stone UK charts and seeing ONLY YESTERDAY hitting Number One...it was amazing!
 
I remember writing to Ev, their secretary and telling them that I heard that ONLY YESTERDAY hit Number One in the UK and was RC happy that it went double platinum. She said "Yes, he had to send it back because it went triple platinum!" I guess they had sent him the double platinum award and then it sold well that it went triple platinum. I remember reading all the Rolling Stone UK charts and seeing ONLY YESTERDAY hitting Number One...it was amazing!

Those were great times. I was amazed and pleased to see it all over the TV and tracks from it on the radio chart shows.
 
Those were great times. I was amazed and pleased to see it all over the TV and tracks from it on the radio chart shows.

Yes, it was hard to escape their music that year. A&M promoted the album aggressively, although they must have known it was likely to do well, given that both Singles albums had jumped back into the UK charts straight after The Karen Carpenter Story was shown on TV. I remember they won an award for their TV/radio campaign in Music Week (the UK equivalent of Billboard) that year, although peculiarly the magazine stated that the ads were particularly good given the paucity of footage of Karen and Richard the record company had to work with, which is nonsense - there are loads of videos/footage of them.

I'd be pretty sure that the excellent sales of Only Yesterday was one of the main reasons behind the decision to go ahead with the From the Top box set - it proved that such a set could be financially viable to compile.
 
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