Anyone read this?

I recently received my copy of Randy Schmidt's "Illustrated Discography of the Carpenters." It is a very nice, well-produced coffee-table type volume. For us in-depth Carpenter fans, there is not a lot of really new material, but the format provides interesting insights and anecdotes from the 4 different commentators invited to react to each of the albums. There are also quite a few interesting new pictures that at least I had not seen before. One in particular caught my attention: Richard and Karen relaxing with Carole King in the A&M studio (where King recorded also but under a different label). What an abundance of musical talent and personal class in that picture (all three were young and at career peak), and at the La Brea studio in general!
 
That’s my favorite picture in the book!
👍👍👍👍
Makes me wonder if they were just hanging out in the studio or if they might have been playing back their recording of ‘It’s Going To Take Some Time’ for Carole. I’m sure Richard could tell us.
 
Funny he said they sang it in 1975, and awesome that he referenced Karen Carpenter instead of Skeeter Davis.
Either a fan or really young......👍
 
From Australia's 'Go-Set' magazine, Saturday, December 26th, 1970.

Title:- 'Lynne Randell talks with The Carpenters'.

Lynne:- 'Close to You' is currently Number 3 in the national charts in Australia. Did you know this?

Richard:- Yeah. We saw it in the charts in Billboard and Cashbox and all, you know.

Lynne:- Do you have any plans to go to Australia and do concerts there?

Richard:- Not right now. We sure want to, because we've got relatives that live in Sydney, and we want to go to England and Australia. But at the moment, no.

Lynne:- Where abouts in Sydney do your relatives live?

Richard:- That's about all I know. They moved there in '62, I think, and all I know is that it's Sydney. I'm not sure exactly where they are.

Lynne:- Do you intend to record any more Burt Bacharach / Hal David compositions?

Richard:- On our new album, there's a couple of other ones. There is one that is written by Bacharach, but not with Hal David.... with Mac David. There are a few, and there is another one there - 'I'll Never Fall in Love Again', from 'Promises, Promises'. To release another single by them - we don't have any plans for that, right at the moment.

Lynne:- Is Burt Bacharach going to write anything specifically for the group?

Richard:- No. He didn't write THAT specifically for the group, either.

Lynne:- Right. That was on a Dionne Warwick album. Right?

Richard:- Yeah. It's about seven years old and Herb Alpert called my attention to it.

Lynne:- The Carpenters have become an overnight success. Has this made any major change on your lives?

Richard:- I don't think so. The only thing that's changed has been gradual, since the record hit. Before that record became a hit, we were lucky if we got any engagements at all. But now, we've got so many, we have to turn some of them down. So it's really changed the performance schedule of the group. But as far as actual personalities, and the way I write - I don't think there has been any effect on that. At least, I hope not.

Lynne:- I saw you on The Tonight Show a few weeks ago and the group was dressed in tuxedos - except for Karen, of course. Is this any indication that you are trying to appeal to mainly an adult audience or is that just the way you like to dress?

Richard:- Tuxedos?

Lynne:- They looked like tuxedos on television. You had bow ties on with them and nice white shirts and things.

Richard:- We had ties on - I guess. No, I feel that it's a universal sound, as far as appealing to everybody. But that kind of dress goes right along with the kind of music that we do. I like to try to appeal to everybody, you know, not narrowing down to one specific age group. Well, we make the records, and the arrangements, but we don't do it for any specific age group, and so far, our appeal has been from the teenagers right up to the adults.

Lynne:- Are you playing all different kinds of venues? You know, colleges and night clubs and everything?

Richard:- We played for two weeks at a discotheque, and right after that, we did some college one-nighters, and now, we've just completed an Ed Sullivan show and we're going to do another one tomorrow - so we've been doing all type of things - not only TV shows, but all different types of entertainment shows, and I think we're going to play with Englebert Humperdinck up in Canada. We're playing for as many types of people as are buying our records.

Lynne:- Do you have an ultimate goal that you hope to obtain, professionally?

Richard:- Well, at the moment, what we are doing is what i wanted to do and the type of music we do is what I wanted to do - I just want to keep turning out a few more hit records - continuing what we're doing.

Lynne:- The fact that you and Karen are brother and sister - does this cause any problems - quarrels, that sort of thing?

Richard:- Oh, we've been playing together in groups, or even in different groups, since about 1966, when Karen first started playing the drums, and we haven't really had any differences of opinion or misunderstandings. Things have worked out pretty good between us.

Lynne:- Thank you, Richard Carpenter.

Richard:- Thanks, Lynne. And 'Hello' to all our fans in Go-Set Land.

Note:- 'Go-Set' was an Australian pop music newspaper and was published weekly from February 2nd, 1966, until August 24th, 1974.
 
^^I had forgotten the early Johnny Carson appearance (1970).
Here is a still/photo of the duo performing on JC Show, November 1970:
Musical guests The Carpenters perform on November 13, 1970
This still picture made me giggle. The positioning of the duo in the back and their band members in front makes K & C seem like the back-up musicians themselves instead of the headliner act! Ha-ha! I have never seen this photo - thanks for posting.
 
This still picture made me giggle. The positioning of the duo in the back and their band members in front makes K & C seem like the back-up musicians themselves instead of the headliner act! Ha-ha! I have never seen this photo - thanks for posting.

I’ve never seen that photo before. Truly bizarre to have all three backing singers up front.
 
From Australia's 'Go-Set' magazine, Saturday, December 26th, 1970.

Title:- 'Lynne Randell talks with The Carpenters'.

Lynne:- 'Close to You' is currently Number 3 in the national charts in Australia. Did you know this?

Richard:- Yeah. We saw it in the charts in Billboard and Cashbox and all, you know.

Lynne:- Do you have any plans to go to Australia and do concerts there?

Richard:- Not right now. We sure want to, because we've got relatives that live in Sydney, and we want to go to England and Australia. But at the moment, no.

Lynne:- Where abouts in Sydney do your relatives live?

Richard:- That's about all I know. They moved there in '62, I think, and all I know is that it's Sydney. I'm not sure exactly where they are.

Lynne:- Do you intend to record any more Burt Bacharach / Hal David compositions?

Richard:- On our new album, there's a couple of other ones. There is one that is written by Bacharach, but not with Hal David.... with Mac David. There are a few, and there is another one there - 'I'll Never Fall in Love Again', from 'Promises, Promises'. To release another single by them - we don't have any plans for that, right at the moment.

Lynne:- Is Burt Bacharach going to write anything specifically for the group?

Richard:- No. He didn't write THAT specifically for the group, either.

Lynne:- Right. That was on a Dionne Warwick album. Right?

Richard:- Yeah. It's about seven years old and Herb Alpert called my attention to it.

Lynne:- The Carpenters have become an overnight success. Has this made any major change on your lives?

Richard:- I don't think so. The only thing that's changed has been gradual, since the record hit. Before that record became a hit, we were lucky if we got any engagements at all. But now, we've got so many, we have to turn some of them down. So it's really changed the performance schedule of the group. But as far as actual personalities, and the way I write - I don't think there has been any effect on that. At least, I hope not.

Lynne:- I saw you on The Tonight Show a few weeks ago and the group was dressed in tuxedos - except for Karen, of course. Is this any indication that you are trying to appeal to mainly an adult audience or is that just the way you like to dress?

Richard:- Tuxedos?

Lynne:- They looked like tuxedos on television. You had bow ties on with them and nice white shirts and things.

Richard:- We had ties on - I guess. No, I feel that it's a universal sound, as far as appealing to everybody. But that kind of dress goes right along with the kind of music that we do. I like to try to appeal to everybody, you know, not narrowing down to one specific age group. Well, we make the records, and the arrangements, but we don't do it for any specific age group, and so far, our appeal has been from the teenagers right up to the adults.

Lynne:- Are you playing all different kinds of venues? You know, colleges and night clubs and everything?

Richard:- We played for two weeks at a discotheque, and right after that, we did some college one-nighters, and now, we've just completed an Ed Sullivan show and we're going to do another one tomorrow - so we've been doing all type of things - not only TV shows, but all different types of entertainment shows, and I think we're going to play with Englebert Humperdinck up in Canada. We're playing for as many types of people as are buying our records.

Lynne:- Do you have an ultimate goal that you hope to obtain, professionally?

Richard:- Well, at the moment, what we are doing is what i wanted to do and the type of music we do is what I wanted to do - I just want to keep turning out a few more hit records - continuing what we're doing.

Lynne:- The fact that you and Karen are brother and sister - does this cause any problems - quarrels, that sort of thing?

Richard:- Oh, we've been playing together in groups, or even in different groups, since about 1966, when Karen first started playing the drums, and we haven't really had any differences of opinion or misunderstandings. Things have worked out pretty good between us.

Lynne:- Thank you, Richard Carpenter.

Richard:- Thanks, Lynne. And 'Hello' to all our fans in Go-Set Land.

Note:- 'Go-Set' was an Australian pop music newspaper and was published weekly from February 2nd, 1966, until August 24th, 1974.

Thanks for sharing this, Brian!
 
^^I had forgotten the early Johnny Carson appearance (1970).
Here is a still/photo of the duo performing on JC Show, November 1970:
Musical guests The Carpenters perform on November 13, 1970

WOW! This picture is amazing, Gary Alan.

I was only 8 years old and I stayed awake and watched it on a tiny black and white TV in my brother’s room. That was my first glimpse of them ever.

I remember thinking before seeing this that Karen probably looked like Judy Robinson (Marta Kristen) from ‘Lost In Space’. I was way off.
 
This still picture made me giggle. The positioning of the duo in the back and their band members in front makes K & C seem like the back-up musicians themselves instead of the headliner act! Ha-ha! I have never seen this photo - thanks for posting.
I’ve never seen that photo before. Truly bizarre to have all three backing singers up front.
I really had to search for Karen!

I know. I clicked on the link, saw the photo. The guys up front and thought, where is Karen (??) in all this (and Richard).
Of course Karen is hiding behind the drums, and Richard with long hair on the other platform. It just looked backwards.
Does any video of this performance exist on-line? I'd like to see this one!
 
Early days of Richard's stage set up. Remember, the Carpenters had limited experience with live concert and TV performances when Close To You exploded and they had very little time to rehearse and prepare for touring and life on the road. Sherwin Bash, being a seasoned manager should have been more instrumental in advising them on how to enhance Karen and Richard's visibility when it came to their stage presentation. A female playing the drums and a male playing the keyboards was a unique challenge in 1970, at least they were both elevated in this vintage photo.
 
I know. I clicked on the link, saw the photo. The guys up front and thought, where is Karen (??) in all this (and Richard).
Of course Karen is hiding behind the drums, and Richard with long hair on the other platform. It just looked backwards.
Does any video of this performance exist on-line? I'd like to see this one!
That would be an extremely lucky find if the video did, considering that prior to May 1, 1972, only 33 complete episodes of the “Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” are known to exist, out of about 2,600 (assuming he recorded 5 episodes a week from October 1962 to April 1972) episodes. Apparently quite a bit of audio and some kinescope still exists of these episodes in the Library of Congress due to the American Armed Forces having acquired the material to broadcast on Armed forces radio and TV around the world.

Apparently the guests got copies of their episodes, so Richard Carpenter might have 2 copies.
 
You have to remember that in 1970, in the US, home video was still a ways off. Betamax wouldn’t be out until 1975, VHS 1977. Even 3/4” U-Matic wasn’t released until 1971. And in 1970, 2-inch Quad tape cost $300 (just over $2,100 in 2020) for 1-hour. So most tapes shows were not kept after broadcast, or were kept for a few months for reruns and Then the tape was put back in the to-be-recorded-on pile. So usually only photos exist.
 
Was/is that a standard procedure for guest appearing on television shows?
From what I see online for “The Tonight Show” it would’ve been something requested beforehand when the guest agreed to appear on the show. So if Karen and Richard asked for copies, Richard might have 2 copies (his and Karen’s). Otherwise, in 1970, it would’ve been the old kinescope method for recording it at home.
 
From what I see online for “The Tonight Show” it would’ve been something requested beforehand when the guest agreed to appear on the show. So if Karen and Richard asked for copies, Richard might have 2 copies (his and Karen’s). Otherwise, in 1970, it would’ve been the old kinescope method for recording it at home.
If R&K were given copies, what format would those copies have been? Would they likely have been kinescope copies on film? As you said, in 1970, video tape reels were so expensive that networks erased and reused them, so I can't imagine them being handed out to the guests.
 
If R&K were given copies, what format would those copies have been? Would they likely have been kinescope copies on film? As you said, in 1970, video tape reels were so expensive that networks erased and reused them, so I can't imagine them being handed out to the guests.

I’m pretty sure they were given 3/4” videotapes of their TV appearances. Richard talks about his personal archives in an interview. I don’t know if they had to pay for them or not. Most likely they did.
 
I’m pretty sure they were given 3/4” videotapes of their TV appearances. Richard talks about his personal archives in an interview. I don’t know if they had to pay for them or not. Most likely they did.
For a program in 1970 it wouldn’t be 3/4” U-Matic, as that wasn’t on the market until 1971 (Sony had demonstrated a prototype of it in 1969 but it didn’t actually hit the market until 1971).

So in 1970, if they got a tape copy, it would’ve been 2” Quad, which is the same tape that the 1974 Perry Como Christmas Show was recorded on.


Otherwise in 1970 there were a few other tapes, but they had all but disappeared. The only other main recording method would’ve been kinescope.
 
For a program in 1970 it wouldn’t be 3/4” U-Matic, as that wasn’t on the market until 1971 (Sony had demonstrated a prototype of it in 1969 but it didn’t actually hit the market until 1971).

So in 1970, if they got a tape copy, it would’ve been 2” Quad, which is the same tape that the 1974 Perry Como Christmas Show was recorded on.

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Otherwise in 1970 there were a few other tapes, but they had all but disappeared. The only other main recording method would’ve been kinescope.
That’s very cool info, Tom. You know your stuff! Being that Richard is something of an archivist himself, I would hope he’s converted all of his video to digital by this time.
 
That’s very cool info, Tom. You know your stuff! Being that Richard is something of an archivist himself, I would hope he’s converted all of his video to digital by this time.
Considering what was done on the Interpretations Video with the Without A Song re-edit, I would assume that by 1994, he had had some of the tapes transferred to a better quality format, since that video looks like it was digitally re-edited. Of course in 94, Betcam SP WAS OUT (whereas it wasn’t in 1980), which Sony claimed allowed for you to get 6-8 generations away from the original before seeing any signs of generational loss, and Richard could’ve had his tapes transferred to that and re-edited on that. Or Digital Betacam had been released in 93, so he could’ve transferred them to that (it would’ve been the cheapest Digital option, but it offered picture quality that was equal to the really expensive D1 Component Videotape that had been put since 1987).

But with the Perry Como Christmas Show, it’s interesting that Richard mentions in the “As Time Goes By” notes, that in 1999, that was still on 2” Quad. So I wouldn’t be surprised if, when Richard requested the audio for the medley, Perry Como and his production company had it converted to a digital format, whether it be Mini-DV/DVCPRO tape or Digital Betacam, and the digital copy was used for the DVD mastering in 2013.

But as for how I know so much, I do own my own video production/transfer company. So, while I have not worked with 2” Quad, I have worked with 3/4” U-Matic and other tape formats.

 
Promoting a 1976 concert performance:

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Bruno Mars, Beyoncé, Andrew LLoyd Webber, And The Carpenters: 15 Concerts To Stream Online Now
 
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