Anyone read this?

Here's another mention of their name at the West Coast premiere of movie "Goodbye Mr. Chips" (in Ray Coleman's "Untold Story" book on pages 81-82).

Premiere "Goodbye Mr. Chips", from the Valley Times, November 7, 1969 (just realized that the British date notation would be 7-Eleven 🙃)

Live TV coverage that night, so I keep wondering if there would've been some shots of Karen & Richard as well. Apparently it was taped, since it aired again the next few days. Unfortunately I haven't been able (yet?) to find anything of that program on YouTube.

TV listing from the Valley Times, December 7, 1969.

And this is what Petula Clark must have looked like when she walked up to the bandstand to congratulate them (scroll a bit down towards the middle of the page).

West Coast premiere "Goodbye Mr. Chips" on Petula Clark's website

I wonder what Karen & Richard played that night. I'm pretty sure that "Ticket To Ride" was on their setlist...
 
Here is a recent (Feb 21, 2021) comment by, none other than, Alice Cooper:
"...even in the hardest rock times, the most metal times, I challenged almost every one of the metal guys by saying,
“Okay—guilty pleasure. I guarantee you that 70% of you either have Saturday Night Fever or The Carpenters’ Greatest Hits somewhere in your collection.” "Because, first of all, Saturday Night Fever was the Sgt. Pepper of disco—it went beyond disco, and every song was so good on that record. "
"They were just great songs. And same thing with The Carpenters."
Source:
 
Alice Copper has been a Carpenters fan for a long time. During the Pebble Beach Pro Am many years ago he was interviewed live during the tournament and was asked what he was listening to at the moment on his iPod and he said the Carpenters! The interviewer was surprised by this and asked why and he responded by saying because they're great. In addition, he would play "Goodbye to Love" on occasion during his nationally syndicated rock oriented radio show as a tribute to the duo. There is a long list of heavy metal/rock artists that have expressed their appreciation for the Carpenters over the years and if Carole King and Dionne Warwick get inducted into the R&RHOF this year there would be no reason for the Carpenters to not make the cut in the future.
 
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Alice Copper has been a Carpenters fan for a long time. During the Pebble Beach Pro Am many years ago he was interviewed live during the tournament and was asked what he was listening to at the moment on his iPod and he said the Carpenters! The interviewer was surprised by this and asked why and he responded by saying because they're great. In addition, he would play "Goodbye to Love" on occasion during his nationally syndicated rock oriented radio show as a tribute to the duo. There is a long list of heavy metal/rock artists that have expressed their appreciation for the Carpenters over the years and if Carole King and Dionne Warwick get inducted into the R&RHOF this year there would be no reason for the Carpenters to not make the cut in the future.
BAM! Perfectly stated!
 
More acclaim:
Carpenters ranked #1 of "most iconic duos of all time": "Total songs on Hot 100= 27,
Americans looking to escape the political messaging in music of the divisive 1960s and 1970s
found a safe place in the soothing soft-rock sound of brother and sister duo Karen and Richard Carpenter
who generated a cavalcade of hits in the 1970s."
Here is the entire artist list:
 
Though I'm pleased with the Carpenters placement, I'm surprised that Hall and Oates were not in the top spot. The only edge I would give the Carpenters over them would be the number of #1 AC hits and overall worldwide record sales.
 
^^Hall and Oates really are brilliant in their genre, so it really is difficult (and, of course, subjective)
to have any "list" which captures all elements of any particular duo.
I did a one-time comparison of today's kworb charts, Carpenters versus Hall and Oates:
You Make My Dreams
iTunes:
#551 United Kingdom
Apple Music:
#194 Sweden
#211 Australia
#241 New Zealand
#251 Denmark
#265 Ireland
#441 Netherlands
#798 United Kingdom
Album: The Very Best of Daryl Hall & John Oates
iTunes:
#468 United States
Apple Music:
#1213 United States
Album: The Singles
iTunes:
#520 United Kingdom


 
Excellent real time comparison. This also shows the huge disparity in international success which is clearly an advantage for the Carpenters. Hall and Oates also never won a Grammy, though they did win three American Music Awards compared to one by the Carpenters. Which duo is more iconic, tough call in my opinion. However, when is comes down to which "individual" is more of an icon, Karen wins over Daryl Hall with Richard and John finishing in a distant 3rd and 4th!
 
Interestingly enough, the site called "ranker" has (as of March 2021)
Carpenters #4 for "best music duos." Ahead of Karen and Richard we find
Lennon and McCartney, Simon and Garfunkel, Hall and Oates.
Here:
 
Lennon and McCartney were a great song writing team which I guess would classify them as a "musical" duo which the article suggests. I like Simon and Garfunkel but their accomplishments while they recorded together are not up to par with the Carpenters. By the way, the Carpenters have just fallen to #5 after being overtaken by Elton John and Bernie Taupin as I'm typing this! The Carpenters were obviously not a song writing duo and would not make the cut if that was the primary qualifier.
 
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BAM! Perfectly stated!
Yep, Alice Cooper has been an outspoken Carpenters fan for many years; he simply said, "They're the best," when some clueless reporter asked him why he had them on his Ipod (this is the same episode as the Pebble Beach anecdote above, just nailing the quote). Alice is really a "piece of work." With all the weirdness of his stage persona, he loves playing golf with the guys and loves the Carpenters. Just goes to show you really can't stereotype people.
 
Though I'm pleased with the Carpenters placement, I'm surprised that Hall and Oates were not in the top spot. The only edge I would give the Carpenters over them would be the number of #1 AC hits and overall worldwide record sales.
Completely wrong, I think, to say Hall & Oates rank above Carpenters. First, the Carpenters music is simply better and more memorable; its become "classic" on a global scale. And simply no comparison in terms of global popularity and impact: Carpenters have been and remain enormously popular in Japan, UK, China, Phillippines, and many many other countries. H&O are a superb duo, but, no, they do not reasonably rank above Carpenters.
 
"Completely wrong" is a pretty harsh observation when Hall and Oates do rank above our beloved Carpenters in several measurable categories. Top 40 hits: 29 to 20, Top Ten hits: 16 to 12, Number 1 hits: 6 to 3, American Music Awards: 3 to 1. "Sara Smile", "She's Gone", "Rich Girl" and "Kiss On My List" are classics on anyone's playlist. I mentioned in an earlier post that international success clearly goes to the Carpenters. However, I do feel that Hall and Oates are a more recognized entity in the United States and continue to receive heavy airplay on oldies stations where the Carpenters are sadly reserved for the holiday season. Hall and Oates have had an advantage because they are still physically active and were touring prior to COVID and the many seasons of "Daryl's House" introduced their music to a younger generation which helped solidify their legacy. Karen and Richard will always be my favorites but I must give credit to other artists when I feel it's appropriate.
 
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"Completely wrong" is a pretty harsh observation when Hall and Oates do rank above our beloved Carpenters in several measurable categories. Top 40 hits: 29 to 20, Top Ten hits: 16 to 12, Number 1 hits: 6 to 3, American Music Awards: 3 to 1. "Sara Smile", "She's Gone", "Rich Girl" and "Kiss On My List" are classics on anyone's playlist. I mentioned in an earlier post that international success clearly goes to the Carpenters. However, I do feel that Hall and Oates are a more recognized entity in the United States and continue to receive heavy airplay on oldies stations where the Carpenters are sadly reserved for the holiday season. Hall and Oates have had an advantage because they are still physically active and were touring prior to COVID and the many seasons of "Daryl's House" introduced their music to a younger generation which helped solidify their legacy. Karen and Richard will always be my favorites but I must give credit to other artists when I feel it's appropriate.

You make a very good point in noting that, unlike the Carpenters, Hall & Oats are still around and actively touring or otherwise promoting their music.

Had the Carpenters been able to do the same, I think we'd be having a very different discussion and conclusion.
 
A post on my Australian Broadcasting Corporation news app this morning illustrates perfectly that infliction which curses so many and that had such an impact upon the image of Carpenters - the need to promote how cool we are by mentioning only the hippest of music artists as our favourites.

I've copied the news feed below, editing some paragraphs out. The writer is talking about home-recorded cassette tapes, (personal mixes), rather than commercially-pressed cassettes.

"A few years ago, I was moving house. Cleaning up, getting rid of the junk, (so I thought), I came upon a drawer full of cassettes.

That's right! The very audio cassettes that Lou Ottens - who passed away last week - helped to pioneer, back in the early '60s. It was a real treasure trove; Cream, Van Morrison and, of course, the Rolling Stones.

I thought, 'What to do with them?' Or, to (nearly) quote The Clash, "Should they stay, or should they go?"

....Picture this. I am in my first year out of school. We're heading down the coast and, as we make the turn into Bendalong, my mate, Geoff, pulls out his cassette player, with an entire album of The Grateful Dead. It doesn't end there, either. After a surf, he plays us a Jefferson Airplane album. Could it get any better than this?

For this combination of choice and mobility, we owe a great debt of thanks to Ottens.

....The thing is that, sometimes, you got more than you bargained for, by putting very different artists together. Sometimes it worked. Suddenly, Simon and Garfunkel got to meet The Byrds, or Love teamed up with The Velvet Underground.

Sometimes, it didn't work. I can remember going up the coast and listening to a mixed tape, back in 1977. For some reason, I had interspersed rock music with Charlie Parker. The impact on everyone in the car was like they'd been hit by a hammer. Every time Parker's horn set to work, there was a palpable sense of sadness that invaded the car. Its impact was so profound that Charlie was banned for the rest of the trip.

By the way, that drawer of cassettes that I found, just before moving... What happened to them? Well, I have to admit, they got turfed. Sad, really, but such was our premium on the space in the place that we were moving to. I still think about them. And, I have to admit, I did keep one:- Disraeli Gears, by Cream". End of article.

What, no Carpenters? No Ella Fitzgerald? No Anne Murray? No Nat King Cole? No Captain and Tennille? No Mel Torme?

It's interesting how we promote an image of ourselves through advertising the styles of music that we play. This writer did it, very strongly - Cream, Van Morrison, Rolling Stones, The Clash, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, The Byrds, Love, The Velvet Underground - and Simon and Garfunkel and Charlie Parker.

I know that he was conveying a sense of the energy of a car full of teenage surfies through the type of music that they were listening to - but his article still illustrates what I am explaining.

I do it. We all do it. We use the type of music that we tell others that we listen to as a badge - an indication of the types of people we are.
 
Here is some food-for-thought:
"There weren’t many options for women in music in 1974.
Only three women – Diana Ross, Karen Carpenter and Lena Zavaroni –
made it into the Top 10 of the UK album chart all year, and Broadway singer Bette Midler had just won best new artist at the Grammys.
Female rock stars were starting to gain traction ..."

Do we have any stats regarding the Top 10 charts in the USA (for the year 1974) with respect to female artists ?
Might make a good "thesis" topic !
 
Here is some food-for-thought:
"There weren’t many options for women in music in 1974.
Only three women made it into the Top 10 of the UK album chart all year’. Do we have any stats regarding the Top 10 charts in the USA (for the year 1974) with respect to female artists ?
Might make a good "thesis" topic !
I do know that a number of women made it to Number One on the Billboard albums chart in 1974. These were Karen Carpenter, (or Carpenters), Barbra Streisand, Olivia Newton-John and Carole King. Other women who made it into the Top 10 that year were Carly Simon and Linda Ronstadt. Obviously, there would have been others.

In Australia there was one woman amongst the 25 best selling albums of 1974 and that was Suzi Quatro. However, a number, of course, would have reached the Top 10 throughout the year.

Putting the UK stats in perspective, I think there were just a few huge-selling albums holding down the Top 10 spots that year. For example, Carpenters’ ‘The Singles’ alone was Number One for a massive number of weeks - 17 weeks, to be exact - let alone all the other weeks that it spent in the Top 10.
 
US Billboard lists 25 female-based songs in the Top 100 for the year. That's 25%, including the biggest of the year for Streisand.

This counts a few male/female duos, but does not include acts like The Stylistics, which radio counted as a female sound due to the falsetto vocals.
 
Sticking with USA market, I find it interesting that April 1974 saw a single-release of I Won't Last A Day Without You
and November 1974 saw release of two singles: Please Mr. Postman and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.
To this day, I wish that the long version of Santa was better known (or played) amongst the public at Christmastime,
as I consider it to be one of my all-time favorite recordings.
The Single Postman captured radio-play at the time and was a perfect radio song. As Richard writes: "magical."
Moving forward to 1975, I always felt Only Yesterday should have gotten Richard a Grammy nomination for arrangement.
 
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