🥂 50th Carpenters COMPLETE - Box Set ideas

The full details is under the thread Your Carpenters Holy Grail on page 2 August 2014. Posted by Ken Silber.
 
Since the rarities thread is closed I’ll give my 2 cents. There are 4 Japanese box sets. The first one had a bonus disc for Honolulu City Lights and Slow Dance. The second one had the mini album covers with Offering, the third was the singles collection on mini 3”discs and the last and most expensive one was the Shmd collection.
As for the neon light, it was made for the Horizon album. It had a holder that displayed the cover. All the Tower stores had them in 1975. My old friend and now video producer with Richard Carpenter, Jim Pierson has one. I’m so jealous.
They are mega rare. You can see Jim’s name on the credits for the Christmas dvd and others made and shown in PBS with the guy who made and produced the 3 cd set for PBS. I hope he can talk Richard into working on more dvd releases. He’s quite knowledgeable and good at it.
 
P. S. Jim bought the neon 25 or 30 years ago, not though his association with Richard.
I’ve never ever seen one for sale.
 
Yes! I might not understand the technical aspects of what you are saying but I get your gist. So many Carpenters videos that exist on say YouTube etc, are grainy and of very poor quality. If only those can be cleaned up along with the audio that went along with them. There is someone on YouTube that has been posting video from David Frost and Andy Williams where the duo made guest appearances (video which I had never seen before), but the picture quality is so fuzzy you can barely make out who is who.
The YouTube videos that you mention are most likely multi-generational VHS/Betamax copies of original VHS/Betamax off-air recordings. And in the case of VHS, a lot of them were copied in SLP/EP mode over RF or Yellow RCA Composite cables. I’ve even seen videos where the Digitally Imposed “Hi-Fi” appears at the start of videos, which is a clear indication that those videos are from recordings that were made on late-90’s/early-2000’s VHS VCR’s.

The 2 main reasons for this is that:

1. Hi-Fi wasn’t introduced to VHS until 1985; there was the earlier Linear Stereo, but that was only introduced in 1982 and abandoned, by 1985, due to lower fidelity than Linear Mono (as with LS you were splitting the LM track into 2 audio tracks, with less space for the audio).

2. The Digital Imposing of the Hi-Fi word, or “Auto Tracking” was only added around 1995 when VHS manufacturers were looking to lower production costs by getting rid of redundancies (I.e. tracking buttons on both VHS VCR & the remote) and to make things more automatic, and reduce the overall size/weight of the machine.


But also VHS wasn’t the best format to make analog copies from to another VHS tape. Think of it this way, most of the Carpenters videos on YouTube are copies of copies, like if you made a photocopy of a page out of a newspaper, and then made another copy, from the copy
 
Does anyone actually know if there IS going to be a 50th Ann project? If something were released for April, shouldn't we have heard about it by now? We're already half way through February ...
I'm disappointed. I lived on purpose because I knew something would be revealed. Jeeeesh. Lemme see, I'll be eighty-one for the 75th anny. After 50 years some of us fans
are still very much alive and kicking. My patience is waning on the side of Universal Music mayhem.
 
Any news on this? It seems so strange, we had a 35th & 40th box set... But they are letting the 50th pass by with no mention?
 
Any news on this? It seems so strange, we had a 35th & 40th box set... But they are letting the 50th pass by with no mention?
There were three anniversary box sets, for the 30th, 35th, and 40th. All three sets were produced in very limited quantities, and were only released in Japan. Carpenters were so popular in Japan at the time, that the sets sold out rapidly, despite their very high price (even higher for the non-Japanese who imported a copy). But a lot has changed in the last 10 years. CD sales have fallen dramatically, largely replaced by streaming. Older fans who own one of the earlier sets, may not be willing to purchase all the albums yet again. Younger people who became fans in the last 10 years, are likely streaming all the albums on their phones, and may not even own a CD player. I have a feeling that Universal crunched the numbers, and determined that such a project wouldn't be economically viable.

Personally, I have absolutely NO interest in purchasing all the Carpenters albums again, in any form. Now, if there were something "new", like DVDs of all the TV specials, including the 3 from the UK... a compilation DVD of appearances on TV shows from around the world, or CDs of live concert recordings from Richard's archives - then I would buy those in a heartbeat! But it's likely never going to happen.

At least we got Randy's excellent coffee-table book for the 50th!
 
Let us not forget the 20th Anniversary set from the UK called THE COMPACT DISC COLLECTION:

1582752595234.png

It contained all of the standard studio albums but not the Christmas releases. The A SONG FOR YOU disc mimicked the MFSL audio, and PASSAGE had the remix of "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft."

And for the 25th, we were treated to INTERPRETATIONS with the excellent "new" track of "Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again".
 
It wouldn't even need to be a full studio album box set (I think most people have enough of them!), even just a 50th compilation would be nice to add to our collections to mark the occasion, it could be released on CD, vinyl and digital - that way everyone is covered. The CD/Vinyl could have a booklet with photos and reflections from Richard on 50 years.
 
We've still got the 50th of "Close To You" coming up... Come on Universal give us something! Reissue the Close To You album (new remixes, old mixes, or both) add some rarities for bonus tracks: maybe interviews, Navy Presents recordings, alternative vocal takes ect. Include a nice glossy booklet filled with photos from 1970, stories from Richard, Herb, et al about the recording of the album and there you have it. What Carpenters fan or music fan in general wouldn't be interested in that?
 
With 50th anniversaries approaching of both the Carpenters' signing with A&M in April of 1969, as well as the release of their first #1 hit (They Long To Be) Close To You in July of 1970, a complete box set is long overdue. By "complete" I mean audio/video/book related media all wrapped into one complete release.

I want to start a thread that encourages fans to give their input. The only caveat being, preferably no suggestions related to unreleased/shelved material that would have to be finished in order to see a release.

What I'm interested in for instance, would be elements such as the 1995 remix of Another Song that was only available on the Japanese Sweet Memory set and/or other alternate mixes on imports that never made it to the U.S., video elements related to the specials, pictures or graphical images etc.

I'd like to have the AM radio mixes of all their American singles, and if mono mixes were made of any non-US singles. Kind of like the CD collection, The Singles 1969-1981 only in "mono" mixes. Two discs would be fine if there are two many for one!

An expanded edition of "Offering" with all the other odds and ends included from the 1960's to make it even groovier! (is that a word? lol)

Both Karen's and Richard's (Time) solo albums released as a package on vinyl and CD with any bonus tracks that are finished, but unreleased.

I'm scared to ask for vinyl on any of these, but since Karen has not been on vinyl in it's original solo album form...........:hide:
 
Since im a younger fan i would prefer to buy the cd's and rip them that way if my cd's were to a point where they no longer play well i would have the ripped files. Any recommendations?
 
Hey Mark! I was going through my notes today and realized that I'd overlooked it when you asked me when Horizon got underway as far as the recording. I'd forgotten, as they actually started in early September of '74, with the first two tracks being "Love Me For What I Am" and "Sailing on the Tide."

Sorry about that :razz:
Let us not forget the 20th Anniversary set from the UK called THE COMPACT DISC COLLECTION:

1582752595234.png

It contained all of the standard studio albums but not the Christmas releases. The A SONG FOR YOU disc mimicked the MFSL audio, and PASSAGE had the remix of "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft."

And for the 25th, we were treated to INTERPRETATIONS with the excellent "new" track of "Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again".
Does that go by a different name in the States? Is there any other disc that features that Calling Occupants remix? I couldn't find the answers on the Resource.
 
If Karen’s solo album was issued on vinyl and included on ANY Carpenters box set I’d buy it without question. Just don’t let UMe press the vinyl.
 
Since im a younger fan i would prefer to buy the cd's and rip them that way if my cd's were to a point where they no longer play well i would have the ripped files. Any recommendations?
The best issues are the 1998 Remastered Classics, except for “Passage”. Really “Passage”’s best release was its original vinyl followed by the 1980’s release. For some reason on CD “Passage”, especially B’Wana, sounds like its mono, whereas the vinyl has a wide sound stage that makes it sound stereo, not like Capitol’s 1960’s Duphonic stereo rechanneled from mono sound. (Duophonic - Wikipedia)
 
Since im a younger fan i would prefer to buy the cd's and rip them that way if my cd's were to a point where they no longer play well i would have the ripped files. Any recommendations?

I've been ripping copies of my CD's since I was a teenager to play portable outside the safety of the home. But I have to say I have not experienced any decay in my older compact discs. ONJ's greatest hits Vol. 2 is from early 1984, even pre-bar code! It's over 35 years old and it still sounds as great as it did when I heard my first CD. Carpenters "Yesterday Once More" CD from 1984 is 35 years old now and it sounds marvelous. Things can get lost, stolen, damaged. I have a hard drive back up. But yeah, having a back-up source is always a good idea, Martin.

Martin, I'm 42, am I too old now to buy a CD? :) I've had a CD player since I was 7 years old, it is the format I grew up (and old!) with. lol
 
I've been ripping copies of my CD's since I was a teenager to play portable outside the safety of the home. But I have to say I have not experienced any decay in my older compact discs. ONJ's greatest hits Vol. 2 is from early 1984, even pre-bar code! It's over 35 years old and it still sounds as great as it did when I heard my first CD. Carpenters "Yesterday Once More" CD from 1984 is 35 years old now and it sounds marvelous. Things can get lost, stolen, damaged. I have a hard drive back up. But yeah, having a back-up source is always a good idea, Martin.

Martin, I'm 42, am I too old now to buy a CD? :) I've had a CD player since I was 7 years old, it is the format I grew up (and old!) with. lol

My dad is a year younger. I too grew up with a cd player that he had but he lost it or sold it i can't remember. I would like to have all the carpenters cd's at least the main albums. Here's an interesting story When i was 9 my parents and used to sell cd's at a corner as a small family business so I've grown up with cd's.
 
I would really like a UK 50th release of Carpenters Christmas. Not portrait etc but a new mixture of songs collection. I always make my own CD for Xmas! We never get the opportunity to buy the existing albums over here in the general sales market. We have to search the Internet. I think a new collection obviously from the existing albums would really sell well in the UK
 
This is my pie-in-the-sky, if this was the last boxset released wish list:
  1. All the studio albums with alternate takes; such as the various iterations of Close to You before they agreed on the one we all know, unreleased songs - complete or not - from the time period that the album was recorded, Your Navy Presents cuts, CSULB cuts, Richard Carpenter trio tracks from Battle of the Bands, KC's remaining unreleased solo cuts, interesting radio interviews, snippets etc from the time the album was recorded/promoted. All with deluxe books featuring variations and outtakes of photo shoots, promo materials, advertising, chart performance, fan club photos etc
  2. A DVD/Blu-ray set of the 5 ABC-TV specials with Richard's (and any surviving guests) recollections, (realistically, this could be one of the last opportunities for RC to share his recollections, thoughts, snippets of info) cutting room floor bits, outtakes, and include the Carpenters only song performances from Make Your Own Kind Of Music, the 3 BBC shows, key guest appearances; Carol Burnett Show, Tonight Show, Andy Williams, Jerry Dunphy visits, Close to You and Love Is Surrender studio videos etc.
  3. A "live" CD/DVD compilation made up of their best live performances, rarities only performed live including a deluxe book detailing concert stats, ticket sales, records broken, posters etc.
I know there are mixed thoughts about the TV specials, ranging from corny to great, (I love them as KC really shines and displays her comedic and acting talents so well), unreleased and incomplete tracks, again I want to hear everything KC sang whether it's completed or not. I think ABBA did a medley of incomplete tracks on one of there boxsets and that was great.

I want RC to be the one to clean up and fix whatever is there so that it is put out to the fans with the highest quality and his stamp on it, fixing leaked stuff such as KC's unreleased solo tracks etc. I also wish he'd put out the many things he said were completed and releasable but never made it on to As Time Goes By. I wish he felt the same.

Anyway, this is purely a wish list, will likely never happen but I can dream and RC has surprised us in the past so I never say never.
 
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Is there any other disc that features that Calling Occupants remix? I couldn't find the answers on the Resource.

It's all there. The "Occupants" remix is on a lot of comps, including 40/40.
 
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