šŸ“£ News Carpenters: The Musical Legacy (Discussion)

FINAL Carpenters cover.jpg

CARPENTERS: THE MUSICAL LEGACY

By Mike Cidoni Lennox & Chris May with Richard Carpenter


The definitive biography of one of the most enduring and endeared recording artists in historyā€”the Carpentersā€”is told for the first time from the perspective of Richard Carpenter, through more than 100 hours of exclusive interviews and some 200 photographs from Richardā€™s personal archive, many never published.

After becoming multi-million selling, Grammy-winning superstars with their 1970 breakthrough ā€œ(They Long to Be) Close to You,ā€ Richard and Karen Carpenter would win over fans worldwide with a record-breaking string of hits including ā€œWeā€™ve Only Just Begun,ā€ ā€œTop of the Worldā€ and ā€œYesterday Once More.ā€ In Carpenters: The Musical Legacy, Richard Carpenter tells their story with candor, heart and humor, chronicling the ups and downs of the duo, whose work remains the gold standard for melodic pop.

CARPENTERS: THE MUSICAL LEGACY is coming to bookstores on October 19th. Pre-order your copy today: Carpenters
 
Congrats to all you guys on the book, which I preordered from Amazon a while back. Great looking cover.
Looking forward to a different perspective on the musical career of the Carpenters. THANK YOU :)
 
LEIBOWITZopt-4x3-5-22-74.jpg


Very nice work on the restoration. This is a very sentimental picture, I think. Especially so now that it has been cleaned up so well.
 
FINAL Carpenters cover.jpg

CARPENTERS: THE MUSICAL LEGACY

By Mike Cidoni Lennox & Chris May with Richard Carpenter


The definitive biography of one of the most enduring and endeared recording artists in historyā€”the Carpentersā€”is told for the first time from the perspective of Richard Carpenter, through more than 100 hours of exclusive interviews and some 200 photographs from Richardā€™s personal archive, many never published.

After becoming multi-million selling, Grammy-winning superstars with their 1970 breakthrough ā€œ(They Long to Be) Close to You,ā€ Richard and Karen Carpenter would win over fans worldwide with a record-breaking string of hits including ā€œWeā€™ve Only Just Begun,ā€ ā€œTop of the Worldā€ and ā€œYesterday Once More.ā€ In Carpenters: The Musical Legacy, Richard Carpenter tells their story with candor, heart and humor, chronicling the ups and downs of the duo, whose work remains the gold standard for melodic pop.

CARPENTERS: THE MUSICAL LEGACY is coming to bookstores on October 19th. Pre-order your copy today: Carpenters
So exciting!!!!!
 
Right after AS TIME GOES BY came out, and I ordered the first copy from Japan and was sent, as a thank you, a flyer for the album's Japanese release. This flyer used this same alternate picture from that same Annie Liebowitz photo shoot. Interestingly, the Japanese version gave Richard's wayward hair a bit of a trim.

AsTimeGoesByJapFlyer01.jpg

MusicalLegacy.png
 
Congratulations, again, I can hardly contain my excitement !

The Universal Music Group link here, as google-news posted:
ā€œFirst Officialā€? Are they forgetting about Ray Colemanā€™s 1994 biography? Iā€™m pretty sure that was an ā€œOfficialā€ biographyā€”-yeah it was before UMEā€™s ownership of the Carpenters but it was even advertised in other Official Carpenters releases (CTY:RTC VHS, Laserdisc & DVD releases.)
 
Fantastic news - congratulations @Chris May and @Mike Cidoni Lennox! šŸ™‚ Really looking forward to reading the book and gaining some new knowledge and insight about the Carpenters. Thank you for feeding my Carpenters obsession. šŸ˜œ

Curious about how you decided to choose this photo for the cover, considering the millions of photos that were available for your choosing!
 
Last edited:
Fantastic news - congratulations @Chris May and @Mike Cidoni Lennox! šŸ™‚ Really looking forward to reading the book and gaining some new knowledge and insight about the Carpenters. Thank you for feeding my Carpenters obsession. šŸ˜œ

Curious about how you decided to choose this photo for the cover, considering the millions of photos that were available for your choosing!

Thanks so much for your kind words!

It happens to be one of Richard's favorite photos and represents them in their prime.
 
Thanks so much for your kind words!

It happens to be one of Richard's favorite photos and represents them in their prime.
I believe this photo of them is in my book "Superstars of the '70s" (which looks like it was printed in the '70s). I never wanted to get rid of that book for the reason that it has this picture of them. It's a beautiful photo.
 
This picture was also used as a smaller image on the front of CARPENTERS PERFORM CARPENTER.
 
It was also featured on the cover of the Carpenters' Gold reissue in 2005 (Universal Music Canada).

Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz shot the photo in 1974 as part of the photo shoot for the Rolling Stone feature.
 
It was also featured on the cover of the Carpenters' Gold reissue in 2005.

Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz shot the photo in 1974 as part of the photo shoot for the Rolling Stone feature.
I had no idea this was a Leibovitz original... thank you so much for that tidbit!

Wondering--did you folks digitize negatives for this book or scan photo prints?
 
It was also featured on the cover of the Carpenters' Gold reissue in 2005 (Universal Music Canada).

Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz shot the photo in 1974 as part of the photo shoot for the Rolling Stone feature.
If I free-associated, "Carpenters Gold" is what would come out of my mouth (likely because it was the first Carpenters album I ever purchased).

The photo is also used for "The Rainbow Connection" CD single released in Japan. šŸ™‚

 
FINAL Carpenters cover.jpg

CARPENTERS: THE MUSICAL LEGACY

By Mike Cidoni Lennox & Chris May with Richard Carpenter


The definitive biography of one of the most enduring and endeared recording artists in historyā€”the Carpentersā€”is told for the first time from the perspective of Richard Carpenter, through more than 100 hours of exclusive interviews and some 200 photographs from Richardā€™s personal archive, many never published.

After becoming multi-million selling, Grammy-winning superstars with their 1970 breakthrough ā€œ(They Long to Be) Close to You,ā€ Richard and Karen Carpenter would win over fans worldwide with a record-breaking string of hits including ā€œWeā€™ve Only Just Begun,ā€ ā€œTop of the Worldā€ and ā€œYesterday Once More.ā€ In Carpenters: The Musical Legacy, Richard Carpenter tells their story with candor, heart and humor, chronicling the ups and downs of the duo, whose work remains the gold standard for melodic pop.

CARPENTERS: THE MUSICAL LEGACY is coming to bookstores on October 19th. Pre-order your copy today: Carpenters
I can't wait
 
It was also featured on the cover of the Carpenters' Gold reissue in 2005 (Universal Music Canada).

Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz shot the photo in 1974 as part of the photo shoot for the Rolling Stone feature.
Chris, will this biography be more focused on the music or on their life story? I'm hoping it's the former, as it would be great to have a resource that goes through their catalog in exhaustive detail, telling the stories behind the songs/recordings, etc.
 
Chris, will this biography be more focused on the music or on their life story? I'm hoping it's the former, as it would be great to have a resource that goes through their catalog in exhaustive detail, telling the stories behind the songs/recordings, etc.
This is a musical biography that demonstrates the massive success of the Carpenters, in contrast with all of the management and political hurdles they had to overcome along the way.

ā€œThe records sold themselves,ā€ as Richard has said countess times.

This book is what Mike and I like to refer to as a hybrid. It serves as a biography, memoir, exhaustive data resource (with many of the types of details you mention), all with some stunning graphical illustrations.

I hope this helps to explain it a little better.
 
Back
Top Bottom