The Carpenters Collection Series (1995 CD)

tomswift2002

Well-Known Member
I just got this CD in the mail today. I had never heard of it before when I saw it on EBay. The CD comes from Australia in 1995, and says that it was marketed in “Australasia” by Polygram and was made in Australia. A&M is credited for copyright. It mentions being issued on the Sanity/Karussell label, with the artwork & design being done by “JetSet Graphics, Sydney”.

The cover photo is the one from “Classics Vol. 2”, but it’s in black & white with a purple background that looks like it was wiped away from the photo. I haven’t been able to find anything online about the album.

According to the liner notes “The songs here were chosen with great care to emphasize Karen’s musicality as well as her human strengths in interpretative singing. “

There are 14 tracks on the disc:

1. I Need To Be In Love
2. I Just Fall In Love Again
3. Baby It’s You
4. Can’t Smile Without You
5. Beechwood 4-5789
6. Eve
7. All of My Life
8. Reason To Believe
9. Your Baby Doesn’t Love You Anymore
10. Maybe It’s You
11. Ticket To Ride
12. Sweet, Sweet Smile
13. A Song For You
14. Because We Are In Love (The Wedding Song)

It’s interesting but it seems like “Carpenters”, “Now & Then” And “Horizon” are not represented, but there are 3 songs from “Offering” & “Close To You”, 1 from “A Song For you”, 2 from “A Kind Of Hush” & Passage” & “Made In America”, 1 from “Voice Of The Heart”.

Also, there are only 5 American singles on this album ( there maybe Australian singles but I don’t recognize them).
 
“The songs here were chosen with great care”...how come Beechwood was included then?
 
Oddly, the REFLECTIONS CD that I have was also made in Australia and both that and this one use the same catalog number. The liner notes in question were written by Ray Coleman.

Thanks for the info, I'll add a note to the REFLECTIONS page of the Resource.

CollectionSeriesAustralasia300.jpg
 
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Oddly, the REFLECTIONS CD that I have was also made in Australia and both that and this one use the same catalog number. The liner notes in question were written by Ray Coleman.

Thanks for the info, I'll add a note to the REFLECTIONS page of the Resource.

CollectionSeriesAustralasia300.jpg

That’s the cover. This must be the one CD with the most covers. Any other reissues of this set?
 
Oddly, the REFLECTIONS CD that I have was also made in Australia and both that and this one use the same catalog number. The liner notes in question were written by Ray Coleman.

Thanks for the info, I'll add a note to the REFLECTIONS page of the Resource.

CollectionSeriesAustralasia300.jpg
There is a record store chain in Australia called "Sanity". Perhaps the CD in question was made for them as a store exclusive?
 
There is a record store chain in Australia called "Sanity". Perhaps the CD in question was made for them as a store exclusive?

That's what I think. I recall Sanity stores from my time in Australia.
 
I was just looking at the liner notes and comparing them to my copy of “Reflections”. The notes are the same right down to the last paragraph/sentence that starts with ‘“Reflections” is a collection...’, which makes no sense in terms that the disc is “Collection Series” And aside from that one line there is no mention anywhere else that the CD had been issued as “Reflections”. The line at the top on the “Reflections” liner notes that says “The Carpenters Reflections by Ray Coleman” has also been erased, so the notes have no author, but then right at the end it says “Ray Coleman Is The Author Of The Carpenters: The Authorized Biography”. Again, on the “Collection Series” this is a random piece of information. Good sales strategy to let people know who wrote the Carpenters biography, but it is also a non-connecting thing to the note since there’s nothing in the note that connects the note with the writer of the biography.

Also with the liner notes, on the “Reflection” CD, all the song copyright information and who played what is spread across the 2 inside pages with the Coleman note on the back cover in very small font. In the “Collection Series” booklet, the Coleman note is spread across the inside in a much different font and bigger font size (but there is still about a thumb’s worth of whit space between the Biography line and lower case “ection Series”—-the crease goes through the backbone of the “e”—-they could’ve gone larger), and it starts under a version of “THE CARPENT”—-crease goes through the “T” right on the left side of the lower section and cuts off the left branch of the “T”—-and goes to the line “‘The characteristics of their art are easy to define. Added to the fact”’ which runs up against the lower case “Then the back cover has “THE CARPENTERS” running horizontally on the left with the track titles, time and shortened composer credits (R Carpenter) above “All Lead Vocals by Karen Carpenter” And then below in like a 4-point font all the song titles with the production credits.

The nice thing with “Collection Series” is that the disc itself is silk screened in purple vs “Reflections” words in generic black.
 
There is a record store chain in Australia called "Sanity". Perhaps the CD in question was made for them as a store exclusive?
The ‘Sanity’ label on the CD, from what I can see, looks the same as the store’s logo.

I might be able to find out for sure whether it was produced exclusively for the store. (It looks like it might be). However, I just did a search on Sanity’s website and nothing came up.

I’ve never seen the CD in Sanity’s rival store, which would make sense, if it’s a store exclusive. There used to be two or three Sanity stores in my immediate area but they’ve all closed down whereas more stores by their rival have sprung up.

I’ll get back if I find anything out.
 
Unofficial information on the internet states that the ‘Collection’ CD series was an Australia-only release through Polygram and Sanity - only released through Sanity music stores in the 80s and 90s. I’ll see if I can verify.
 
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