Thoughts on Richard's voice?

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newvillefan said:
the EPI


Thanks! Never heard that before. It sounds like a live performance to me rather than a studio outtake.

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I believe this is a live performance. I think it's from the show Richard did with the United States Air Force Band featuring the Singing Sergeants on Feb. 16, 1986, the day before he appeared on Larry King's radio show. Now if someone could just track down Richard's take on "The Very Thought of You," which I believe was recorded for a Japanese television special.
 
I actually have really enjoyed Richard's voice in his solo works and as a lead or background singer on Carpenters' songs. I recently heard him talk about different types of choir singers in an interview from 1981 (newly released by Billy Rees on YouTube). He was definitely more of a singer who could easily blend with others but couldn't always hold his own, whereas Karen could do both. Richard has admitted this, himself, in several interviews throughout the years.

Certain songs Richard and John Bettis wrote for what became "Offering," such as "Turn Away," or "What's The Use" were arguably not in Karen's key, anyway, because they weren't written initially for K and R's duo. That's probably why Richard took them on. Though I absolutely love those tunes, once the group got those early songs out of their systems, they were able to move on to bigger and better things with Karen as the lead.
 
JuanDela said:
We all know Karen had a very soothing and beautiful silky voice, (aside from perfect pitch), but I've heard little opinions about Richard's voice. So what are your thoughts on him?

I think it's not as bad as some other people say, I'd even say it actually sounded kinda good (when he was young). He reached every note he sang and his vocal timbre wasn't too bad itself. Maybe with a little more voice training he could have reached a wider vocal range and sound better.

But that's just me, so let me know your opinions!
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Slightly off topic I guess, but I've always believed that "I Kept on Loving You" could have been a hit single.
 
Without A Song said:
If you do an Internet search for When I Take My Sugar To Tea Richard Carpenter you should see a link to the Facebook page Close to the Carpenters and you can hear Richard's take on this classic song there.
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Richard did a short version of the song as a duet with Frank Pooler at the "Tribute to Karen Carpenter" in Long Beach in 1983. It was part of a medley of older songs that they sang together.
 
DowneyDiSampson said:
No. Richard had perfect pitch according to fan club newsletters.
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I usually source things and I didn't this time. My bad. I'm sure this is addressed somewhere in the Newsletter I just don't remember reading it. Which newsletter is it in? I would love to check it out because this was also addressed in the richardandkarencarpenter.com fan website under archive of the fans ask section and Richard gave a different answer that time.

Fans ask:

"What college courses did Karen and Richard take?"

Richard answers:

“Karen and I took all the usual pre-reqs, and as music majors, had to select an instrument, as well as take the required music courses. Obviously, I went for a piano major. What one would do the first semester, no matter how well or poorly he or she played, was perform a “closed recital” for 1, 2 or 3 of the faculty, and if they deemed you worthy, you got to play for your peers at the next recital (“open recital”, one each semester). I got “open recital”, which I was certain I would; however it’s a double-edged thing, because most of us got nervous playing for our peers. “Karen was a vocal major of course, but the trouble with that was she was a “pop” singer, and they (faculty) didn’t want to know from that. They had her singing using her “head voice”, not the “money voice” – the instantly identifiable chest voice of hers, because it didn’t work for the traditional classical repertoire required. They had her singing things she really wasn’t born to sing. “As a music major one was required to take Harmony I and Harmony II (Music Theory)

earning correct 4-part voicing and how to diagram a selection. Another course was, to me, a misnomer, Musicianship. It really was ear training. I’m a firm believer that there is no such thing as “ear training”; you’re either born with it or not. You can’t teach someone to sing in tune, or write a memorable melody. People can be born with perfect pitch and not be musical at all. As long as they know a C or A for example, a car horn will sound and they will know what note it is. I do not, nor did Karen, have perfect pitch. We have relative perfect and sang perfectly in tune. Once it was established what the first note was, we could tell what any note was after that. The teacher would play little motifs, or “melodies”, and we were supposed to write them down. It was really simple stuff (if you could do it!).

I can play almost anything by ear; no bragga docio,it's something I was born with. One had to take one semester of that, and take Counterpoint and Music History, and, if you weren’t a piano major, four semesters of piano. A music major had to be a member of a performing group; there were two of each, two instrumental, two choral, and one of them in each was the better of the two. You had to have some 'chops', relatively speaking, to be accepted in the better ensembles.”
 
I like his voice on most of the songs he takes lead on. His background harmonies are second to none. I’m not keen on many of his vocals on TTR, for some reason his voice has more bass and the slight lisp (which they both had) is much more prominent. Basically, his voice is generally better recorded on later albums. No doubt he also grew a singer, which you would working with the greatest ever!
 
I think he has (had) a nice voice. Especially as a background mix with a female singer. Like the Carpenters, maybe? 🙃
 
I agree his voice had a nice tone. I remember reading somewhere that Richard didn’t want to be the lead singer of the group because his voice wasn’t “commercial” enough - not that it was bad, just that it wasn’t the type of voice you might hear on a number one hit.
 
The only thing that I ever heard Richard sing by himself - without multitracking or special effects such as reverb or echoing - that sounded at all decent was on the Perry Como Christmas Special when he sang part of Perry's big hit "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" - he sounded relatively strong & clear & lisp-free...how did he manage this there? Maybe it was exactly that lack of all those so-called technical "enhancements" I mentioned above, which left his voice sounding surprisingly human.
 
Whenever the subject of Richard's voice comes up, I can't help but think of songs he reportedly was going to sing lead vocals on in the album that was to follow "Made In America" according to the duo's fan club newsletter. Does anyone here know what those songs were going to be and if they were recorded?
 
newvillefan said:
the EPI


Thanks! Never heard that before. It sounds like a live performance to me rather than a studio outtake.

Click to expand...


I'm just hearing this now. Yikes! His pitch is all over the place here. He also didn't have the character to pull this off at all. I'd suppress this at all costs if I were him. No wonder it's remain hidden all these years.

Ed
 
Vinylalbumcovers said:
I'm just hearing this now. Yikes! His pitch is all over the place here. He also didn't have the character to pull this off at all. I'd suppress this at all costs if I were him. No wonder it's remain hidden all these years.
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From what I remember it’s a live performance rather than a studio outtake, so I don’t think it’s all that bad. He’s just not cut out for jazz standards like this, the way Karen was. He hits the low notes but his voice really doesn’t sound that appealing vocally.
 
newvillefan said:
From what I remember it’s a live performance rather than a studio outtake, so I don’t think it’s all that bad. He’s just not cut out for jazz standards like this, the way Karen was. He hits the low notes but his voice really doesn’t sound that appealing vocally.
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He's not cut out for lead singing. I know I'm being repetitive but for the life of me, I'll never understand why people are concerned with Richard singing. Karen is the greatest female Pop singer we've ever known who has influenced countless female singers that have come after her. She is the entire calling card for Carpenters. Nothing works without her. Yet, here we are talking about Richard singing. That's just odd to me.

Ed
 
I listened to my Karen Carpenter Christmas album today with my morning coffee and was pleased with Richard popping in at moments here and there. And thought they were quite nice. It's a team effort but I wanted to see how it would work with Karen's songs carved out for a traditional solo Christmas album. I'm quite pleased and wonder why he didn't do it.
 
I think Richard has very average talent when it comes to singing. But let's face it. People don't purchase music so that they can hear average singing. Karen had one of the best voices the music world had known and people are willing to shell out money to hear a voice of that quality.

Some say that Karen could sing the phone book and make it sound good. But with Richard, even if the song was very good and the arrangement was very good, his voice would still be adequate but not good.

I know this might sound insane, but my favorite vocal by Richard is him singing "Get Together" on Offering/Ticket To Ride, even though I prefer the version where Karen is singing that same song.
 
Harry said:
History is replete with average singers who managed big hit records. I'd rate Richard as above average. He's at least usually on the correct pitch.
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Two male singers with average voices who managed to make big hit records that immediately come to my mind are:

[1] Cat Stevens

[2] Tom Petty

The difference is that both were able to consistently write songs that fit their voices and yet these songs could still be very entertaining for the public to listen to. Neither Cat Stevens nor Tom Petty had the voice of Steve Perry (Journey) or Freddie Mercury (Queen). Yet they were able to use their average voices as one instrument among many in their music.

Somehow, I don't think that, if Richard had been an only child and had to develop a professional music career without the aid of an extremely talented singer like his sister Karen, Richard would have been able to develop the songwriting talent that would both fit his vocal abilities and make those records click with the public.

After all, Richard essentially wrote the music (but often not the lyrics) for about 2 to 4 songs per year. Some of these songs were hits and many were just album cuts. But all of the hits had the benefit of Karen's lead vocals.

Pete Townshend relied on Roger Daltrey's vocals on The Who records. Yet Townshend was able to score some hits as a solo artist too. Richard was never able to do that when Karen was alive nor after she passed away.

Postscript: I think I might listen to "Let My Love Open the Door" right now.
 
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