When you first heard the Carpenters...

This is my recollection as well; Karen was seen by many fellow teen boys as too "innocent" and "wholesome" to be seen as a "hottie". And as we know, sexualizing Karen wouldn't have fit with the image they were horseshoed into (though I am going to speculate that Karen wouldn't have wanted that, anyway).
I was attracted to the innocent/wholesome girl when I was 13 and am still attracted to the same version of a woman 50 years later though the odds of finding one has become a little more difficult!
 
Hello, I'm a new member, though I have been reading this blog/forum for years. It is a wonderful place to get information on a musical act that we all love. I have always been very interested in how people became fans of the Carpenters. I enjoy reading the banter that goes on between people on here, about Richard and Karen, and their personal opinions about what happened. Chicago and Carpenters were the first two music entities that I remember hearing. I was around 2 years old, but both bands have stuck with me. So, what was the first song that you heard from the Carpenters and what was your first reaction?
Nice to meet you!

The first song I heard was "Top Of The World" when my mom would listen to a bunch of songs during her free time. Funny you mentioned Chicago because if my Carpenters albums were placed with the rest of my music collection, it would be above Chicago!
 
Hi, new guy here. I first heard of them back in 2015 when I was watching a movie called "So close" (2002). You can guessby its name, "Close to you" was the main theme, though it's only a cover. It was so mesmerising that I gotto fire up Google looking for the song, and the rest is history. I soon learnt of Karen's ill fate and she earnt a special place in my heart. But it was "yesterday once more" and "ticket to ride" that made her my favourite female singer. It was such a pure, angelic voice that literaly touch my soul, and I can't help but listen to her all over again. Together with Richard's ingenious arrangements made them so beautiful, the fact that I consider their songs to be out of ordinary pop (Im more a rock person).
Earlier this year, I took a chance to listen to all of their songs, and I was like I found a big treasure, with "Rainy days and mondays "superstar" and "solitaire" became my favourite these days.
 
It was such a pure, angelic voice that literaly touch my soul, and I can't help but listen to her all over again. Together with Richard's ingenious arrangements made them so beautiful, the fact that I consider their songs to be out of ordinary pop (Im more a rock person).

Welcome, and it's nice to hear that even now, someone can hear Karen's voice and the magic Richard wraps around it, for the first time, and have that same emotional reaction I had decades ago. Some aspects of music are indeed timeless, and that's 100% true with Karen's voice.
 
I’d have to say I had heard them on the radio as a little kid growing up (specifically I recall in the early 70’s riding in a shopping cart in the A&P while shopping with my grandmother and TOTW was playing) but really became a huge fan around 1983, when the YOM album TV commercial was on about every channel all day long. Those snippets of songs got burned into my brain and I was desperate to hear them all in full! I realized my aunt had a copy of the Singles 69-73 album at her house and borrowed it and listened to it repeatedly. That did it. My first purchase was a cassette copy of ASFY. I became a huge fan at that instant. And as soon as I bought a copy of MIA (on cut out and on clearance somewhere in 84) and saw that address for the fan club, I joined and the rest for me is history.
 
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