October 18, 2013

Karen Carpenter Solo Album in Living Color


Like a lot of us that frequent the site, A&M Corner's gifted artist Chris Tassin had been following the discussions on Karen Carpenter's solo album for a few years now. As most Carpenters fans know, the final artwork on her album was not the one originally planned. This concept above is much closer to the final but discarded version I saw back in 1989. When the executives at A&M Records decided to halt the release of the disc, it wasn't until after Karen's death that the public got to hear- or see- it. This image is as close as it gets. Too bad the artists putting together their image had little idea how to visually market she and Richard Carpenter. Opportunity wasted- and now Karen only looks like this in our memory. To quote Paul Simon and one of the songs Karen recorded for the venture- "Still Crazy After All These Years"!

(Photograph copyright A&M Records. Artistic colorizing by Chris Tassin.)

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