Karen Carpenter Goes to the Oscars and Then to Church

This wasn't exactly Ryan Lott and David Byrne of the film RRR and the smash dance number "Naattu Naatu" fame singing the Carpenters iconic Top of the World. No matter. The Richard Carpenter / John Bettis number sounded pretty good even if the singer M.M. Keeravani wasn't pitch perfect, but his heart was clearly in the right place!  The words were changed to adapt to the Oscars. A nice tribute to be sure. Richard Carpenter's video response to him was classy and so was Keervani's "back at ya" love. A great series of events for fans of the duo.

This was on the other end of the spectrum. I was early for church and got to hear a bit of the band warm up. The young female singer hit some wonderfully low notes, and the guitar player commented, "There's a bit of Karen Carpenter that just came out." The sound team (who was a bit older than this very talented 15 year old) began to agree. 

The singer looked perplexed. Of course, I jumped in. "Do you not know her?" She shook her head. "She had the best female contralto in the history of recorded music. You probably know some of her songs without realizing it."

About a half an hour later, she walked past me. I called her over and played Rainy Days and Mondays. Fans know it could have been one of many. I decided against Superstar as this was church and she was a young teen girl. "She's really good! I'm honored at the comparison." And then I told her she and her brother sold over 100 million records in the 1970s and to ask her grandparents about them. 

My bet is she went home and looked her up. What a treasure trove waiting to be discovered.