Birthday Salute to Richard Carpenter, A Musical Genius

The musical genius Richard Carpenter was born today back in 1946. With his beloved sister Karen, the Carpenters duo made a sound never duplicated before or since. Richard was not only a vocalist, and arranger and producers he was also a pretty talented songwriter. When Karen Carpenter sang these songs penned by Richard and songwriting partner John Bettis, the results were nothing but magic: Goodbye to Love, Yesterday Once More, I Need to Be in Love, Top of the World, Only Yesterday, and Those Good Old Dreams- among many others. Thanks, Richard, for bringing such great music to the world. Happy Birthday!

Dreams and the Dreamweaver

Ah, the power of dreams! We've been singing about them for decades, and there's something about these nighttime sleeping visions that draw us in. Dreamweaver by Gary Wright might be one of the most known but Dreams by Fleetwood Mac has to be up there neck and neck.

As a fan of the Carpenters, Richard and Karen Carpenter created a couple of songs that are quite beloved: Those Good Old Dreams from the album Made in America, and then the heart wrenching Look to Your Dreams, the closing cut from Voice of the Heart, the first album released after Karen's untimely death.

The biggest dreamweaver is God himself! Just look at these two verses that were given to me during a dream I had in February of this year. It was just weeks before a significant change in my life. Wow, He is good- all the time!

Carpenters Country

Every since the country chart success of Sweet, Sweet Smile from their ambitious 1977 album, Passage, Karen and Richard Carpenter  were asked if they'd ever consider creating an entire disc of country tunes. 

One of the most clever ads the A&M Records 

promotions team devised for Karen and Richard.

This photo might fit for a future country compilation.

With Karen's warm voice, this was a fairly natural direction for the duo to take every once in awhile. Going all the way back to 1970, the Carpenters included country tinged selections in several of their albums, starting with their breakthrough album, Close to You. 

In chronological order, here's a look at the Country Collection that never was:

Reason To Believe 

Top Of The World

Jambalaya

End of the World

Desperado

I'm Caught Between Goodbye and I Love You

One More Time

Sweet Sweet Smile

Two Sides

Those Good Old Dreams

When It's Gone

Two Lives 

The Uninvited Guest 

Thanks to Warren at the A&M Corner discussion boards, we get these shots of a four song promotional disc entitled Country Collection. Issued while their country hit was climbing the charts, its gave jockeys a chance to look backward and play some other selections for their listeners. Was this prepping a new audience for the music of Karen and Richard? Like many things, this is one aspect to their "What coulda been" that we fans will never know.