A Carpenters song came on the radio yesterday (Superstar) and I was taken aback by Karen’s voice. To me she had a very unique style and no matter what she sang it seemed to project a touch of sadness. Am I imagining things because of the tragic circumstances of her death or did her voice possess some uncommon features, when you hear her only for a few moments there is no doubt that it is Karen. Thoughts.
I think some of it is impacted by the storyline, yes.
However, Karen Carpenter had an unusually deep voice for a woman and she used it to portray a certain wistfulness more often than not. It suited her range and timbre and gave some extra emotional pop to the song that might otherwise have been missing from what were, in the end, fairly straightforward and light pop songs.
So, in short, yes she had a unique voice.
When Karen sang in her contralto range, it was indeed unique and very clearly hers. Richard arranged almost everything to fit into that lower range. I was disappointed in her solo album (not arranged by Richard Carpenter) where she sang in her upper range because it lost that distinct, pure, “Karen Carpenter” quality and nearly sounded like most other pop artists out there at the time.
I liked the Carpenters a lot in the seventies but it wasn’t until perhaps a decade ago that I truly began to appreciate the true beauty of Karen’s voice in Richard’s arrangements. I’m saddened by her death nearly every day, because that’s how often I still listen to Carpenter’s music.
I think that touch of sadness was what made her singing so effective and moving. Her death, like the loss of Julie Andrews’ voice, are two of the many great tragedies in the world of female vocalists. Back in the day, I loved her music, but never followed what was going on in her personal life (ah, for those blissful, papparazzi-free days!) so I had no idea if she had a happy love life, and was so stunned by her death. Anorexia wasn’t in the forefront like it is now, and I truly never noticed how thin she had become. But her voice…ah, that was gloroius.
You can find tons of Carpenters videos on YouTube, including some concerts (in six or seven parts) that have either never been aired in the United States or haven’t been aired since the seventies. In some of them she is frighteningly thin, yet there was one (and I’ll look for it this morning) where she actually had a little bit of meat on her and looked curvaceous and healthy.
Many of their “live” performances on television were lip-synched to the stuido recording and this was how Richard purportedly preferred to do it. Yet if you search YouTube enough you can find true gems of them performing live without lip-synching – and I consider myself even luckier to find the clips where Karen plays the drums. They did a jazz medley at a concert in Budokan and Karen sat in on drums. Her enjoyment and enthusiasm were fun to watch.
Here’s the link to that part of the concert: Live at Budokan Pt. 2. (Still looking for the one where she had a healthy weight.)
Whoops, it was Part 3 and they did a jazzy rendition of “Mr. Guder.”
Here’s the video of Karen with curvy hips and a cute little pot belly.
She had one of the clearest voices I can recall.
“Superstar” was probably their best song. She really did have a low voice for a woman. I think they tried for very sonically clean records, from the arranging of the parts to recording and mixing. Each part was distinct, and that allowed her voice to come through, gave her room to really show what she could do.
I saw a documentary about them on TV one night. Richard said, “The thing people forget about Karen is that she was a damn fine drummer.” Early on, she was singing from the drum kit but later they decided to put her out front and have someone else do the drumming.
I agree with all this - I love her voice. I remember an interview with Richard where he commented on her solo album, how she was trying to forge a new path (e.g., the songs were a bit sexier) but as a result she didn’t stay in her best range…
Paul Williams once said, “People used to sneer at the Carpenters for being ‘too vanilla’. But what an exquisite flavor vanilla can be.”
She had an amazing voice, deep and with an undertone of melancholy. If you were a white male suburban kid, that voice punched all of your buttons.
Spot on with that sentiment. Back in the 70’s, I was crazy in love with Karen’s voice, and she definitely was pleasing to the eye, too. I didn’t think of her in a romantic way, she was more like the big sis I wished I had, someone to just hang with and have fun. But oh, that voice! She was a genuine star, and I don’t think her talent was either embellished or diminished by her death.
she had in her voice, what they call in country music, a touch of tears.
patsy cline was another singer with that touch in her voice. it is a stand out quality.
I am glad so many have observed the same qualities of her unusual voice, I think The Carpenters have been unfairly derided. Who could listen to “Goodbye to Love” without tears welling up?
The Carpenters were a great band (duo,whatever) - Karen was blessed with a wonderful and haunting voice and they had many memorable songs. I don’t think there is much derision these days for them though, they did what they did better than pretty much anyone else and that is to be respected. Hell, even Sonic Youth did a Carpenters cover. Abba are in the same category, I think. Writing great pop songs is hard.
Earlier threads on Karen Carpenter, or the Carpenters:
And Karen Carpenter is almost always mentioned in threads about people’s favorite singers, or the best voices ever, or celebrity deaths most regretted.
I always liked Karen’s voice, without really knowing why. I hadn’t known about her drumming until I saw Carpenters Very First Television Special in 1976, which included a segment of her playing one of the largest drum sets I’d ever seen. And I found this on youTube:
Karen Carpenter was like Doris Day: an astonishingly, supernaturally beautiful voice . . . but absolutely no musical taste. A tragedy sprinkled with a few gems, like “Close to You” and “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.”
But to be fair, she died at the very young age of 32. She was barely an adult when the Carpenters were the most popular; Richard was at the helm of their career vehicle and making most of their decisions. I’d say that at the time of her death, she was at a juncture to get on with the next part of her life. She was regaining her health, moving past a failed marriage, and at age 32 could easily have another twenty years of prime vocal range ahead of her. I can’t say whether or not she had musical taste (although I have no reason to say she didn’t) but I can say that if she’d lived, we might have seen some incredible things from her.
Well, there’s always a far higher percentage, at any given time, of artists with a lot of talent than artists with a lot of taste. Karen Carpenter was the Celine Dion, or Cristina Aguilera of her day: all talent, no taste. I highly doubt (personally, of course) that she’d have undergone some kind of drastic change that would suddenly make her an artist, rather than the supreme *craftsperson *she already was. It’s a possibility of course, but frankly, again, I doubt it. (I heard her posthumously released album, where she tried to force a little blues flavor into her voice. Unfortunately, what it ended up sounding like was, well, like Karen Carpenter trying to force a little blues flavor into her voice.)
I sure can’t disagree with that. However, I still believe that Karen could have found her niche if given the opportunity (like, more life) and someone to help direct her. I think I read recently that she’d had no formal voice training. With coaching and direction, it’s quite possible that she could have taken off on a different path, especially considering the major changes her life had recently undergone. Of course, it’s really mental masturbation to even go there because we have no way of knowing what might have been.
It all comes down to taste, I guess. I’m quite satisfied with the recordings she left us with – even if I would have liked much, much more. Maybe I’m just a lowbrow (okay, there’s no maybe about it) but I like the way listening to the Carpenters makes me feel, which is why they’re heavy on my iPod main playlist.
Ditto on the extraordinary voice. There were actually a lot of very good female soloists of that era (Cass Elliot comes to mind) but Karen Carpenter was the best balladeer.