Biography karen carpenter

Did she release any solo albums?

Carpenter released her first solo single 'Looking For Love' in , but only copies were made.

In , when Richard took a year off to treat his addiction, Karen wanted to make a solo album with producer Phil Ramone. Several sessions produced music that was quite different from the usual Carpenters output, focusing on disco and up-tempo tracks.

The album met with a negative reaction from Richard and A&M executives in early The album was then shelved altogether by A&M Records co-owner Herb Alpert, despite attempts by producer Quincy Jones to convince him to release it after a fresh remix.

A small section of the solo album was released in , when some of its tracks (remixed by Richard) were featured on the album Lovelines.

In , the complete album, titled simply Karen Carpenter, was finally released.

After a severe hearing loss, I gave music up. My violin sounded like a screeching cat and most singers came across worse. Except for Karen Carpenter. To my ear she sounded like I remembered her before the virus attacked my cochlear. 

Karen’s sound has a way to a listener’s heart. After my wife passed away, I listened to “I Won’t Last a Day Without You” and cried my eyes out. Later, I thought of the singer. Who was Karen Carpenter and why did she die at 32 years young?

That’s when I ordered Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter. The biography by Randy L. Schmidt is a well, researched bio of Karen’s life with a forward by Dionne Warwick, who nailed it when she wrote how Karen’s voice put a smile on her face.

Author Randy Schmidt conducted hundreds of interviews to report Karen’s life from her early childhood in New Haven, Connecticut to her high school days in Downey, California where she became an outstanding drummer for her high school band. Not until did Karen come into full voice. Prior to that “Her voice had lacked vibrato and any real depth or presence.”

Schmidt does an excellent job peeking into the Carpenter family’s skeletons coming up with reveling information that could explain Karen’s psychological problems that led to her anorexia nervosa condition and eventual death. 

I was surprised to learn that Richard Carpenter, Karen’s brother, had an addiction to Quaaludes that sidelined the duo for over a year. Karen took advantage of this time off by working on a solo album that wasn’t released until after her death. 

Little Blue Girl provides an intimate profile of one of the most popular singers of the 20 Century. Schmidt provides insight into the Carpenter’s string of top hits including “Close to You,” “We’ve Only Just Begun,” and “Superstar.” The final chapters chronicles Karen’s struggle with anorexia nervosa, providing autopsy details that made me think, Karen died from stupid.

Schmidt’s biography is heart breaki

American singer and drummer (–)

Musical artist

Karen Anne Carpenter (March 2, – February 4, ) was an American singer and drummer who formed half of the highly successful duo The Carpenters with her older brother Richard. With a distinctive three-octavecontralto range, she was praised by her peers for her vocal skills. Carpenter's work continues to attract praise, including appearing on Rolling Stone's list of the greatest singers of all time.

Carpenter was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and moved to Downey, California, in with her family. She began to study the drums in high school and joined the Long Beach State choir after graduating. After several years of touring and recording, the Carpenters were signed to A&M Records in , achieving enormous commercial and critical success throughout the s. Initially, Carpenter was the band's full-time drummer, but she gradually took the role of frontwoman as her drumming was reduced to a handful of live showcases or tracks on albums.

In , Carpenter started exhibiting symptoms of anorexia nervosa due to the severe pressures of fame and her complicated family dynamics. She was never able to recover and died at the age of 32 in from complications of the disease, which was little-known outside celebrity circles at the time; Carpenter's death sparked worldwide attention and research into eating disorders and body dysmorphia. Interest in her life and death has spawned numerous documentaries and films.

Early life

Karen Anne Carpenter was born on March 2, , at Grace New Haven Hospital (now called Yale New Haven Hospital) in New Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of Agnes Reuwer (March 5, – November 10, ) and Harold Bertram Carpenter (November 8, – October 15, ). Harold was born in Wuzhou, China, where his parents were missionaries. Before finding work

Karen Anne Carpenter (March 2, – February 4, ) was an American singer and drummer who was most popular in the 70s. She is known as the singer of the group the Carpenters.

Karen had anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder of extreme weight loss dieting. This was a little-known illness at the time. Although she had begun recovery with a doctor-supervised program and regained 30&#;lbs (14&#;kg), permanent damage to her body had been sustained from the years of extreme weight-loss dieting and she died at the age of The cause of her death was heart failure, from complications related to her illness which caused her to believe mistakenly that she needed to lose weight.

Early life

Karen Carpenter was born at Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut on March 2, to Agnes Reuwer Tatum and Harold Bertram Carpenter. She played baseball a lot, and said that she liked being the pitcher. She had a brother, named Richard Carpenter. While Karen played baseball with her friends, Richard usually played the piano. Her parents, Agnes and Harold Carpenter, decided that they wanted to move to Downey, California, a city near Hollywood. They moved in

In Downey, Karen attended Downey High School. She was a good student, but did not like gym. In order to get out of gym, she asked to be in the marching band instead. When she got into the marching band, the director gave her the glockenspiel, an instrument that sounds somewhat like a xylophone. Karen did not like the glockensp