Customer Reviews

1969-1981 Singles

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

How many times is Richard Carpenter going to muck with the original masters to "spruce" these songs up? I wanted the original version of the songs on this CD, not poor redos! From a collector's standpoint this is a waste of money because songs like "It's Going To Take Some Time", "Goodbye to Love", "Superstar", and "Yesterday Once More" were redone and can be found on other numerous Carpenters collections. "It's Going To Take Some Time" here has a "staccato" choppy sound to me, and a different piano to boot. "Goodbye to Love" is also redone using different instruments, and "Yesterday Once More" suffers from the same. The CD should be titled "The Singles 1969-1981 Redone". True some songs are original or at least seem like it, such as "For All We Know" with a reprise at the end, "Bless The Beasts and The Children", and a few others. But really, if we're going to get "the singles", why can't we have the original single version of "Top Of The World" without the twangy steel guitars? My 45 doesn't sound that way! Message to Richard Carpenter: Go back to the original masters, if you even know which ones they are, give us those original versions, and then please, please stay out of the recording studio.

This is a great Carpenters greatest hits CD. All of the essential songs on here. This is a perfect CD for any new Carpenters fans to start off with. All of the songs are perfect and sound flawless. Karen & Richard are the best!

I love this cd so much, it just makes me feel warm inside. Karens voice had the ability to penetrate your heart like nobosy else...This is the best collection for casual fans like me who are just now discovering Karens music!

it really is a shame so many original Carpenters fans don't like this cd. Sadly, I was born in the mid-eighties, so I only learned about this music after Karens untimely death. Since I don't know what these songs sounded like in vinal, I was very happy with this compilation!! It's much more accessable that the 4-disk Essentials collection, so this is pretty much THE Caprenters cd for a casual fan like myself. I actually ended up choosing this cd other other Carpenters cds because I think this cd cover is too adorable, and I love looking at it =) Karens voice will never be matched!!

Karen and Richard Carpenter were very good at a certain style of music. Every song I have heard Karen Carpenter sing has been enhanced by her beautiful, mellow, clear voice. This CD collects most of the Carpenters most popular music from their 13 years of creating a style that was seminal in the definition of adult contemporary music.

What is amazing about this music is that is sounds as contemporary today as it did when it was originally released. While many people may attempt to apply "timeless" to the music of various artists, thus far the Carpenters' music is timeless, and I think it will continue to be timeless in the adult contemporary genre for some time to come.

While Karen and Richard's music was mellow and mainstream, the art, technology and effort put into the music pushed music to several limits. Karen tried very hard to create the most perfect music possible. When you listen to many female vocalists you hear when they take a breath. Karen did her best to turn her head from the microphone when she took a breath so you didn't hear the breath. Karen and Richard pushed multi-track vocals to the limit of technology, recording track after track of Karen's voice, and then combining tracks to create the gorgeous harmonies that are typical of the Carpenter's music.

The focus on perfection and technique could easily become the focus of the music, allowing the art to become lost. The Carpenter's always kept art as an important part of their music. Karen had an incredible vocal talent to sing as though she was singing to each and every listener. Her voice was able to communicate emotion in a way that few other vocalists have been able to achieve.

This CD is perfect for both casual and serious fans of the Carpenters, for anyone who appreciates mellow music, and for those who consider adult contemporary to be their favorite type of music. I warn the focused listener that this music can become an emotional experience. Turn up the stereo on "Superstar," turn out the lights, lay back in a comfortable overstuffed chair, and feel the emotions evoked by the song; Karen Carpenter sang to strum the chords of your soul.

This is THE place for your first or only "Carpenters" disc. Pretty much replacing the two previous singles collections, this one has songs from 1969-1981. Included is "We've Only Just Begun", "Rainy Days And Mondays", "Goodbye To Love", and "(They Long To Be) Close To You". Of course all these songs are wonderful. "The Carpenters" are one of those groups that everyone likes, whether they admit it or not. They do have numerous collections out, but for the casual fan, this 21 track disc should make you feel like you're on "Top Of The World". Some might also like the 1994 tribute album "If I Were A Carpenter".

For the four year period from 1970-1973, The Carpenters were practically a fixture in the Billboard Top Ten. During that time, The Carpenters had 3 number one songs, reached number two five more times and amassed a total of 10 Top Ten hits!!!
They remained somewhat popular throughout the 1970's but began to fade dramatically during the early '80's. This collection of their hits, released in 2000, is the most complete collection of their work assembled to date. All of the big hits are here including "Close To You" "Rainy Days and Mondays" and "Top of the World". Although I bought almost all of their singles, I was partial to some of their less popular tunes including the haunting "Goodbye To Love" and most especially "I Need To Be In Love". Karen's vocals on these two were to say the least impressive. I was a bit disappointed that the Neil Sedaka penned tune "Solitaire" featuring another stellar vocal performance by Karen was not included here. The fact that the lightweight "There's A Kind of Hush" was omitted should not be a cause for consternation by anyone. I would agree with another reviewer that a few of the tunes seem to have lost something in the remastering. But overall, the price is right and compared to other discs currently on the market, this is the one you want if you are looking for their "Greatest Hits".

Karen Carpenter's voice is still as rich and distinctive as you remember. Some of the arrangements are a little hokey but that voice is wonderful and the memories are fun.

Shame on the Carpenters fan who doesn't have this jewel of a compilation in his collection. To the non-fan, if you never buy another disc, this one is a must-have. Perhaps the most comprehensive compilation of bona fide classics and megahits, this 21-song production takes us from the earliest of the brother-sister duo's first hit to their last to make the charts in a reltively brief but spectacular career. They're all here: "For All We Know," the signature "We've Only Just Begun," "Rainy Days and Mondays," "Top of the World," "Only Yesterday" and "Mr. Postman," et al. In the late '60s and through the mid-'70s, when Richard and Karen dominated the charts, the talk was that anyone into their brand of music was, like the pair, out of touch with reality because it didn't reflect the civil unrest ignited first by the Vietnam War and, later, by the Nixon administration's Watergate scandal. While few supposedly admitted to buying their music, though, the Carpenters were among the best-selling artists of their day, and little wonder. It is quite likely that the late Karen Carpenter remains among the best (if not the best) singer ever with a voice that harmonized the feeling of whatever song she sang. And brother Richard's musical arrangements, unique and noticed because they didn't follow the formula of the day, matched perfectly the emotional intent of whatever the song. Together, Karen and Richard wrote a significant chapter in the history of popular music, and their incredible talent is unarguably one of the reasons they remain a top-seller, even more than 20 years after Ms. Carpenter's truly tragic death. A songbird went to Heaven that day, but the harmonies were recorded for the rest of us to savor forever. Anyone who adds this to their music library definitely will not be disappointed.

i have been a carpenter fan for quite a few years. i did not know who they were growing up. i was born in 1972. i have heard of all the carpenters albums ever since my intoduction to them. i know that richard has remixed the songs presented here. it is good to know that all the origianl catalog albums have been remastered and available to the public. knowing that, i feel that it is good to hear the orig versions as well as a new freash approach to there songs. dont get me wrong i will never tire hearing there songs. i just think it is a special way to perhaps introduce new generations to their music. i have this album as well as the others and i love it!!!