| Name |
Karen Carpenter |
| Height |
|
| Naionality |
American |
| Date of Birth |
2-March-1950 |
| Place of Birth |
New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Famous for |
Acting |
Karen Carpenter was an American actress, singer and drummer. She and her brother, Richard, formed the 1970s duo Carpenters, commonly called The Carpenters. She had a contralto vocal range, and her skills as a drummer earned admiration from her peers, although she is best known for her vocal performances of romantic ballads. Karen suffered from anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder of extreme weight loss dieting, which was little known at the time. She died at age 32 from heart failure caused by complications related to her illness, which caused her to mistakenly believe that she needed to lose weight. Karen's death led to increased visibility and awareness of eating disorders.
From 1965 to 1968, Karen, her brother Richard, and his college friend Wes Jacobs, a bassist and tuba player, formed The Richard Carpenter Trio. The band played jazz at numerous nightclubs and also appeared on the TV talent show Your All-American College Show. Karen, Richard and other musicians, including Gary Sims and John Bettis, also performed as an ensemble known as Spectrum. Spectrum focused on a harmonious and vocal sound, and recorded many demo tapes in the garage studio of friend and bassist Joe Osborn. Many of those tapes were rejected. According to former Carpenters member John Bettis, those rejections "took their toll." The tapes of the original sessions were lost in a fire at Joe Osborn's house, and the surviving versions of those early songs exist as acetate pressings. Finally, in April 1969, A&M Records signed the Carpenters to a recording contract. Karen Carpenter sang most of the songs on the band's first album, Offering. The issued single, which was a cover of a Beatles song, became their first single; it reached #54 on the Billboard Hot 100. Their next album, 1970's Close to You, featured two massive hit singles: “Close to You” and “We've Only Just Begun”.
