Carpenters

CARPENTERS. American brother and sister vocal duo (Richard & Karen Carpenter) whose distinctive soft style made them the No1 selling American music act of the 1970s with over 100 million records sold. Their classic hit singles include ; Close To You / Weve Only Just Begun / Rainy Days & Mondays / Superstar / Goodbye To Love / Yesterday Once More / Top Of The World / Please Mr Postman and Only Yesterday. Richard was the groups main song-writer / musical director and Karen the drummer whose skills earned her the admiration of many of her music peers. She is however best remembered for her truly outstanding tone and vocal style on the groups many romantic ballads. She suffered from anorexia nervosa, an extreme dieting illness ; about which very little was known during the 1970s. She died aged just 32 in 1983 from heart-failure, caused by complications relating to her illness, which caused her to mistakenly mentally believe that she needed to lose weight. Her sad and high profile death at the time, led to much increased visibility and public awareness concerning eating disorders in later years ...... .