Karen Carpenter

The 4th February marks the 30th anniversary of the death of singer Karen Carpenter. While at the time, her passing barely registered with the young Metal fan I was then, I've since come to appreciate her immense talent, even if her music was and still is not really my thing.

The Carpenters, a musical duo comprising of brother and sister Karen and Richard, were a huge act throughout the 1970s. Richard was the musical genius who produced and arranged their records, as well as playing piano and other keyboard instruments, while Karen was the singer and originally, also the drummer. She was an accomplished percussionist and actually considered herself a drummer first, then singer. However, once the public heard her singing voice, they immediately fell in love with it, and soon there were calls to have her  come out from behind the kit so that people could see her better on stage. She was very reluctant to do so, and was only persuaded to by her brother and her management.

The duo enjoyed a long run of hit singles and albums both in their native US and internationally, with their songs becoming daytime radio staples. However the success was taking its toll, with Richard becoming dependent on Quaaludes and Karen becoming noticeably thinner. Her condition, anorexia nervosa, was not widely known about at the time and it wasn't until her passing that awareness of the condition was raised.

The Carpenters achieved a great deal in their career, and one thing they have been credited for inventing is the power ballad. 'Goodbye to Love', a track from their 'A Song For You' album was released in 1972 and, unusually for the duo, it featured an electric guitar solo - two, in fact. The guitarist on the song, Tony Peluso, took a call from Karen Carpenter asking him to play on their record and he at first refused to believe it was her. The resulting song was a hit, but drew some criticism from fans who thought that the duo had turned away from their trademark sound, just because of that solo. In fact some radio stations refused to play the track because of it! Nonetheless, the track became a template and every power ballad you hear today owes something to 'Goodbye To Love'.

To mark 30 years since Karen Carpenter's passing, here is that song, set to a montage of clips: