carpenters commercial peak

[karlbrade]

HI rick/carpenter fans

What year would you say when the carpenters were at their most succesful?,id guess it might be 1973 as in this year they had achieved 3 gold singles and 2 gold albums and had big international success,althoug 1971 was also a good year for them as well.
what do the other members think?.

karl.
uk

[Christian]

As far as record sales are concerned, 1973 was definately their commercial peak. Now&Then was a hit in several countries/ regions where they had not chartered that well previous to this album. An example of this is Denmark. The Singles 69-73 hit the world even harder than Now&Then and has since become a "household" record in most parts of the world.
What an amazing achievement having those 2 big sellers in one year, and that`s not even counting the singles that came with the albums. Yesterday Once More and Top Of The World were huge all over the world.
I think 1974 is not lagging far behind 1973. They were in such great demand that they didn`t even have time to record an album. Add Postman to the year, a song that hit even harder that Yesterday Once More and Top Of The World and you have another great year. If they had released a new album this year it would have been a mega success, topped only by The Singles 69-73.

So to conclude I would say the years 73 and 74 were the Carpenters at their commercial peak, even though 74 didn`t have a new album. The Singles 69-73 kept them on the charts that year, as well as some huge sell out tours. So I don`t think 74 was much behind 73 in commercial success.

[Rick Henry]

Hi Karl! Excellent topic!

I would have to say it was 1974 into the early mid part of 1975.

"Singles 1969-1973" wasn't released until close to the end of 1973. 69-73 caught on like wildfire in 1974 - it was U.S. #1 album in the first week of 1974. They also had three good sized hit singles in 1974, "Jambalaya", "I Won't Last A Day Without You", and "Please Mr. Postman". "Jambalaya" was a huge hit everywhere, except the U.S. - because it wasn't released as a single. "Postman" (which was #1 in 1975) was the Carpenters' biggest selling single worldwide. Going into 1975, "69-73" continued to sell and chart extremely well. "Horizon" was released and though it didn't make the U.S. top ten it was a huge seller in many parts of the world including Australia, Japan, England, Mexico, Canada, and so forth. Eventhough the album reached U.S. #13 it still was certified Gold in '75. "Only Yesterday" was also a huge hit worldwide. After that Carpenters sales did taper off.

I'd say 1974-75 was the Carpenters' commercial peak - if you're talking worldwide. If you're talking U.S. then it's 1973-74.

1971 was a good year for Carpenters - though worldwide 1972 was a much bigger year.

[YesterdayOnceMore]

;D ;D

Yes, Karl - great topic. Glad you have all that information Rick. I appreciate you sharing it with us. Just goes to prove, reading all these posts, that Carpenters had a nice long stretch of time when they were doing quite well.

I believe they were coming back into the scene, too, and would have done well for another long stretch, though in what genre, we'll never know.

;D ;D

[Dave]

From what I remember, I'd have to say 1972 for many reasons, but the most basic one was that their earlier hits were still in rotation (they didn't call it that way back then) while they were releasing songs like "Goodbye To Love". "We've Only Just Begun" was being played at EVERY wedding, and every May and June would make it back into heavy rotation. That phenomenon didn't really start to tail off until 1975 or so.

[Rick Henry]

dave said:

From what I remember, I'd have to say 1972 for many reasons, but the most basic one was that their earlier hits were still in rotation (they didn't call it that way back then) while they were releasing songs like "Goodbye To Love". "We've Only Just Begun" was being played at EVERY wedding, and every May and June would make it back into heavy rotation. That phenomenon didn't really start to tail off until 1975 or so.

True, although as far as sales go their biggest sales happened between 1973 to 1975. As for airplay Carpenters' back catalog was still getting major airplay in 1974 -75 as well as their current hits of that period. The major success of "Singles 1969-1973" (which happened throughout the entire year of 1974 and spilled over into 1975) caused an increase of radio play of their classic hits throughout the world.

[Carps1000]

In the UK 73 saw the Cs storm to the formost of bestselling acts....Now & Then at No2 & Y O M & T O T W at 2 & 5 in the singles charts ( Not to geather I add) 74 Had Jambalya Wont Last A Day at 12 & 32 & Singles 69-73 at No 1 where it stayed there for 11 weeks at one point out of its 17 weeks No1 total & knocking off big names on at least 3 - 5 occassions.off the top spot ..forgot to add the 1st 2 weeks of 74 T O T W was still in the top 50 singles charts. 75 Had Postman Only Yest Solitaire & Santa Claus as singles at 2 7 32 37 throughout the year & Horizon went down as being in Guinness book of records for advance orders for an album, At one time Horizon was at 1 & the Singles 69 -73 was at no 13. The Ticket to ride LP I think was rereleased then on Cheapo label & made No 20 or 23 or 35 for about 3 weeks!!! O M G I have forgot!!!!!! Shreik scream Oh forgive me Karen. Its me age. It was 35. 76 Hush went to No 3 & quickly dropped out after 15 weeks & Live made top 30 & the 2 singles Hush & Need 2 b I Love 22 & 36 so they were tagging off in the UK slightly but look at 1990!!! T H R E E LPs In album chart at 24 42 73 & 1 Single at 25 & later on the 4th best selling LP of that year O Yest No1 for 7 weeks. Even tho their singles didnt fare as well in UK as USA their albums seem to do better here. Ken carps1000

[Rick Henry]

I think here in the U.S. we tend to forget just what a super big time period 1974-75 was for the Carpenters worldwide. I remember hearing somewhere that Carpenters were the biggest selling musical act in the world in 1974. Another accomplishment to add to 1974 was their record breaking sold out world tour. They sold out more conseutive shows than anybody else up to that point.