Reply from Richard Carpenter!!

[Craig Klose]

Dear great people on this site:

I am the guy who posted a question last week about my two slightly differnet versions of the Close to You album. Well, I posted the same question on the official Carpenters website and to my surprise it was put right under the nose of Mr. Carpenter himself who was kind enough to supply this response:

"Close To You albums: Which came first? The one with the silvery background, which was a very expensive process. All A&M albums at that time got the standard format, and then later, by the time we got to A Song For You, we got the lyrics and a special inner sleeve. The first, silvery background, would have run for the first million or so; after which all the other “Close To You” album covers were produced in a cheaper way, as A&M “cheapened” the artwork to keep the cost down, as with time the album price comes down. There is no number on the lower left corner of my album covers as you mention: R1 12516A. Then years later the album went from the mid-price to the “value-priced” production with the plain white inner sleeve."

I thought that was really exciting and wanted to share it with those of you who gave thoughtful responses to the question. I think its pretty amazing that Richard is willing to be involved so personally with his fans and is willing to answer questions about the minutia of his career. I was very impressed.

Thanks!
Craig

[YesterdayOnceMore]

Hey Craig, good for you that Richard responded. If something really catches his imagination, he is quick to respond to it. This must have been something he really enjoyed responding to. It was a great question.

Thanks for sharing your question and his response with us.
Tim

[Ming]

Thank you for sharing. It is great that Richard answered your questions.

Ming

[Rick Henry]

Hi Craig... Thank you for sharing your response from Richard. It's great that he answers questions like this.

As for the issue with the number R1 12516A, I'm still inclined to believe that it is a non U.S. release - maybe Canadian or someplace else. As none of the catalog numbers I have for U.S. releases and reissues of "Close To You" match this number.

Here are all the catalog numbers for "Close To You":

SP-4271 released in 1970 - original with the silvery background.
SP-4271 a reissue in 1973 dull grey background
QU-54271 quadraphonic release in 1973
SP-3184 reissue in 1980

Have you looked to see if the R1 12516A says anything like distributed In Canada or U.S.A? I'm very interested to find out more about this issue. Thanks

[ps11932]

It's great to hear about the response from Richard Carpenter! It sounds like some of you all have gotten to know him a little bit over the years. I have always thought that one of the signs of his genius was in having the wisdom, and stature of spirit, to know that he wasn't going to be the "star of the show" (like someone said in a recent post, "we all know why we are here"), and his occasional interaction with fans speaks well of him also. Thanks O.E.

[smoothie2]

:-[well, how great is that! Thanks for sharing Craig!

[BethMosior]

WOOOOOOOOW Craig that was very interesting, thanx for sharing the information, really very coooool and its great to have you here on this wonderful Carpenters site

[neverbeenalone]

Craig said:

Dear great people on this site:

I am the guy who posted a question last week about my two slightly differnet versions of the Close to You album. Well, I posted the same question on the official Carpenters website and to my surprise it was put right under the nose of Mr. Carpenter himself...

Richard is pretty good about that. In all actuality, Richard and Becky have a system. Sometimes she'll print stuff out and set it on his desk. However often times, and especially for the FANS ASK portion, what she actually does is decides which questions to give Richard first off, because many are not questions he'd be interested in answering. Once she's decided, then she dictates them onto a recorder. In the evenings, Richard listens back to everything, and records his voice answering all of the questions, occasionally laughing, or making subtle comments about the questions, or the person questioning. At which point, she copies that over to the website, or simply replies to a fan's email. -Chris

[YesterdayOnceMore]

Very interesting info, Chris. Becky is wonderful about getting the info to Rich in a relatively timely fashion. He's got her swamped right now, though. I had to laugh - heard from her today - she seemed a bit unnerved because she was so far behind with things. I know she'd hoped to catch up while the family was gone up East on Vacation, especially with the fans ask section, which she told me she was "woefully behind" on updating.... but apparently, that didn't happen like she'd hoped.

Becky is a hoot, and she's just delightful. She's a treasure, and Richard knows it.
Best,
Tim

[magiclamp]

Hi Craig,

A note of thanks for sharing the incredible response you received from Richard. How interesting it was to learn more about the process behind the art-work and how it pertains to each "lot" of albums released for a particular title.

MANY THANKS!

Sincerely,
magiclamp