Made in America

She genuinely liked recording with Richard, and the two of them could still be extremely happy working together.

By June 1980, they were back in Studio D, beginning what became Made in America, a record Richard later remembered both of them feeling good about.

The album took more than a year to finish, considerably longer than their earlier records, but it produced their strongest pop single in years "Touch Me When We're Dancing" reached number sixteen, and A&M celebrated the siblings' return with a party at the Bel-Air Hotel attended by more than two hundred guests.

Herb Alpert presented Karen and Richard with matching displays representing their eleven A&M albums and announced that Carpenter's record sales had passed seventy-nine million units.

Yet the final song on Made in America was "Because We Are in Love," written for Karen's wedding.

By the time the album arrived in stores, that marriage was already unraveling.

Friends later said Burris had presented himself as a wealthy businessman, complete with expensive cars, boats, and the appearance of a lavish lifestyle.

Evelyn Wallace remembered him boasting about owning several boats, then increasingly asking Karen for large sums of money after they married.