Now & Then

For Karen, now 19, it was the opportunity she and Richard had spent years working towards.

Their debut album, Offering, appeared that autumn, featuring a melancholy reinterpretation of the Beatles' Ticket to Ride.

The single achieved modest chart success, and although the album itself attracted relatively little attention, it was enough to suggest that the siblings might finally be getting somewhere.

After years of false starts, rejection and disappointment, Karen and Richard were professional recording artists with a major label now behind them.

But neither of them could have anticipated what was about to happen.

She had become the voice of some of the most romantic songs ever recorded, yet the lasting love she sang about so convincingly continued to elude her.

By 1973, the Carpenters were at the height of their powers.

Their album Now and Then was another enormous success, and Yesterday Once More became one of their most beloved recordings.