The Carpenters: Episode 8 - Karen's Solo Album

Last time, Richard Carpenter's dependence on Quaaludes finally brought The Carpenters' machine to a halt, sending him to the Menninger Clinic and leaving Karen with something she had almost never possessed during her adult life, professional space without her brother.

She decided to use it.

But before Karen Carpenter could make a solo album, she needed Richard Carpenter to tell her that she could.

On April 30th 1979, the night before she was scheduled to leave for New York, Karen telephoned Richard at the Long Beach home where he was staying while recovering.

Flights had been booked, studio time arranged, and producer Phil Ramone was waiting for her in Manhattan.

Yet with everything ready to go, Karen broke down and told Richard she could not do it unless she knew he was behind her.

That was the contradiction at the center of Karen's independence.

She wanted badly to prove that she could make music on her own, but she did not want independence to mean rejection of Richard.

After nearly a decade working so closely that she later compared him to a third arm, simply walking away without his blessing felt almost impossible.

Richard reluctantly gave it.

Then he added one request.

Whatever she did, do not make disco.

The next morning, May 1st, Karen Carpenter boarded a plane for New York.

At one of her first production meetings, Phil Ramone asked the obvious question.

If she could make any kind of record she wanted, what did she wanna do? Karen immediately began talking about Donna Summer.

Summer's Hot Stuff was one of Karen's favorite records at the moment, and Karen told Ramone she would love to make something like it.

She also talked about Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, and the disco records filling clubs and radio stations.

Less than twenty-four hours after Richard had asked her not to make disco, Karen was sitting with her new producer explaining how much she loved it.

That did not mean Karen intended to become Donna Summer.

What interested her was movement, rhythm, and the possibility of sounding different from the records she had been making for ten years.

She had watched The Bee Gees completely reinvent themselves and talked admiringly about their ability to go wherever the music led them.

The timing could hardly have been more dramatic.

New York in 1979 was exploding with disco, funk, soul, and new wave, while records like Heart of Glass, Ring My Bell, He's the Greatest Dancer, and Herb Alpert's Rise were changing what mainstream pop could sound like.

Arranger Rob Mounsey remembered the New York studio world as rougher, faster, and less manicured than Los Angeles, filled with musicians moving constantly from session to session.

Karen had spent most of her recording life at A&M Studios in Los Angeles.