Karen was still in high school when they formed The Richard Carpenter Trio. With her impressive drumming, Wes Jacobs’ tuba, and Richard’s musical gifts, the band played professionally at events like weddings and dances. They became so good that they entered the Battle of the Bands contest at the Hollywood Bowl in June 1966.
Winning the finals at the prominent talent show and taking top honors, RCA soon approached the trio. Richard, Karen, and Wes signed with the record company. After recording 11 tracks, a commercial release didn’t pan out. It would be the beginning of the siblings’ shared career in music.
Looking up to Her Big Brother
Richard and Karen Carpenter grew up surrounded by music, spending hours in their New Haven, Connecticut home listening to their father’s extensive record collection, including Les Paul and Mary Ford, Nat King Cole, Patti Page, Perry Como, Spike Jones, and Red Nichols. Richard, four years Karen’s senior, taught himself to play the piano by ear, rebelling against strict piano lessons, but studying the instrument all the way to California State University, Long Beach.
Karen would follow him to CSULB with a music major in 1967, where she began experimenting with instruments like the flute, the glockenspiel, and finally, the drums. She was a natural and joined the school band to circumvent gym class. By this time, they had moved out to the West coast and set up home in Downey, California. Her brother teamed up with a tuba player named Wes Jacobs he met in college, and the three formed a band in 1965. They called it 'The Richard Carpenter Trio'.
The Stillman Diet
Born Karen Anne Carpenter on March 2, 1950, Karen graduated from Downey High School in 1967 when she was just 17 years old. In high school, she honed her drumming skills and started discovering her vocal talents.
Finishing up high school and getting into showbiz, body image was becoming an important issue for the young performer. At 5-foot-4 and 145 pounds, she started dieting. She used a weight loss program called the Stillman diet, which consisted of lean meats and consuming at least eight glasses of water per day. After some time, she lowered her body weight to 120 pounds. Karen looked healthy and felt quite pleased with her new appearance.
“Looking for Love”
In the summer of 1966, Karen signed to Magic Lamp Records and recorded a single. Accompanied by Richard playing keyboard, and Joe Osborn on bass, the song was pressed as a 35 rpm. Joe Osborn, a prominent session bassist in the Los Angeles area and owner of the small record label Magic Lamp, discovered talent in 16-year-old Karen. They recorded “Looking for Love,” a song Richard had written. The Magic Lamp 45 rpm was unsuccessful then, but if you find one today, it’s a collectible worth up to $2,500. Just 500 copies were pressed.
Though Richard was most serious about a career in music, supported by his parents whose hopeful anticipation influenced them to move out to the Southern California area, in part, to advance his career; and though his musical talents contributed prominently to the recording, only Karen’s name appears on the record label and the recording contract. But it was the blossoming of their famous recordings to come. The record caught the ear of Herb Alpert, head of A&M records.
A Disney Rebellion
At college, Richard also met a songwriter named John Bettis. With Karen, the three formed the group 'Spectrum' with Bettis on guitar, Gary Sims on guitar, Dan Woodhams playing bass, and vocalist Leslie Johnston. It was their second band after the Richard Carpenter Trio dissolved. In Spectrum’s early, formative days, it was great news when Disneyland hired Richard and Bettis to play at the park.
They were booked to perform turn of the 20th century Dixieland jazz tunes, the same tunes that Richard and Karen loved as children. All went well until park patrons began requesting popular music songs. During the height of hippie music, they took requests like “Light My Fire” by the Doors, a somewhat controversial tune then, and were fired for it. Victor Guder dismissed the young musicians for being “too radical.” With indignation, Richard and his bandmate wrote a song called “Mr. Guder” in response.