Twenty-seven years ago today on February 4, 1983, Karen Carpenter died at the age of 32 from heart failure; caused by complications from anorexia nervosa. Along with her brother Richard, she formed the Carpenters and became the #1 selling American musical act of the 1970s with such hits as “Close To You,” “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Goodbye To Love” and “Top of the World.”

Growing up, I was a closet Carpenters fan. I say “closet” because it wasn’t necessarily “cool” to like the Carpenters. I was into acts like Sonic Youth and The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and I would’ve lost serious cred if I admitted to being a Carpenters fan. So I listened to them in the privacy of my own room with the doors locked, but I would later learn that the “cool” bands like Sonic Youth were themselves Carpenters fans. 

But I have to say I didn’t just like the Carpenters, I loved them. And a big reason for that was Karen. First, she was an awesome drummer—very underrated. But she also had one of the most beautiful voices. This was my go-to music whenever I was feeling down. It was the music you listened to late at night when your heart was breaking. You can say their songs tended to be “sad,” but even at their most depressing, there was hope. And that was mainly because of Karen. There was an optimistic quality in her voice. Even when she was singing about how she was saying good-bye to love, you knew she would eventually bounce back and be OK. And that was comforting in your own time of heartache.

Here’s one of my favorite Carpenters clips—“Close To You” performed at the world-famous Budokan in Tokyo. It’s from 1974 when the Carpenters were indeed on top of the world and what I love about this is the joy that Karen exudes. You get the feeling that there’s no place on earth she’d rather be then on that stage; performing for that audience:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVpcNADIy-I&feature=related

Here they are performing my favorite of their songs—“Rainy Days and Mondays”:

And another favorite; a rarity—their cover of “Rainbow Connection” made famous originally by Kermit the Frog:

UPDATE: In his comment, Claude reminded me how awesome Shonen Knife’s version of “Top of the World” is so adding it here too: