Little Girl Blue (7 page)

On May 9, 1966, Osborn signed sixteen-year-old Karen Carpenter to Magic Lamp Records' small roster of artists, which included Johnny Burnette, James Burton, Mickey Jones, Dean Torrence (of Jan and Dean), and Vince Edwards, best known as television's Dr. Ben Casey. Since Karen was not of legal age, Agnes and Harold signed on her behalf. Two days later, Magic Lamp's publishing division, Lightup Music, signed Richard as a songwriter in an effort to help reconcile Agnes's displeasure with Osborn having initially overlooked her son's talents. “Joe thought that Richard was a pain in the ass,” Mickey Jones recalls. “Richard not only wanted to play the piano but to run everything. Joe did not want him around when he was working with Karen, so he made Richard wait outside the studio.”

Any resentment between the two soon gave way to new friendships as Karen, Richard, and Wes Jacobs began spending hours on end at Osborn's studio. That summer Karen recorded several of Richard's original compositions including “The Parting of Our Ways,” “Don't Tell Me,” “Looking for Love,” and “I'll Be Yours.” She also played drums on the recordings, which featured Osborn on electric bass and sometimes Wes Jacobs on upright bass. Richard was on piano and the Chamberlin Music Master, a version of the Mellotron, both of which were popular analog synthesizers that provided taped string and woodwind sounds. Osborn used a Scully 4-track recorder and Neumann U87 condenser microphones to tape the sessions. Playback was done through Altec 604 studio monitors. When four tracks were complete, they were bounced
or “ping-ponged” to his Scully 2-track machine, which condensed multiple tracks to two or sometimes even one. This process freed additional tracks for overdubbing and layering voices or instruments.

“Looking for Love / I'll Be Yours” (ML 704) was the first and only single by Karen Carpenter for Magic Lamp Records. Five hundred copies were pressed, and most extras were given to family and friends. “There was no distribution that I am aware of,” Mickey Jones says. “It was mainly a tax shelter.” Like most small labels, Magic Lamp did not have the means to promote their singles, and by late 1967 the company folded.

T
HE SUMMER
of 1966 brought several milestones in the lives of Karen and Richard Carpenter. Shortly after having joined forces with Magic Lamp Records, the Richard Carpenter Trio made it to the finals of the Seventh Annual Battle of the Bands, a prestigious talent competition held at the Hollywood Bowl. The event was sponsored by the County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation and dubbed “a musical showdown under the stars.” Open to nonprofessionals under the age of twenty-one, the contest began with hundreds of groups competing in five preliminary contests held around Los Angeles County. Acts were quickly narrowed to just three entries in each of the following categories: dance band, school band, combos, vocal soloists, and vocal groups.

On Friday night, June 24, the trio performed Richard's multi–time signature arrangement of Antonio Carlos Jobim's “The Girl from Ipanema” and an original whole-tone-inspired jazz waltz entitled “Iced Tea,” an ode to their favorite beverage, featuring Wes Jacobs on tuba. From their introduction by master of ceremonies Jerry Dexter, the trio gained full audience attention before even playing a note. The sight of Karen sitting behind a drum kit with her hair piled high was definitely a novelty. “
I remember when
we walked into the Bowl there were twenty acts on the show, and I was still new to the drums,” Karen later explained to Ray Coleman. “It took me a while to set them up. We'd only been together for like six months, and what was even funnier, I couldn't lift them. I couldn't move them, so I had to have everybody
carrying my drums, and then I put them together. All the guy drummers were hysterical.”

A lengthy drum solo in the middle of “Iced Tea” gave Karen an opportunity to demonstrate her technique. The enthusiastic audience responded with a roar of applause, cheers, and whistles, which even drowned out the music at one point on a recording of the evening's performance. “By then she had gone from having a good rhythmical sense and steady time—the foundation you want—to being a very good player,” Frankie Chavez recalls. “She could make some male drummers stand up and take notice, and she actually could outplay some of them, too. She was that good. I thought she made very good progress for the very short time she'd been playing, and it's a credit to her musicality.”

Despite having to play on a dreadful upright piano the night of the contest, Richard won outstanding instrumentalist. In addition to winning best combo, the trio took home the sweepstakes trophy for the highest overall score in the competition, beating out Gentlemen and Trombones, Inc. “They won!” Agnes Carpenter proudly exclaimed to Frank Pooler, phoning him the day after the Battle of the Bands. “It's the biggest trophy I've ever seen in my life. My God, they've
got
to be good!”

Gerald Wilson, Calvin Jackson, Jerry Goldsmith, and Bill Holman joined Leonard Feather, chief jazz critic for the
Los Angeles Times
, as the official judges for the event. “
The musical surprise
of the evening was the Trio of Richard Carpenter,” wrote Feather, describing the group's leader as a “remarkably original soloist who won awards as the best instrumentalist and leader of the best combo. Flanking his piano were Karen Carpenter, his talented sixteen-year-old sister at the drums, and bassist Wes Jacobs who doubled amusingly and confidently on tuba.” The competition was later broadcast in color on KNBC Channel 4 in Los Angeles.

“The Hollywood Bowl performance was a great place to get exposure,” Chavez says. “People that went there were oftentimes movers and shakers who could make things happen with a career. It was a good move.” On the way to their car following the win at the Bowl, Richard was approached by a man who congratulated the trio and asked if they would be interested in cutting some records. Richard told the man they
already had a contract but took his business card anyway. Once Richard realized it was Neely Plumb, prominent West Coast A & R (artists and repertoire) man for RCA-Victor Records, he quickly explained the contract was only a solo singing contract for Karen with Magic Lamp. Plumb (whose daughter Eve would go on to star as Jan in the classic TV series
The Brady Bunch
) thought the idea of rock tuba might be the wave of the immediate future and wanted to spotlight Wes Jacobs.

The trio signed to RCA-Victor in September 1966 and soon cut eleven tracks, including instrumentals of the standard “Strangers in the Night” and the Beatles' “Every Little Thing.” They also recorded “I've Never Been in Love Before” from the musical
Guys and Dolls
and a Richard original, “Flat Baroque.” Although he was excited to see the trio signed to a major record label, Richard shared with Plumb his concerns over the rock tuba approach, which he knew had little potential, and even the powers at RCA agreed. Richard told them of Karen's voice and how she had been signed to a vocal contract earlier that year, but after agreeing to listen, the response was: “Just another folk-rock group. No thank you.” RCA decided against releasing the trio's music, and the three soon left the label with a few hundred dollars and no record. They considered themselves to have been an artistic success but a commercial failure. “
It was really great playing
, but we didn't really have that focus,” Wes Jacobs recalled. “Karen wasn't singing, and the tuba wasn't going to sell records. There was a lot of talent, but we didn't have direction.”

Back on the campus at Cal State Long Beach, Richard spent many hours in the music department practice rooms, where he was able to focus on his own music. As he did on occasion, Richard consulted Frank Pooler for inspiration, in this case in planning their holiday music set. “We're sure sick of ‘White Christmas,' ‘Silent Night,' and doing the same songs every night,” he told Pooler, asking for suggestions.

“I don't know any
new
Christmas songs,” he replied, “but I wrote one a long time ago.”

Pooler had written “Merry Christmas, Darling” as a young man. In fact, he composed his original version in 1946, the year Richard was born. Twenty years later, in December 1966, Pooler shared “Merry
Christmas, Darling” with Richard Carpenter. “[Richard] was writing tunes at that time,” says Pooler, “and I knew that whatever tune he could write would be better than the one I had already written, so I didn't give him the tune. I just gave him the words.” Richard said he would work on a new melody, and about fifteen minutes later he was finished. “Merry Christmas, Darling” was written by two teenagers a generation apart. It was among the earliest songs Karen sang with the trio and would provide them with many successes in the years to come.

U
PON GRADUATION
from Downey High School in the spring of 1967, Karen was presented with the John Philip Sousa Band Award, the highest achievement for high school band students, recognizing superior musicianship and outstanding dedication. “
She didn't strike me
as musically talented at first,” band director Gifford later recalled, “but I've learned to give people time before judging their talent.”

In a farewell message inscribed in mentor Frankie Chavez's yearbook, Karen praised his abilities as a drummer and thanked him for inspiring and guiding her talents.

Frankie,

Listen man, it's hard to believe it, but we made it. Anyway, it's been a gas in every sense of the word. I can honestly say that it wouldn't have been near as crazy without ya. I want to thank you for getting me interested in drums. I learned a great deal from you and I'll always owe it to ya. . . . Oh well, it's time to split so keep in touch in between gigs.

Love ya,

Karen '67

A
STRUGGLING POLITICAL
science student from San Pedro who often slept on campus in his station wagon overnight, John Bettis had given up on his mother's dream for him to become an international attorney. Entering Cal State Long Beach, the longhaired folk singer was known for his sense of humor and creativity. He knew very little about music theory but ended up joining Frank Pooler's college choir as an elective. Still, he had a remarkable talent for writing lyrics.

“John used to slip me little notes,” Pooler recalls. “They were little pieces of poetry; his observations of rehearsals and observations he had about me. I thought they were really kind of beautiful and very unusual.”

Bettis began to compile his observations for what became “A Cappella Music,” a composition that according to Pooler was not even considered a song. “It was a cantata!” he exclaims. John was quite sure he would be kicked out of the choir once they heard the finished product, which introduced the various sections of the choir and proceeded to poke fun at each with a tongue-in-cheek approach. The choir listened as Bettis struggled to premiere “A Cappella Music” with only a sparse guitar accompaniment. “Buddy, you need a pianist!” Richard blurted out before coming to Bettis's rescue. Pooler had a feeling the young
men's talents might complement one another. “I thought they were a perfect pair so I said, ‘You guys should work together.'”

Richard and John Bettis shared a love of music, cars, and girls and became close friends. Agnes Carpenter was not as quick to welcome new faces into the Carpenter circle, especially someone with the gypsy existence of Bettis. She was infuriated to learn Richard was splitting performance fees equally with Bettis once they began playing various gigs together. She reminded Richard that he carried the musical load, and he was the only musically literate one of the two. In her opinion Bettis did not do enough or have the experience to warrant half of the profits.

Through mutual friend Doug Strawn, Richard and John learned of an opening for a ragtime piano-banjo act at Coke Corner on Disneyland's Main Street U.S.A. The two were hired for the summer season of 1967 and worked eighteen-hour shifts. The musicians' union salary of $180 per week was a fortune to two college students, but they wisely invested their earnings in musical instruments and sound equipment.