Richard Carpenter

“When we were trying to make a go of our music, our parents bought everything they could afford for us. We had a drum set, a piano. Basically the whole thing. But we couldn't really afford to buy amplifiers, or an electric piano, or even mike stands.”

“I like to have money, because I like what it gives me. I like to buy nice clothes. I like to eat well at good restaurants. If I hear about some new amplifier or something I want, I like being able to say without thinking twice, 'Yeah, get it.'”

“Burt Bacharach used to do that. He'd produce a number of hits, especially for Dionne Warwick and then, every year or so, put out an instrumental album, where he took the same charts and did different arrangements with them.”

“Mom cooked good healthy meals.”

“One of our earliest recordings was an arrangement of 'Ticket to Ride.' It was our first single and it makes a beautiful ballad.”

“Music is a different world from when Karen and I were signed by Herb Alpert in 1969. But I feel I have some talent.”

“Karen was my number one supporter.”

“One of my talents is - at least used to be - recognizing a diamond in the rough, as it were.”

“I feel Karen and I were born with talents to complement the other.”

“The average person didn't really know what my role was. Obviously, on stage, Karen was the star of the duo. I urged her to go out in front of the group, when, of course, she loved to drum and sing at the same time.”

“I was listening to the radio at 3 years old.”

“I can't buy stuff off the rack. I have big shoulders and I sort of taper in.”

“There's something about doing one's own product that just can't be matched.”

“Our demo was played for any number of different A&R men at different labels and it was turned down.”

“Oh, Karen - well, at first, I'd say she was - well, she was always interested in drumming, I mean, from the time she first developed an interest. It never really waned, her interest.”

“Karen was a true, an honest-to-God singer.”

“The music was soft and we just looked kind of like your average two people walking down the street. So really the press, of course, they labeled us.”

“We had so many hit singles, and usually right in a row, that we tended to be dismissed again by our detractors as a singles band.”

“You always have those artists where they release one great record and then they're gone. But we achieved this overwhelmingly positive and massive acceptance that continued.”

“Karen was always the more visible part of the group, which was fine, but I think anyone who knows anything about music will know I contributed a lot.”