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What Words Describe That Voice
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by Dan
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If a picture paints a thousand words...
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Lyricist John Bettis, long-time friend of Richard and Karen Carpenter, says when Karen sang she would close her eyes and go to a place that is the same for everybody. Anyone who has ever heard her voice understands just how true that statement is. The voice and the place it takes each listener to are both immediately recognizable--the first because it is something not at all common, the latter because it is something that is.
"Instant radio" is the way Phil Ramone, producer of Karen's solo album, succinctly describes such recognition of Karen's voice. Trying to similarly describe the voice itself, much less the common sensations it conjures up among listeners, has been much harder to do since words are often too imprecise to clearly relay those ethereal yet essential qualities that make golden sunsets, a baby's first cry, shimmering rainbows, and Karen's incomparable voice so universally moving and meaningful.
...Then why can't I paint you?
The words will never show
The you I've come to know.
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No one has heard Karen's singing voice longer, nor more in its original form, than her brother Richard. Karen herself valued his opinion of it the most. Highly important to her, says Carpenters biographer Ray Coleman, "was when Richard told her what a marvelous, natural singer she was." Indeed, he has given it the most praise, calling it "heaven-sent," "beautiful," "a marvel," and "the major part of the Carpenters sound." Whether speaking generally of its "rich lower register" and how she "never held anything back when she sang" and "was so thoroughly gifted, nothing affected her voice," or specifically the way her reading of certain songs "sounds way beyond her years," made them more intimate, and that she interprets them "as if to the genre born," Richard more than anyone else, as Coleman puts it, "knew the special nature of Karen's gift." "Everything that makes a great singer, Karen had it," says Richard. She was "one of the greatest female vocalists who ever lived, who ever will live," and her voice "touched and will continue to touch the lives of millions."
Chief among those touched by Karen's voice are her own musical peers. Her choir director in college, Frank Pooler, a mentor and friend who gave Karen encouragement and practical lessons in singing, says Karen "always had a good voice. She's a natural singer who actually didn't need vocal instruction." Composer and musician Henry Mancini first encountered that voice while judging the Richard Carpenter Trio in the 1968 All-American College Show. Although Karen was the trio's drummer, it was her singing that left a lasting impression on Mancini:
It's a strange thing, I can't remember if she was a good drummer or not. I just blocked out the drums. In person, she had it, and that's all I was interested in. I didn't check out her playing. She could have been Buddy Rich sitting back there, but with that voice, I didn't care.
Pinning down why that was, Mancini says "Karen had a quality about her that was so vulnerable, so exposed that she just demanded attention." He believes this is because "whatever she sang came right from the heart. They didn't do too many rhythm songs; she loved those ballads that took advantage of that great low end of her voice." Her voice, he concludes, was "the manifestation of everything within her. Maybe if she had more self-esteem, it wouldn't have been the same voice."
A&M Records co-founder Herb Alpert's first encounter with Karen's "magical God-given voice" was, on the other hand, through a recording. But it left a very memorable impression on him too:
After listening to thirty seconds of the Carpenters' demo tape in 1969, I knew I was experiencing two extraordinarily talented people. Karen's intimate voice sounded like it was singing just for me, and Richard's original flair for vocal arranging and keyboard work made for a very special sound.
Karen's gift was formidable. Her voice rang out like a bell that was clear and friendly; soothing, musical, and honest.
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It felt like her voice was on the couch, like she was sitting next to me. It was full and round, and it was--amazing....This voice was buzzing into my body, and it was the way they presented it.
He believes, like Mancini, that Karen was drawing from her "dark side" when she sang. "A common trait in all great performers, instrumentalists or singers," Alpert says, "is that great quality that tugs at your heart. It doesn't come from that bubbly, 'up' side of their personality. It always comes from their undercurrent of reality."
Whether live or recorded, Karen's voice evoked the same enthusiastic response from other music-industry notables. While she and Richard were performing at a party celebrating the remake of Goodbye Mister Chips in December 1969, Leslie Bricusse, the writer of the movie's musical score, exclaimed to the gathered celebrities, "That girl's amazing....Listen to that phenomenal voice." For months he told his friends how he had been "attracted to the great natural gift of Karen Carpenter's God-given voice." Recalling those times two decades later he says, "I was simply wiped out how good she was, and I wasn't the only one."
Songwriters Burt Bacharach and Paul Williams concur with Bricusse's views. Bacharach, who with Hal David wrote "(They Long To Be) Close To You," the Carpenters' first number one hit, says Karen's voice was "clean, clear, like a flag flying over a song on the record, unwavering--just near perfect." Williams says it was "clean yet so sensual" on songs he and Roger Nichols wrote and the Carpenters later recorded. He also mentions how strongly it can affect listeners on a personal level. "When Karen sang my lyrics, there was a purity there that was also sensual for me, just very sensual in a very clean way, like good clean sex, I suppose--and people related to it, they related to the way she sang the song." On "Rainy Days And Mondays," for example, Williams says, "When you hear that lady sing those words you've got to know there was a little bit of a connection there."
Karen's fellow musicians and singers speak just as highly of her voice. "The sound of The Carpenters was so unique and so wonderful," says guitarist Tony Peluso, who joined the Carpenters band after opening for them as a member of Mark Lindsay's Instant Joy, "and Karen's voice--it takes several generations to come across a voice like that, and to hear her every night and be a part of that just as the opening act, never mind later as a member of that group, was a thrill." The late John Lennon, former member of the Beatles, once told her, "you've got a fabulous voice"; and Paul McCartney, another Beatles member, along with his brother Michael calls it "the best female voice in the world, melodic, tuneful, distinctive." Says Paul, "The essence of why I loved them was Karen. The sheer quality--musically it was a heck of a voice--was so impressive." Singer Barbra Streisand told Karen she had a "marvelous instrument." Expanding on that, Phoebe Snow says, "She was never a belter. She was organically natural." In Olivia Newton-John's view, "There's a kind of loneliness in her voice. There's a warmth there, but also a kind of longing in it."
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'the money's in the basement'
Although Karen could sing as high as G above high C (using falsetto), she mainly sang in her voice's powerful lower register, which could reach down as far as D below middle C.
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Her colleagues and friends at A&M Records and elsewhere agree with those assessments. A&M co-founder Jerry Moss says "to have that voice on A&M was really a thrill." Roger Young, the recording engineer who helped bring that voice to millions of listeners all over the world, says Karen "had a beautiful voice and a great ear." Terry Ellis, Chrysalis Records' co-founder and the duo's 1975 interim manager, says A&M "had a girl with the voice of an angel." Jerry Weintraub, who managed the Carpenters after 1975, considers Karen "one of the most distinctive voices in history." Phil Ramone says her voice is "one of the greatest." A&M's British managing director, Derek Green, calls it "magical": "My God, Karen's voice! People have got to dislike music to dislike those Carpenters records." Even so, Carpenters road manager Paul White remembers how Karen's vocal skill "was kinda taken for granted" by the touring party: "She used to hit the notes like radar. Some singers hit them a little under and slide up or down. Karen was pure." Nor did it matter how low or high those notes were. Tom Bahler, who helped the Carpenters' find a choir for their 1978 Christmas album project, told Karen after hearing her sing in a high-pitched voice, "I had no idea you could sing that high" (see sidebox "the money's in the basement"); and later recalled that, even at the high end of her range, "her pitch and control was right there." But such skill was just part of Karen's talent.
Evelyn Wallace, the Carpenters' first full-time secretary, says Karen "can sing in many voices" and was, even at age 16, already emitting "the voice of an angel." Wallace also calls Karen's vocals "unique" and her voice "lilting," "crystal clear" and "magnificent." Rosina Sullivan, the Carpenters' secretary between 1978 and 1985, says her vocals on the Made In America album are "indescribable." The Reverend Charles Neal, who officiated at Karen's funeral service, describes her voice as "loving, sparkling, joyful." Those closest to Karen also sense unordinary openness in her voice. "The depth of her singing," says Beverly Nogawski, a family friend, "reflected what she wanted to be, with the emotion she showed when she sang." Karen's friend Elizabeth Van Ness believes so as well:
People say she sang from the heart, but I feel it was from her soul, some sort of soul that she wasn't even in touch with. She was a very smart girl but not particularly intellectual. Yet when she sang there was an intelligence, a message that borders on profundity, so well thought out and expressed that it came from something beyond her."
Even the press and media, which in most cases had issues with the type of music Karen Carpenter performed, never took any exception with the quality of her voice. Lester Bangs writes in Rolling Stone that it is "pleasant...full, warm." While commenting on Karen's ability to simultaneously sing and play drums, Hollywood Reporter's Jeff Thomas describes her vocal presentation as "crystalline, saccharine, lyrical." Jan Gautschy of Words and Music magazine examined the reason for Karen's "convincing job" on the single "Superstar," acknowledging that her vocal "empathy" accounts for much of the Carpenters' success. In 1972, the Cleveland Press described Karen's voice as "clear, warm, smooth, soaring." In 1976, People magazine's Robert Windeler mentioned its "rich and soothing alto range," while The Daily Telegraph's John Coldstream described Karen as "angelically voiced." Us magazine said in 1979 that "Karen's clear voice has matured." Los Angeles Times' pop music critic Robert Hilburn said in 2002 that she had a "lovely voice."
One of the better-known quotes comes from Rolling Stone's 1974 cover story about the Carpenters, written by Tom Nolan. Noting the transformation that Karen seemingly underwent when she sang, Nolan says:
Karen Carpenter, the solo singing half of a brother and sister musical duo that has sold over 25 million records world-wide, has classic "good looks" but with something extra. It is the something extra that makes her interesting to look at, some unrealized firmness in her features, a womanliness she does not always allow herself to express. It comes out when she sings--in the emotion that makes her voice intriguing and beguiling....
When she comes alive is when she sings; she changes completely. Joking or talking one moment, she becomes a different person the very next, as soon as she opens her mouth. Out comes that unique and wonderful voice, exactly as on record, expressing fascinating contrasts: chilling perfection with much warmth; youth with wisdom. Then she seems to be someone who knows something of life. She must be aware of the transformation she brings about, yet when asked to describe what happens at such a moment, all she will guardedly say is, "I don't know what you mean. I'm not thinking of anything in particular. I'm just trying to get it right"....
The music [at their concert] is wonderful. Karen sings like a dream, a wish fulfilled, a sorrow resolved in the telling.
Tom Nolan also wrote the liner notes for the Carpenters' 1977 Passage album. On one of its tracks, "Two Sides," he says that "the lyric's suggestion of the duality of affairs is especially appropriate for Karen to sing, because the ambivalence enclosed by the song is a nice approximation of the chimerical quality of her own art--as soon as you think you've categorized her, she reveals another aspect of her range, one you'd overlooked or forgotten for a while." On another, "Don't Cry For Me Argentina," he explains how "the crispness of the production and playing, and Karen's powerful vocal, make for an instant favorite. Karen projects both worldly knowledge and unexpected innocence, sophistication combined with the pain of lost illusion. I doubt any other version could equal this one's poignance and authority; it becomes immediately definitive."
Liner notes for other Carpenters albums, as well as prefaces to some of their song books, contain similar praise for Karen's voice. While this is to be expected, their writers' claims square fully with what even the most objective critics have had to say about it. For examples, the CD-version's liner notes for their 1976 Live At The Palladium album calls Karen's voice "delightful"; and Robyn Flans refers to "Karen's rich lead vocals" in the recently-released 20th Century Masters/The Millennium Collection Carpenters compilation. Several other writers have taken such opportunity to offer their own insight.
The Carpenters' A Song For You song book's preface declares:
They must be doing something right--and what is it? The answer is multifold. First, it's pure, rare talent and a unique sound. The Carpenters have welded together honey-throated, sonorous harmony with a subtle razor's edge of a soulful irony. (Listen to Karen's voice on "Rainy Days and Mondays"; beneath the purity and romanticism lies the layered timbre, the relaxed-yet-urgent feeling of the most sophisticated jazz singer.)
Digby Diehl, in his liner notes for the Carpenters' 1973 The Singles 1969-1973 album, writes:
Karen's voice...is a main ingredient of the Carpenters' unique sound, and it is a voice that seems to resonate with a maturity beyond the scope of vocal chords only 22 years old. Her tones have the richness and impact of those big band singers, a timbre suited to beautifully lyrical ballads. Like stylists of subtle years' experience, she also communicates a credibility, a sincerity in her singing that comes from phrasing and intonation that are impeccable. Or to put it simply: Karen is a knockout singer who makes you listen to the lyrics. Even given the extraordinary amount of talent emerging from the "Soft Rock Revolution," she is one of the finest singers of this generation.
The preface to their 1975 Horizon song book reads:
The uniqueness of Carpenters is as indefinable as any art that seems perfect and inevitable. Intangibles aside, an approximate explanation would have to include the fortuitous union of Karen's splendid voice with Richard's great adeptness at composing, producing, and arranging. Separately they would surely be talents to be reckoned with; together, they create indelible popular music.
Karen Carpenter's singing has roots in a rich American tradition of entertainers who are able to create a strong identity within a very commercial form. She descends in direct spiritual if not stylistic lineage from the best of the swing era's big-band vocalists, such fine Fifties bestsellers as Kay Starr, and the cool, elegant Top-40 stars of the Sixties like Dionne Warwicke. It is the lot of such singers to be underrated by critics even as large segments of the public adopt them as their own. Their voices, constant presences in our daily lives, tend to be taken for granted. Happily, Karen Carpenter is gaining increasing recognition as one of the finest popular stylists of the Seventies.
In the 1995 Reflections album's liner notes, Ray Coleman says:
[N]ew generations of music lovers are being attracted to the purity and emotional resonance of Karen's voice, and to the imaginative, impeccable direction charted by Richard as The Carpenters' producer and musical director. Their sound will be around for as long as music is played.
The characteristics of their art are easy to define. Added to the fact that Karen was pitch-perfect, she possessed a natural ability to implant human emotion, warmth and caring into songs....Listen to the intimacy of "I Need To Be In Love", to the upbeat optimism of "Can't Smile Without You", to the doleful introspection of "All Of My Life", to the plaintive beauty of "Reason To Believe", and to the gorgeous sentimentality of "Because We Are In Love (The Wedding Song)"....[songs which] emphasize Karen's musicality as well as her human strengths in interpretative singing.
Paul Lester writes in his notes for the 1997 Love Songs compilation:
Oh, and that voice....Karen was the finest female singer of her generation, possessed of perfect pitch, able to soar between octaves in a single verse. But that rare ability to share moments of incredible intimacy with the listener, to sound as though she was singing just for you, was more than mere technique. She wasn't acting, she was aching. Nor was it any accident that her astonishingly clear, pure voice was usually tinged with regret and sorrow.
Last but certainly not least is Paul Grein, who has written liner notes for several of the Carpenters' major compilations, including comments on many of their hit songs (see "Paul Grein's song notes" at the end of this article). Explaining why he thinks "Karen Carpenter's timeless, matchless voice was an indispensable ingredient in the Carpenters' success," Grein says:
If you made a checklist of the qualities of a great singer, Karen Carpenter had them all: tremendous presence, a natural, conversational ease, and impeccable intonation and control.
But a checklist couldn't begin to capture the emotion that Karen put into everything she sang. Karen had a remarkable facility for peeling away the outer layers of a song and getting to its core. And once she located a song's essential truth, she would relate it as if she were singing just to you
...The intimacy in Karen's voice enabled her to build a one-to-one bond with millions of fans all over the world.
Karen's vocal style combined the most attractive traits of several other legendary American singers. She had the warm, pure tones of Nat "King" Cole, the seeming effortlessness of Perry Como, the clarity and precision of Barbra Streisand, and the vulnerability of Judy Garland....
Karen's natural, unpretentious style seemed effortless. Alas, that easygoing quality often caused her to be taken-for-granted. Fortunately, in the years since Karen's death, she has received ever-increasing recognition as one of the most gifted pop vocalists of all time.
Book authors who have written extensively about Karen Carpenter's music and career express an equally high appreciation of her voice. In his Guide to the Music of the Carpenters, John Tobler says, "There have been many great non-classical female vocalists in the Twentieth Century...but none of these fabulous singers can equal the vocal quality of Karen Carpenter." Besides possessing "perfect pitch" and a "sublime voice" with "velvet tones," Tobler notes too how, even unaccompanied, Karen's singing "conveys a wonderful sense of uncertainty and longing." These qualities carried over into her concert performances as well. According to Tobler:
Whatever it was fashionable for rock critics to think about The Carpenters in the first half of the Seventies, my one experience of a live show (at the Royal Festival Hall circa 1972) left me in awe that they were able to reproduce their recorded sound so authentically. It is a matter of great regret to me that there was never a second opportunity for Karen's voice to surround me like a warm blanket, but at least there was a first time, something which the millions of new Carpenters fans will never experience.
Tom Stockdale's biographical sketch, They Died Too Young: Karen Carpenter, includes such assessments also. Regarding Karen's development as a singer in her brother's various pre-duo groups, Stockdale says the teenager focused more on her drum playing than on her vocals. "Although she had good pitch and tone, there seemed nothing remarkable about her voice at this time--she thought of herself as a drummer first and foremost." Soon afterwards, however, her "natural vocal style" was recognized, earning her, at age 16, a recording contract with Joe Osborn's Magic Lamp label--where "Karen's voice seemed to have an attraction all of its own to the magnetic tape"--as well as "a soloist's place in the university choir" during her attendance at California State University at Long Beach. Shortly after the "warmth" of Karen's "velvet" vocals was discovered in 1969 by A&M, she and Richard went on to record two hit songs in a row, "confirming public recognition of Karen's voice as the perfect vehicle for the bittersweet sentiments of Carpenters' music." As "the voice of the Carpenters," she moved out from behind the drums and began fronting the band more on tour. In the studio, meanwhile, Karen's "soulful reading" of the song "Superstar" earned the duo yet another gold record; and on "Yesterday Once More" she sang "the low notes that Richard knew created such intimacy between Karen and the listener--and nostalgic lyrics which Karen's rendition filled with relevance." With "perfect pitch," "pinpoint accuracy and warmth," Karen's voice took the Carpenters sound outside the vagaries of any musical trends and made it timeless.
In the words of Ray Coleman, writer of the authorized biography The Carpenters: The Untold Story,
And there will always be that stunning voice. Unique and instantly recognizable, the finest female singer in her genre provided the Carpenters with the bedrock of music that will always transcend trends and fads. Its beauty is its simplicity, directness, and melodic power....[She was] a woman who--as well as being loved by all whom she touched--gave us a voice to treasure. Karen had that rare ability to make you feel she was singing just for you; her talent was natural, unschooled, and particularly precious because it is unrepeatable.
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[The Carpenters'] appeal was clinched by Karen's unique gift. Her haunting, somewhat sad vocals carried perfect pitch and such a distinctive timbre that many of her contemporaries regard her as one of the greatest female singers.
Karen's parents, according to her Aunt Bernice, initially believed the duo's appeal would be clinched, instead, by Richard's considerable talents. "I guess they never dreamed that Karen was going to be just as popular, if not more so, with her beautiful voice." Nonetheless, it was Richard's efforts which literally set the best stage possible for that voice--the one on which Karen felt most comfortable and could really shine; and the music he placed up there proved just as essential to their success. As Herb Albert says,
[S]he couldn't sing a song that she didn't like, and she knew what she was after: she was not a rock 'n' roll singer, she wasn't a blues singer, she wasn't a jazz singer, she was what she presented....She had a magical sound and that's what I heard the first time I heard their rough tapes, her voice felt like it was in my lap--it was sitting in my lap, and it was very friendly and it was right next to me and it was somebody that I had known for a long time. And I think she communicated that to an enormous amount of people out there. We were touched by her, we were touched by this lady's soul.
John Bettis concludes that both Karen and Richard worked together to bring out the best in not only themselves and each other but in everyone they relied on to help the Carpenters succeed. Theirs was truly a mutual effort, one that has brought the world some of its most unforgettable music. "Karen seems to have a certain understanding for mine and Richard's music," says Bettis. "She has great comprehension and an easy, natural way of transmitting the emotion of a lyric. She's a sensual person who grows on you and becomes better each time you hear her."
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sources:
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If (David A. Gates) Sony/ATV Tunes LLC (ASCAP).
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Ray Coleman, The Carpenters: The Untold Story, New York, HarperCollins, 1994.
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Tom Stockdale, They Died Too Young: Karen Carpenter, Bristol, U.K.: Paragon, 1996.
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John Tobler, The Complete Guide to the Music of the Carpenters, New York: Omnibus, 1998.
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Lester Bangs, "The Carpenters And the Creeps," Rolling Stone, March 4, 1971, p. 23.
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"Family Album: The Carpenters keep hammering out hits," Us, February 20, 1972, p. 78.
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Jan Gautschy, "Two Superstars' Young Dreams Come True," Words and Music, March 1972.
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Tom Nolan, "Up from Downey," Rolling Stone, July 4, 1974, pp. 60-68.
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Robert Windeler, "For a Song," People, August 2, 1976.
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"Ask Robert Hilburn," Los Angeles Times, calendarlive.com, August 2, 2002.
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Behind the Music: The Carpenters, VH1, 1998.
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"Carpenters: Harmony and Heartbreak," Biography, A&E, 1998.
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The E! True Hollywood Story: Karen Carpenter, E!, 1998.
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Digby Diehl, Carpenters The Singles 1969-1973 (SP 3601), Hollywood, Cal.: A&M, 1973.
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Carpenters Live At The Palladium (PWKS 572), Hollywood, Cal.: A&M, 1976.
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Tom Nolan, Carpenters Passage (CD 3199/DX 787), Hollywood, Cal.: A&M, 1977.
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Richard Carpenter, Carpenters Voice Of The Heart (CD 4945), Hollywood, Cal.: A&M, 1983.
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Richard Carpenter, Carpenters Lovelines (CD 3931), Hollywood, Cal.: A&M, 1989.
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Richard Carpenter, Carpenters Interpretations: A 25th Anniversary Celebration (31454 0312 2), Hollywood, Cal.: A&M, 1995.
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Ray Coleman, Carpenters Reflections (551 593 2), Hollywood, Cal.: A&M, 1995.
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Paul Grein, Carpenters Interpretations: A 25th Anniversary Celebration (31454 0312 2), Hollywood, Cal.: A&M, 1995.
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Paul Grein, Carpenters A Christmas Collection (31454 0603 2), Hollywood, Cal.: A&M, 1996.
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Phil Ramone, Karen Carpenter (31454 0588 2), Hollywood, Cal.: A&M, 1996.
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Paul Lester, Carpenters Love Songs (31454 0838 2), Hollywood, Cal.: A&M, 1997.
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Paul Grein, Carpenters Yesterday Once More: Greatest Hits 1969-1983 (31454 1000 2BK02), Hollywood, Cal.: A&M, 1998.
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Paul Grein, Carpenters Singles 1969-1981 (069 490 456-2), Hollywood, Cal.: A&M, 2000.
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Richard Carpenter, Carpenters As Time Goes By (069490880-2), Hollywood, Cal.: A&M, 2001.
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Robyn Flans, Carpenters 20th Century Masters/The Millennium Collection (0694934212), Hollywood, Calif.: A&M, 2002.
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A Song For You: Carpenters (Piano/Vocal/Guitar) Starshine Library-12, New York: Walter Kane & Sons (for North American Publishers, Hialeah, Fl.).
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Frank H. Lieberman, Billboard, quoted in Carpenters: Words & music of their twenty greatest hits (Piano/Vocal/Guitar) New York: Wise, 1974.
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Horizon: Carpenters (song book), Hollywood, Calif.: Almo, 1975.
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Carpenters International Fanclub, Newsletters (1971-1989).
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Paul Grein's song notes
In addition to the "sense of longing" or "palpable yearning, a quality that was seemingly built into Karen's voice" which "came across even on happy songs such as 'Sing,'" Grein says she "also had a great singer's instinct for ingenious phrasing." Moreover, on the Carpenters' 1978 Christmas Portrait album "Karen demonstrates her versatility" and "often sings in her lower register, which adds depth to the light pop carols and drama to hymns."
The following are his comments about Karen's performances on a number of Carpenters songs.
Karen's bluesy vocal is a study in control, as she builds effortlessly from a conversational opening to a searing finish.
Karen's warm vocal offsets the recording's cool, jazz-shaded sensibility. The ballad also demonstrates Karen's gift for ingenious phrasing: She brings home the futility of the situation just by tweaking a couple of words in the line, "the words got in the way."
Karen's voice is especially rich and ripe....The tender ballad was ideal for Karen, who had much in common with the man who made it famous, Nat "King" Cole. Both were understated vocalists who sang in warm, pure tones.
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Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again
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Karen's dry, confined vocal and the droning tempo convey a sense of going through the motions.
With its long, breath-deprived phrases, this was one of Karen's most challenging vocal assignments, but she handled it with ease.
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All You Get From Love Is A Love Song
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Karen's vocal is warm and inviting.
Karen's playful pout and spirited drumming added to its appeal.
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(They Long To Be) Close To You
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Karen's lead vocal is engagingly coquettish.
Karen's husky voice exudes power.
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Bless The Beasts And Children
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Karen projected both gentleness and strength.
Karen's reading captures both the devotion and the doubt.
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I Just Fall In Love Again
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But underneath all the trappings, this is a sensuous ballad, as Karen's tender reading attests.
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Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
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Karen's deeply ironic performance is both heartbreaking and hypnotic. The way she holds the last note on the line, "hang your shining star above the highest bough," demonstrates her immense technical skills.
Karen's voice was deep and husky on the original [1970 single] version....She chose to recut her vocal in 1978, when she sang softer and with greater ease.
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The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)
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Karen's tender reading of the Nat "King" Cole classic pointed up similarities between the two artists....both projected a kindness and modesty that echoed in their music.
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