Richard’s “Don’t Be Afraid” is a slice of whimsy, but there’s no harm in whimsy when it is so well arranged and with a great chorus to boot.

Side two opens with their hit single, a very singular cover of this Lennon and McCartney classic that Carpenters make their own. You would have been blown away.Ī cover of the Youngbloods hit “Get Together” is next and that’s followed by another Karen ballad, Richard’s solo composition “All of My Life.” Side one of the original album ends with Richard singing “Turn Away.” Imagine that you had bought this album in October 1969 and got to the third track and heard Karen’s lead vocals for the first time. It is another track that belies the youth and relative inexperience of the siblings. Richard and John Bettis, who had originally been in a band called Spectrum that featured Carpenters, wrote “Your Wonderful Parade” and seven other tracks on the album, including the beautiful ballad, “Someday” which is up next. This album, unlike most Carpenters releases, has the siblings sharing lead vocals later Karen would normally take on the job. It’s followed by the upbeat “Your Wonderful Parade,” with Richard on lead vocals and Karen handling backing vocals and harmonies. The album opens with a trademark Richard and Karen a cappella vocal, with exquisite harmonies as an album opener “Invocation,” barely a minute long, has a maturity way beyond what a new group would normally attempt. It remains the least well-known of their albums, and certainly one of the most underrated. Offering failed to make the bestseller list, but would eventually make the Billboard album chart in the week of March 6, 1971, when, following the massive success of Carpenters and their Close to You album, A&M renamed the earlier release as Ticket To Ride, put it out with a new cover, and gave it a new lease of life. Six months earlier, A&M Records had issued the duo’s debut album, Offering, from which “Ticket to Ride” was taken. 54, before beginning its slow descent and eventual exit from the bestseller list. It was on Valentine’s Day 1970 that Carpenters’ “Ticket to Ride” entered the Billboard Hot 100 five weeks later it got as high as No.

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