How Hal Blaine gave Karen Carpenter advice that would change her life for good
Anybody who has heard The Carpenters can attest to the sheer addictiveness of Karen Carpenter’s voice. She can hit high notes and low notes like telling a mundane story at the coffee shop, but it wasn’t always this way for her.
Firstly, she started things out on the drums. She discovered her talent at Downey High in Connecticut, where she played drums in the school band, expertly familiarising herself with the intricacies of speed, pace, and tempo. But her voice didn’t go unnoticed for long; her brother Richard cottoned on when she’d sing intermittently in his high school band.
Though many gushed over the gorgeous timbre, Karen needed a little help along the way to become the iconic vocalist she is known as today, and that help would come in the form of, ironically, a fellow drummer.
Hal Blaine was the drummer on most of The Carpenters’ hit songs. Throughout his career, he boasted over 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles, and bolstered the joyous sounds of the band with his percussive mastery. He was also a mentor to Karen, but his wisdom extended beyond their shared love for the drums.
On one of their earlier run-ins, Blaine was playing drums in the recording studio on the track ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’, but, as he recalled, Karen was singing “way too high”. Despite the looming presence of Karen and Richard’s parents at the session, who infamously ran a tight ship, he took the singer aside to impart what he thought was life-changing wisdom. Turns out, he was right.
“Look, Karen, I don’t want to bug you with this, but you’re singing way up high,” he told her, surreptitiously, aware that he could shake the boat with her parents, “You speak mid-range, which is much better for your singing voice. Why don’t you try it?”
When Karen first tried this new approach, her parents had a thing or two to say. They cut in, insisting that her high-pitched voice was the way it ought to be. They obviously weren’t aware that intonation and vocal manipulation can change a sound entirely. I’m thinking now of CMAT, who wouldn’t be so charming without those Irish quips so central to her vocal melodies and lyricism, but the same went all those years back for Karen.
Still, Blaine resisted her parents, ordering her to take “it down three keys”, and it only took a moment for the resounding result to settle. “So she did, and the rest is history,” Blaine laughed. Carpenter’s voice would go on to touch millions, with this new approach allowing her full range to an even wider register. Thanks to Blaine, Karen received compliments from many musicians at the top of their game.
One of her biggest fans is none other than Paul McCartney, who has been widely quoted as admiring her vocal gymnastics and suggesting that she has “the best female voice in the world”. Elaborating on this truism, he added that it was “melodic, tuneful and distinctive”. Though they may not have always seen eye-to-eye, fellow Beatles member John Lennon agreed with him on this one, reportedly telling Karen in a nightclub in 1971 that he “loved her voice”.
Though he passed in 2019, Blaine can certainly be smug that he opened the door that let the rest of the world in on the secret of Karen’s superb vocals.
