Karen Carpenter - I Do It For Your Love (1980)

In 1979 Karen Carpenter decided that she'd like to record a solo album without her brother Richard, who was at the time being treated for an addiction to Quaaludes. Phil Ramone was drafted in as producer and sessions began in New York in 1979 and continued into 1980. Karen was backed by various New York and Los Angeles studio musicians, including Steve Gadd, Greg Phillinganes, Louis Johnson and members of Billy Joel's band, and although he wasn't involved with the record, Karen dedicated the project to her brother: 'To Richard, with all my heart'. When the album was finished it was presented to A&M executives in New York, who approved the material, but the executives in Los Angeles, including label owners Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, responded negatively. It's claimed that Herb Alpert called the album 'unreleaseable', and while Quincy Jones championed releasing the album to Derek Green, an A&M Records vice-president, Alpert, Green and Moss insisted the album had to be cancelled. That decision haunted Karen for the last few years of her life, and on February 3, 1983, the day before her death, she called Ramone to discuss the album. According to Ramone, Carpenter said, 'I hope you don't mind if I curse. I still love our fucking record!' Thirteen years later the songs on the album were mixed according to Carpenter’s instructions and it was finally released in 1996. There were twenty-one songs recorded, and eleven were chosen for the album, while the other ten were consigned to the vaults. Eventually they leaked online, and so this is a companion album to 'Karen Carpenter', made up from those tracks. The 1996 album eventually went on to sell over a million copies, so far from being 'unreleasable' it turned out to be eagerly welcomed by her fans around the world. The songs on this album are just as good, especially the title track, which is a sublime reading of the Paul Simon song, and so fans of 'that voice' need to hear it. The cover is from the photoshoot that provided the sleeve for the 1996 album, but that picture was washed out and tinted, obscuring her natural beauty, and so this is what it really should have looked like. 

Track listing

01 I Do It For Your Love
02 It's Really You, It's Really Me
03 Jimmy Mack
04 Love Making Love To You
05 Truly You
06 Don't Try To Win Me Back Again
07 Something's Missing (In My Life)
08 Keep My Lovelight Burning
09 Midnight (Never Lets You Down)
10 Last One Singin' The Blues