Carpenters charm crowd with old, familiar tunes

by Bruce Husten, The Knickerbocker News, July 28, 1975

Even if he had tried, Shakespeare couldn’t have come up with a more soothing, refreshing midsummer night’s dream for the 9,500 people who came to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center Sunday night to be entertained by comedians Skiles and Henderson, singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka and that ever-endearing vocal duo of Karen and Richard Carpenter.

Although the brother-sister team share equal billing, the night really belonged to Karen. We’ve watched her in their SPAC performances through the years and—on stage, at least—she seems to have taken over more and more of the show, abandoning her former occasional stints behind the drums and remaining in the vocal limelight with that unique, melodious voice and swishy microphone movement that just misses stepping over the precipice into the Nancy Sinatra ilk.

One suspects that Richard, who has a mild speech impediment, is probably much more active behind the scenes in musical preparation.

The Carpenters’ show at SPAC this year was their best. Instead of branching out into new things, they played the familiar tunes that enraptured the audience: a virtual replaying of “The Singles” album; a medley of Burt Bacharach numbers (slightly altered from the version they’ve recorded) and a nostalgia medley of ’57 through ’64 oldies, also slightly altered from the LP version.

Their strength lies in their ability to recreate live the exact sounds you hear in your living room, something many
groups can’t pull off without technical effects, echo chambers, and other studio aids.

They have a good back-up band (including drummer Cubby O’Brien, the same Cubby who used to be a Mouseketeer) that specializes in sonorous vocal harmony that includes fifths, sixths, sevenths, and some unbelievable diminished chords.

Fifties superstar Neil Sedaka was one of the warm-up groups, and he enchanted the audience with a nostalgic medley and such standards as “Love Will Keep Us Together,” “Stormy Weather,” and “Stairway to Heaven.”

Skiles and Henderson, the comic team who have appeared with Karen and Richard in all their Saratoga appearances, turned in their usual solid performance, if you like comedians.

In all, Sunday night in Saratoga was some enchanted evening, almost like a midsummer night’s dream.

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