Ruben Studdard

Ruben Studdard

Christopher Ruben Studdard (born September 12, 1978) is an American pop, R&B, and gospel singer. He rose to fame as winner of the second season of American Idol.

In the years following Idol, Studdard has released three studio albums. His fourth album is expected to be released in May 2009.

In addition to appearing on various television shows he has toured with Robin Givens in the comedy-drama Heaven I Need a Hug and in 2008 accepted the role of Fats Waller in a national tour of Ain't Misbehavin'.

Studdard, who was born in Frankfurt, Germany while his father was stationed there with the U.S. Army, grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. The youngest son of two teachers, at the age of three he sang for the first time at the Rising Star Baptist Church in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. He continued singing gospel in church, performing solos as a child while his mother sang in the local choir. While at Huffman High School, he played football and received a scholarship in that sport to Alabama A&M University. While there he joined the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity.

After growing up listening to his mother's Donny Hathaway albums, Fred Hammond, and gospel music, Studdard began to pursue a career in the music industry, majoring in voice studies at Alabama A&M. He sang with Just a Few Cats, a popular local Birmingham jazz and R&B band founded by members of Ray Reach's UAB Jazz Ensemble, along with other local musicians. "A lot of people don't realize how hard I was trying to get into the business before American Idol," Studdard related several years later. "I was making demos and just working so hard." A back-up singer from Just a Few Cats asked him to accompany her to Nashville, Tennessee for an audition on the 2003 second season of "American Idol".

On June 28, 2008, Studdard married Surata Zuri McCants in a short, private ceremony outside of Birmingham, Alabama. There was no singing during the 30-minute ceremony - just an exchange of vows, prayers, and music provided by a string ensemble. Studdard wore a black tuxedo with white bow tie for the ceremony. His bride wore a white and ivory wedding gown.

When auditioning, Studdard sang Stevie Wonder's "Ribbon in the Sky." This guided him to being one of the local finalists. On American Idol, he impressed viewers with his performances of the Leon Russell/Bonnie Bramlett song "Superstar" (originally a hit for The Carpenters and Luther Vandross) and the Peabo Bryson/Regina Belle duet "A Whole New World"; during his time on the show, Studdard received praise from music legends such as Lionel Richie, Neil Sedaka, Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees, Luther Vandross, and Gladys Knight.

During the televised competition, Studdard gained the nickname "Velvet Teddy Bear" and was noted for his shirts printed with "205", the telephone area code of his hometown of Birmingham. Studdard also did a cover version of "For All We Know", originally recorded by Donny Hathaway, whose music he grew up with.

He won the contest over runner-up Clay Aiken by only 134,000 votes out of 24,000,000 cast in the May 2003 finale, becoming the second American Idol winner and the first African American contestant and only male (as well as the oldest winner) to hold that title until 2006, when fellow Birmingham native Taylor Hicks won Idol's season five. On April 21, 2003, he also became the first American Idol winner to end up in the bottom 2 or 3 and the only male winner to do so, while Fantasia Barrino was also in the bottom 2 or 3 twice in the following season.

Alabama Governor Bob Riley declared 11 March 2003 as "Ruben Studdard Day".

Studdard released his first single, a cover of Westlife's "Flying Without Wings" (which he had sung on the show's finale), produced by the The Underdogs and Babyface, a month later in June 2003. Fueled largely by sales, it debuted at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. In December 2003, advance orders for his album Soulful topped the 1 million mark before it was released into stores. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart that month, selling over 400,000 copies in its first week and attaining the highest first-week sales of any American Idol winner. The single "Sorry 2004" from this album found substantial airplay, reaching #9 in the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Billboard R&B singles chart. Studdard received a Grammy Award nomination in December 2003 for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "Superstar", nominated with his idol Luther Vandross (Vandross won that category). In March 2004, Ruben won the NAACP Outstanding New Artist award.

Studdard released the gospel album I Need an Angel on November 23, 2004. The title track and first single "I Need an Angel" was a cover of a 2002 single performed by R&B singer Daniel DeBourg and written by R. Kelly. The album sold over 96,000 copies in its first week, it also entered the Gospel charts at #1, opened at #20 on the Billboard 200 chart, it since has sold over 500,000 copies. It was also #1 on the 2005 Billboard Year-End Gospel Albums Chart. As of June 2007, Studdard is the fifth-best selling American Idol performer with more than 2.4 million albums sold in the U.S.

In March 2005, Studdard filed a lawsuit against his godfather and business advisor Ronald Edwards. The suit alleges that Edwards ran up $156,000 on Studdard's credit cards and stole $90,000 from his checking account. Edwards filed a countersuit. On June 15, 2006, Studdard was awarded $500,000 for personal losses and another $1.5 million in punitive damages.

Studdard has worked as an actor in several, mostly minor, roles, including single-episode appearances on the television series 8 Simple Rules, Life on a Stick, All of Us, and Eve, as well as a cameo appearance in the film Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. He has also appeared on a television commercial for a Birmingham-area Kia dealer.

Between his second and third albums, Studdard began a diet and fitness program to deal with his weight, out of concern for a family history of diabetes and hypertension. Studdard lost over 70 pounds on a vegetarian diet.

Studdard appeared on the finale of American Idol season 6 in May 2007. He spent a few weeks touring with Robin Givens in the comedy-drama Heaven I Need a Hug and prepared to take on the role of Fats Waller in a national tour of Ain't Misbehavin' in 2008. The tour is scheduled to begin November 17, 2008 in Atlanta, GA and end May 14, 2009 in Syracuse, NY.

In December 2007, it was announced that Studdard had been dropped from his record company, J Records, due to poor sales of The Return and " short of expectations." He remained under contract with 19 Recordings, however. As such he was assigned the high-profile position of performing the American Idol season 7 farewell song, a recording of Kenny Loggins' "Celebrate Me Home", in a new version produced by Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam.

Studdard performed "Celebrate Me Home" live on May 20, 2008, at the Nokia Theatre for the first night of the two-night Grand Finale of American Idol's seventh season.

Studdard is currently headlining the revival tour of Ain't Misbehavin', starring alongside fellow American Idol (season 2) alums, Trenyce and Frenchie Davis. Starring as Fats Waller, Studdard has been receiving positive reviews and will be part of a cast recording album to be released by Rhino Records on January 13, 2009. Studdard was allso featured in the music video for gospel singer Deitrick Haddon's "Love Him Like I Do" along with Gospel duo Mary Mary.

Studdard appeared in an episode of One on One as himself & in an episode of All of Us as an older Bobby. He also appeared in the 8 Simple Rules episode where CJ's dad comes; he played a delivery boy who CJ mistakes for his father. He greets him by hugging him and saying, "You have always been my idol," referring to his win on Idol. Studdard also appeared on an episode of Eve as Paul, Janie's younger brother who has a huge crush on Shelly.

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The Return (Ruben Studdard album)

The Return is the third album by R&B artist Ruben Studdard and was released on October 17, 2006. The first single, "Change Me", was released on July 31, 2006.

The album debuted and peaked at #8 in the Billboard 200, with 71,000 copies sold in its first week of release. The album has sold only 237,000 copies in the U.S making it the lowest selling album by an American Idol winner. It subsequently became his last album with J Records, having been dropped from their line-up in December 2007.

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Clay Aiken

Clay Aiken (born Clayton Holmes Grissom on November 30, 1978) is an American pop singer who began his rise to fame on the second season of the television program American Idol in 2003. RCA Records offered him a recording contract, and his multi-platinum debut album Measure of a Man was released in October 2003. He released four more albums on the RCA label: Merry Christmas with Love, A Thousand Different Ways, and the Christmas EP, All is Well. His fourth studio album (the first album of original material since 2003's Measure of a Man), On My Way Here was released on May 6, 2008.

In the years following his American Idol appearance, Aiken has launched eight tours, authored a New York Times best-selling book Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life with Allison Glock, and was the executive producer for a 2004 televised Christmas special, A Clay Aiken Christmas. He has been a frequent talk show guest, particularly on The Tonight Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live. He appeared as a guest star on Scrubs and participated in comedy skits on Kimmel and Saturday Night Live.

Aiken created the Bubel/Aiken Foundation in 2003, accepted a UNICEF ambassadorship in 2004, and in 2006 was appointed for a two-year term to the Presidential Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.

Aiken made his Broadway debut playing the role of Sir Robin in Monty Python's Spamalot in January 2008. His run ended in May but he rejoined the cast as Sir Robin in September and remained through January 4, 2009.

Clay Aiken was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. As a young boy, Aiken sang in the Raleigh Boychoir, and as a teenager, he sang in school choirs, church choir, musicals and local theatre productions. After high school, he sang lead with a local band, Just By Chance, and cohosted and performed with the band at "Just by Chance and Friends" shows in Dunn, North Carolina. He was also MC and performer at the Johnston Community College Country Showcase in Smithfield, and at the North Carolina Music Connection and Hometown Music Connection shows in Garner and Benson. He performed the national anthem numerous times for the Raleigh Ice Caps and the Carolina Hurricanes. He also legally changed his last name from Grissom to Aiken. Three demo albums of Aiken's vocals were created before American Idol with the aid of studio time given as a birthday gift by his mother: a cassette called Look What Love Has Done (by Clayton Grissom), a cassette and CD entitled Redefined (by Clayton Aiken), and a CD that combined some songs from each of the previous demos: "Look What Love Has Done, Vol 2" (by Clay Aiken).

Aiken attended Raleigh's Leesville Road High School and took courses at Campbell University before enrolling at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He found his interest in special education while directing YMCA children's camps as a teenager, and at age 19, he served as a substitute teacher for a classroom of students with autism at Brentwood Elementary School in Raleigh. While attending college in Charlotte, he took a part-time job as an assistant to a boy with autism, and it was this child's mother, Diane Bubel, who urged him to audition for American Idol. Although his American Idol activities temporarily delayed his academic pursuits, Aiken completed his course work while on tour and graduated with a bachelor's degree in special education in December 2003.

Clay Aiken announced on his personal blog: "My dear friend, Jaymes, and I are so excited to announce the birth of Parker Foster Aiken" Aiken's son was born August 8, 2008 in North Carolina. The child's mother is Jaymes Foster, the sister of record producer David Foster. She has been the executive producer of Aiken's last three albums. "The little man is healthy, happy, and as loud as his daddy," Aiken wrote. "Mama Jaymes is doing quite well also." Aiken said in his book, Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life, that "It's a Southern tradition to be given your first name from your grandmama's maiden name." His middle name came from his paternal grandmother's maiden name; using instead the married surnames of their mothers, he and Foster followed that tradition in choosing their son's name.

After several years of public speculation, Aiken confirmed that he is gay in a September 2008 interview with People magazine.

Aiken had filled out an application to participate in the reality show Amazing Race when a friend of his insisted that he try out for American Idol instead. Television viewers first glimpsed Aiken during the audition episodes at the beginning of American Idol's second season. The show's judges first saw Aiken as a nerdy type unlikely to be any kind of idol, but after hearing him sing Heatwave's "Always and Forever" decided to advance him to the next round. The clip of the judges' surprise during this audition performance was replayed many times over the course of the competition.

Aiken made it to the round of 32 before being cut from the show, but he was invited to return for the "Wild Card" round (note, the format of this round has changed drastically since Aiken's season); his performance of Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" sent him on to the final 12 as the viewer's choice. While noted for his performance of ballads, such as Neil Sedaka's "Solitaire", his upbeat performances, including The Foundations' "Build Me Up Buttercup", were also appreciated. Aiken received enough votes every week to keep him out of the bottom three. Part of his appeal was his "geek to chic" transformation in appearance. "I looked like Opie," Aiken said to People magazine regarding his appearance at his American Idol audition in 2002. He replaced his glasses with contact lenses and agreed to let the show's stylists change his hair style. With longer, flat ironed, spiky hair and a penchant for wearing striped shirts, Aiken had established a trademark look by the final American Idol season 2 show.

On May 21, 2003, Aiken came in a close second to Ruben Studdard, who won the contest by 134,000 votes out of more than 24,000,000 votes cast. The result was controversial, as some hypothesized that Idol's voting system was incapable of handling the number of attempted calls. In an interview prior to the start of the fifth season of American Idol, Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe revealed for the first time that Aiken had led the fan voting every week from the Wild Card week to the finale, when the possibly-random voting result gave Studdard the win. Though officially, Aiken was the show's "first runner-up," he has since gone on to be the second season's best-selling star.

Aiken provided the narration for the second season of the American Idol Rewind series.

On October 14, 2003, Aiken released his first solo album, Measure of a Man, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and was, with 613,000 copies sold in its first week, the highest-selling debut for a solo artist in 10 years, and to date the highest debut of any Idol. The album received RIAA Double Platinum certification on November 17, 2003 (a Double Platinum plaque was presented to Aiken by Clive Davis on October 22, 2003, during Good Morning America). The album spawned both the hit single "Invisible" and his first hit song, "This Is the Night" (both co-written by British songwriter Chris Braide). Later that year, Aiken won the Fan's Choice Award at the American Music Awards ceremony, and his CD single "This Is the Night/Bridge Over Troubled Water" won the Billboard award for the Best-Selling Single of 2003.

On November 16, 2004, Aiken released a holiday album titled Merry Christmas with Love, which set a new record for fastest-selling holiday album in the Soundscan era (since 1991). The album debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200 and tied Céline Dion's record for the highest debut by a holiday album in the history of Billboard magazine. Merry Christmas with Love sold over 1,000,000 copies retail in 6 weeks and was the best-selling holiday album of 2004, receiving RIAA Platinum certification on Jan. 6, 2005.

Aiken's third album, A Thousand Different Ways, was released September 19, 2006. He worked on the album under the guidance of Canadian producer and A&R executive Jaymes Foster. The album contains ten cover songs and four new songs, one of which Aiken co-wrote. Clive Davis is credited with the cover concept. One additional song, "Lover All Alone", written by Aiken and David Foster, is included with the album on iTunes. Debuting at #2 on the Billboard chart, A Thousand Different Ways made Aiken the fourth artist ever to have his first three albums debut in the Top 5 and scan over 200,000 in the first week.

Aiken's fourth album, All Is Well (an EP of four Christmas songs), was released exclusively to Walmart on November 28, 2006, and was released to iTunes as a digital download in December 2007.

Aiken stated in an April 2007 interview with People that he was looking at making a new album soon, and during his May 2007 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, he mentioned that he was in Los Angeles interviewing producers for the new album. Aiken found a song, "On My Way Here", written by OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, that struck a chord with him and became the inspiration for the album's theme in addition to the album title. On My Way Here was released May 6, 2008 on the RCA label. Mark 'Kipper' Eldridge is the producer.

According to an article posted on Billboard.com Aiken and RCA parted ways shortly after his On My Way Here album was released. Aiken's rep confirmed to People magazine that Aiken has left RCA. A fifth album is scheduled to be released at the end of March 2009 on Sony's Legacy Recordings Playlist Series.

Aiken has made many television appearances. He sang The Star-Spangled Banner on opening night of the 2003 World Series and appeared in numerous television specials during the winter of 2003, including Disney's Christmas Day Parade and the Nick At Nite Holiday Special, where he sang the "Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth" with Bing Crosby via special effects. Aiken starred in and executive produced his first TV special (December 2004), titled A Clay Aiken Christmas, with special guests Barry Manilow, Yolanda Adams, and Megan Mullally; the special was released on DVD later that month. On July 4, 2004, Aiken was one of the performers in the A Capitol Fourth concert in Washington, D.C. and performed in the Good Morning America Summer Concert Series in 2004 and 2005.

Aiken was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live in 2004 and participated in several skits. He has appeared multiple times on The Tonight Show, interviewing with Jay Leno as a guest in addition to singing, and has become a regular guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live. The Kimmel appearances often feature skits: in one, Jimmy Kimmel's then girlfriend Sarah Silverman confessed to an affair with Aiken, and in another, Aiken expressed his distaste for Kimmel's jokes about him by beating him up. In May 2007, he spent the first half of his interview on horseback while talking about his recent UNICEF trip to Afghanistan. A few weeks later he appeared as a spokesperson for "Guillermo's Mustache" in Kimmel's fictional DVD informercial shown on the Dancing With the Stars finale. Aiken made his acting debut on Ed in early 2004, playing himself, and in 2005, he was interviewed by Erica Kane on All My Children. He played the role of cafeteria worker Kenny on the Scrubs episode "My Life in Four Cameras". In December 2006, he made an appearance as himself on Days of our Lives.

After hosting and performing in the American Idol Christmas special in 2003, Aiken has had several subsequent hosting jobs. He was a special correspondent for The Insider for the 2005 Emmy Awards, and on the sets of the sitcom Reba with Reba McEntire and Dancing With the Stars. He co-hosted The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet in 2006, and on November 17, 2006, filled in for Regis Philbin as guest host on Live with Regis and Kelly. During an interview, Aiken covered Kelly Ripa's mouth with his hand. The incident drew considerable media reaction after Ripa complained at length about the incident on her show the following Monday.Aiken made fun of the controversy on the 2006 American Music Awards the next night with Tori Spelling. On the The Tyra Banks Show in 2006, filmed before the Ripa incident, Aiken mentioned wanting to have his own talk show someday, and Banks switched seats with him and let him interview her for one segment of the show.

In November 2007, Aiken was a contestant on a celebrity edition of the game show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?. Playing for his charity, the Bubel/Aiken Foundation, he chose to drop out after the ninth question with $300,000, despite having a copy and a save from a very smart 5th grader at his disposal. If he had played the tenth question, he would have won $500,000; Aiken and the 5th grader both had the correct answer.

On January 18, 2008, Aiken made his Broadway debut when he joined the cast of Monty Python's Spamalot for a four-month run, ending on May 4, 2008. He played Sir Robin, in the Tony Award-winning musical directed by Mike Nichols. In addition to Sir Robin, Aiken played the 1st Guard and the Brother Maynard roles. On August 12, 2008, it was announced that Aiken would resume his role as Sir Robin beginning on September 19 and ending on January 4, 2009. On December 23, 2008 Aiken had his caricature unveiled at world famous Sardi's restaurant.

From February through April 2004, Aiken and Kelly Clarkson embarked on the "Independent Tour" as co-headliners. Following this tour, he was scheduled for a few summer solo tour dates, but demand ultimately led to the booking of 50 dates across the United States, resulting in what many fans called the "Not-a-Tour". Disney was the exclusive sponsor of this summer tour, promoting their Aladdin Special Edition 2-Disc DVD with a preview of Aiken's rendition of "Proud of Your Boy", a song originally intended for the first release of the film but cut when the Aladdin storyline changed during production. A music video featuring Aiken is on the Aladdin Special Edition DVD. On this tour, he also performed a duet, "Without You," which was released on Kimberley Locke's 2004 debut album One Love.

In November 2004, Aiken launched his third tour of the year, which revolved around a Christmas theme. "The Joyful Noise Tour", sponsored by Ronald McDonald House Charities, featured a conductor and a 30-piece orchestra. In some cities, Aiken was supported by the local philharmonic or symphony, such as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Local choirs from high schools and elementary schools also participated at each concert.

During the summer of 2005, Aiken, with a seven-piece band and three back-up singers, toured with the "Jukebox Tour", performing songs of the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, as well as a few favorites from Measure of a Man. He also performed a few new songs being considered for his next album.

In early November 2005, Aiken launched his second Christmas tour. The 2005 Joyful Noise tour featured a series of vignettes, written by Aiken, which told the story of an older woman who had lost the Christmas spirit and a young boy who helps her find it again. A cast of actors, dancers and back-up singers traveled with the tour, and members of local theater groups were added in each venue for smaller, non-speaking roles and crowd scenes. The tour opened in Vancouver, British Columbia, on November 2, and ended in Clearwater, Florida on December 30. According to Pollstar, Aiken's first five tours grossed $28 million dollars.

In December 2006, Aiken began his third Christmas tour, comprising performances in 18 Midwest and East Coast cities. Aiken was supported by local orchestras, which also opened the concerts with a program of seasonal music.

A 23-date tour in support of his third album, A Thousand Different Ways, began on July 4, 2007 and ended in Orlando, Florida on August 19. On this tour Aiken hired local symphonies to back him, along with tour regulars Jesse Vargas, pianist, conductor and arranger; Sean McDaniel, drummer; and Quiana Parler and Angela Fisher, backup singers. Three days into the tour, Aiken and a woman were involved in an in-flight altercation in which she allegedly shoved him. As a result of the scuffle, Aiken and the woman were later questioned by the FBI. Aiken told ET that he had been sleeping when the incident occurred.

His fourth annual Christmas tour, "Christmas in the Heartland," began on November 26, 2007 in Wichita, Kansas. That 21-date tour ended on December 22, 2007 in Merrillville, Indiana.

In 2004 Aiken made the New York Times Best Seller List, debuting at #2, with his "inspirational memoir" titled Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life, written with Allison Glock, and published by Random House. Barely mentioning American Idol, in the book he instead turned his focus to the people who had the most influence in his life — his mother, grandparents, siblings, teachers, and friends — and to the importance of religion in his life.

While not self-identified as a Christian music artist, Aiken was featured in Christian Music Planet as an "American Idol Christian" in 2004, and in a cover story, "Clay Aiken's Balancing Act," in the January/February 2005 issue. His pre-Idol demo albums included several selections of contemporary Christian music (or CCM) and gospel songs. A performance of the Commodores' "Jesus is Love" at the American Music Awards in 2003 earned Aiken and Ruben Studdard a standing ovation. Aiken has sung a few CCM songs at his pop concerts, and has made Christmas albums, Christmas television specials and performances, and Christmas tours essential elements of his career.

Aiken makes it clear that he is aware not everyone shares his religious beliefs and it is not his intention to press these beliefs on others. When he worked as a camp counselor at the YMCA, he challenged other camp faculty by insisting that singing "overtly Christian songs" was inappropriate, as some of the kids were Jewish. "I stood firm... no child is going to have a spiritual crisis on my watch." His public philosophy, geared towards inclusion and service to others, reflects his stance that decisions about religion should be made at home.

Aiken has donated his time and his voice to multiple benefit events and concerts, including the 2004 Rosalynn Carter Benefit, the America's Promise Benefit, and Heather Headley's Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS benefit, "Home," where he sang a duet with Headley. He was one of the celebrity readers for the Arthur Celebrity Audiobook (Stories for Heroes Series), which benefits the Bubel/Aiken Foundation and other charities, and served as spokesperson for the series. He was also a spokesperson for the 2004 Toys for Tots drive, and acted as an ambassador for the Ronald McDonald House Charities. Aiken worked with the Make a Wish Foundation to make one little boy's dream of singing on stage with Clay Aiken come true.

While appearing in Spamalot, Aiken used his free time and celebrity to help raise funds for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA) during their fund drives and auctions.

Aiken has been a dedicated advocate for education and for children's causes. His interest in autism issues led him, along with Diane Bubel (whose son Michael is diagnosed with autism and was tutored by Aiken), to found the Bubel/Aiken Foundation, which supports the integration of children with disabilities into the life environment of their non-disabled peers. The BAF runs summer camps which reflect its mission, and also presents Able to Serve awards to support the volunteer efforts of children with physical and mental disabilities. In July 2005, Raleigh's WRAL-TV reported on an internet campaign mounted by critics questioning how Aiken's foundation used its money. WRAL news hired an independent accountant who reported that program services totaled $920,000 in 2004—around 85 cents on every dollar donated—which is considered a solid percentage compared to other charities. CNN picked up the story, and Aiken appeared on Showbiz Tonight to provide details about the Foundation's programs. In late 2004, the BAF was awarded a $500,000 grant by the US government to develop a K-12 model for inclusion in community service projects to be used in schools across the country. In addition, State Farm granted $1.5 million dollars to the Bubel/Aiken Foundation to help develop a primary education curriculum focused on teaching social and life skills through service to children of all levels of ability. A fund-raising gala held in Raleigh at the end of March 2007 netted over $330,000 to fund BAF programs and in June, the Executive Director announced a goal of supporting 100 "Let's ALL Play" camps in 2008.

In November 2004, Aiken was appointed a U.S. Fund for UNICEF National Ambassador, with a mission to help ensure that children everywhere are afforded a primary education. After the tsunami at the end of 2004, he participated in the NBC4 telethon, which raised over $10 million, and recorded public service announcements in support of South Asian tsunami relief. He later recorded a video, featuring the song "Give a Little Bit", to be used as a public service announcement to raise money for tsunami victims. He was the 2005 spokesperson for the Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF drive.

In March 2005, UNICEF sent Aiken to the tsunami-stricken Banda Aceh area to raise awareness of the need to restore education quickly to the children who survived this disaster. UNICEF sent Aiken on another mission in May 2005, to northern Uganda, to witness the plight of children called "night commuters", who flee the villages each night to sleep in streets and shelters in hopes of avoiding being kidnapped by the Lord's Resistance Army. He was sent to Kabul and Bamyan in Afghanistan in April 2007, where he was able to spend time with children in their classrooms; he also visited a health center for women and children where he administered oral polio vaccinations to babies. He observed that Afghani children, after being forbidden for so many years by the Taliban regime to attend school, are eager to return to school now that they are once again allowed to receive an education. Aiken spent his 2007 Christmas in Mexico with the children affected by the floods in the states of Chiapas and Tabasco. In late June and early July 2008, UNICEF sent Aiken to Somalia and Kenya.

Aiken was voted the Favorite Reality Star of 2003 by TV Guide readers and “the most-loved reality star of all time” in a TV Guide poll conducted in the summer of 2005. In February 2006, People magazine readers voted Aiken their "Favorite American Idol".

No one is quite sure where the term "Claymates" originated, but Aiken has trademarked the term. While in Los Angeles in September 2006 for a CD signing and appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Aiken talked with Jann Carl of Entertainment Tonight about the names various sub-groups have given themselves: "Claysians" (Asian fans), "Claynadians" (Canadian fans), "Clayropeans" (European fans) and "Claydawgs" (male fans). She then teased him about having his own "Clay Nation". At the CD signing, two young fans asked Clay to autograph their shoulderblades and then went to the local tattoo parlor to make them permanent; later that day on Jimmy Kimmel Live they were brought on stage to show the tattoos. Although some of his fans have been criticized at times by the media as being obsessive, he defends the group as a whole. When Kimmel said to Aiken that his fans were "crazy", Aiken stated that they were merely "enthusiastic". In 2003, in anticipation of the release of Measure of a Man, fans all over the country decided to get together and hold parties to celebrate the release of the CD and purchase copies at midnight. In 2006, for the release of A Thousand Different Ways, release parties were held in more than 80 cities in the United States, Canada, and Singapore.

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The Carpenters

The Carpenters were a vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and press materials is simply "Carpenters", without the definite article. During a period in the 1970s when louder and wilder rock was in great demand, Richard and Karen produced a distinctively soft musical style that made them one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

The Carpenters' melodic pop charted a record-breaking score of hit recordings on the American Top 40 and Adult Contemporary charts, becoming leading sellers in the soft rock, easy listening and adult contemporary genres. The Carpenters had three #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and fifteen #1 hits on the Adult Contemporary Chart (see The Carpenters discography). In addition, they had twelve top 10 singles (including their #1 hits). To date, The Carpenters' album and single sales total more than 100 million units.

During their fourteen-year career, The Carpenters recorded eleven albums, five of which contained top 10 singles (Close to You, Carpenters, A Song for You, Now & Then and Horizon), thirty-one singles, five television specials, and one short-lived television series. They toured in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, the Netherlands and Belgium. Their recording career ended with Karen's death on February 4, 1983. Karen passed away after cardiac arrest due to complications of anorexia nervosa. Extensive news coverage of the circumstances surrounding her death increased public awareness of the consequences of eating disorders.

The Carpenter siblings were both born in New Haven, Connecticut. Richard Lynn was born on October 15, 1946, and Karen Anne followed on March 2, 1950. Richard was a quiet child who spent most of his time in the house listening to records and playing the piano. Karen, on the other hand, seemed to be friendly, outgoing, and liked to play sports. However, she also spent a lot of time listening to music, and she also played softball with the neighborhood kids.

In June 1963, the Carpenter family moved the family to the Los Angeles suburb of Downey, California. In the fall of 1964, Richard enrolled at California State University, Long Beach (also known as Long Beach State), where he met future songwriting partner John Bettis, with whom he would write classics like "Top of the World", "Goodbye to Love", and "Only Yesterday"; Wesley Jacobs, a friend who played the bass and tuba for the Richard Carpenter Trio, and Frank Pooler, with whom Richard would collaborate to create the Christmas standard "Merry Christmas Darling" in 1966.

I didn't really like it (the glockenspiel) because it's not a very convenient instrument to play, and it's hard to carry.... It's always a quarter-step sharp to the band, which used to drive me crazy!

Shortly after, though, friend and fellow band member Frankie Chavez inspired Carpenter to play the drums. Karen would often borrow Chavez's drum kit when he taught her. "She and Frankie ... must have worked down the rudiments, the cadences, and the press-rolls for hours", recalls Richard. When Karen finally got a Ludwig drum kit from her parents in late 1964, she was able to play it professionally, in what Richard had described in their documentary, "Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters" as "exotic time signatures".

By 1965, Karen had been practicing the drums for a year, and Richard was refining his piano techniques with teacher Frank Pooler. The two started a jazz trio in late 1965 with their friend Wes Jacobs, who played bass and tuba.

Karen joined Richard later in 1966 at a late-night session in the garage studio of Los Angeles bassist Joe Osborn, where Richard was to accompany an auditioning trumpet player. Asked to sing, Karen performed for Osborn, who was taken with her voice. Osborn's fledgling label, Magic Lamp Records, signed Karen as a singer, and she put out a single featuring two of Richard's compositions, "Looking for Love" and "I'll Be Yours." The single was a not a hit and the label soon became defunct. However, Osborn let Karen and Richard continue to use his studio to record demo tapes until 1969, when they finally got an offer from A&M Records.

In 1967, Richard and Karen next teamed up with four other student musicians from Long Beach State to form a banded called "Spectrum". The group often performed at the Whisky a Go Go. Spectrum member John Bettis worked with the Carpenters until Karen's death in 1983, composing many songs with Richard.

In 1968, Spectrum had disbanded that year, and the Richard Carpenter Trio's Wes Jacobs left for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Jacobs, who played both the bass and the tuba, would eventually become the symphony's Principal Tubist in 1970. Richard and Karen received an offer to be on the television program, Your All American College Show in mid-1968. Their June 22, 1968 performance was Richard's and Karen's first television appearance.

Richard and Karen sent their demo tapes to many record labels until A&M Records' co-owner and trumpeter/vocalist Herb Alpert (who happened to be a friend of a friend of their mother's) became attracted to their distinct sound. Alpert was Richard's and Karen's lucky break, and his decision would change their lives forever.

When Richard and Karen Carpenter signed to A&M Records, they were given carte blanche in the recording studio. Their debut album, entitled Offering and released in 1969, featured a number of songs that Richard had written or co-written during their Spectrum period. However, the most significant track on the album was a ballad rendition of The Beatles hit "Ticket to Ride", which soon became a minor hit for Carpenters, peaking at #54 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Top 20 of the Adult Contemporary chart. In an effort to cash in on the success of that track, Offering was repackaged with a different cover under the name Ticket to Ride in 1970.

Despite the lukewarm chart performance of "Ticket to Ride", Richard and Karen finally achieved success with the Burt Bacharach/Hal David song "(They Long to Be) Close to You", which was released in 1970. It debuted at #56, the highest debut of the week ending June 20, 1970. It rose to #1 on July 25, 1970, and stayed on top of the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks. It is one of two RIAA Certified Gold Singles (along with "We've Only Just Begun" (originally, recorded as a bank jingle)) featured on the best-selling album Close To You, which is placed #175 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Soon after "(They Long to Be) Close to You" reached #1, Carpenters' version of "We've Only Just Begun", written by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols, reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song is considered by Richard Carpenter to be the group's "signature tune." Williams and Nichols had written the song for a television commercial for Crocker National Bank earlier that year, and Richard Carpenter realized the song's potential when he heard it on television. "We've Only Just Begun" became the first hit single for Williams and Nichols.

The duo rounded out the year with the holiday release of "Merry Christmas Darling". The single scored high on the holiday charts in 1970 and made repeated appearances on the charts in subsequent years.

A string of hit singles and albums kept Carpenters on the charts through the early 1970s. Their 1971 hit "For All We Know" was originally recorded for a wedding scene in the movie "Lovers and Other Strangers" in 1970 by Larry Meredith. Upon hearing it in the movie theatre, Richard realized its potential, and subsequently recorded it in the autumn of 1970. It became Carpenters' third gold single.

Their Now & Then album from 1973 was named by mother Agnes Carpenter. It contained the Sesame Street tune "Sing", and the reminiscent "Yesterday Once More".

Their first compilation album was entitled The Singles: 1969-1973 and it topped the charts in the U.S. and the United Kingdom and became one of the best-selling albums of the decade, ultimately selling more than 7 million copies in the U.S. alone. According to Ray Coleman, The Singles: 1969-1973 went to number one on February 9, 1974 and exited #1 sixteen weeks later, on June 1, 1974, because of Rick Wakeman's Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

The Carpenters did not release a new album in 1974. In Richard's words, "there was simply no time to make one. Nor was I in the mood." Instead, the pair released a single, a Paul Williams/Roger Nichols composition called "I Won't Last a Day Without You". Originally recorded as an album track for their 1972 LP, A Song For You, the Carpenters finally decided to release the song two years after its original LP release. In March 1974, the single version became the fifth and final selection from that album project to chart in the Top 20, reaching #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in the summer of 1974.

Also in 1974, the Carpenters achieved a massive international hit with an up-tempo remake of Hank Williams's "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)", which, while not released as a single in the US, reached the top 30 in Japan and sold well in United Kingdom. In the Netherlands, it became their biggest hit of all time. In late 1974, a Christmas single followed, a jazz-influenced rendition of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town".

In 1975, the Carpenters gained another hit with a remake of The Marvelettes' chart-topping Motown classic from 1961 entitled "Please Mr. Postman". Released in late 1974, the song soared to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1975, becoming the duo's third and final #1 pop single. It also earned Karen and Richard their record-setting 12th million-selling Gold single in America.

Richard Carpenter's and John Bettis's song "Only Yesterday" followed "Please Mr. Postman", and peaked at #4. Carpenter and Bettis did not believe that "Only Yesterday" would become a hit single, and bet against Roger Young that it would not enter the top 5. They each lost a thousand dollars to Young.

Carpenters were among the first American recording acts to produce music videos to promote their records. In early 1975, they filmed a performance of "Please Mr. Postman" at Disneyland as well as "Only Yesterday" at the Huntington Gardens.

Their subsequent album A Kind Of Hush, released on June 11, 1976, achieved gold status, but again owing to its late release, became the first Carpenters album not to become a platinum certified record since Ticket to Ride from seven years earlier. Their singles releases in 1976 were successful, but at this time, contemporary hit radio was moving forward with changing musical styles, which ultimately made the careers of most "soft" groups like the Carpenters suffer. The duo's biggest pop single that year was a cover of Herman's Hermits' "There's a Kind of Hush (All Over the World)", which peaked at #12. "I Need to Be in Love" (allegedly Karen's favorite song by Carpenters) charted at only #25 on Billboard's Hot 100 and followed "There's a Kind of Hush" to the top spot and became the duo's 14th #1 Adult Contemporary hit, which was far and away more than any other act in the history of the chart.

The disco craze was in full swing by 1977, and adult-appeal "easy listening" artists like the Carpenters were getting somewhat less airplay. Their experimental album, Passage, released in 1977, marked an attempt to broaden their appeal by venturing into other musical genres. The album featured an unlikely mix of Jazz-fusion ("B'wana She No Home"), calypso ("Man Smart, Woman Smarter"), and orchestrated balladry ("I Just Fall in Love Again", "Two Sides"), and included the hits, "All You Get from Love Is a Love Song", "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" and "Sweet, Sweet Smile" . The most notable tracks included cover versions of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" (from the rock opera Evita) and Klaatu's "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft", both complete with choral and orchestral accompaniment. Although the single release of "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" became a major hit in the United Kingdom, it peaked at number 32 on the U.S. pop charts, and for the first time a Carpenters album did not reach the gold threshold of 500,000 copies sold in the United States. The Carpenters' music videos of "All You Get from Love is a Love Song" and "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" for the Passage album can be seen on the DVD Gold: Greatest Hits.

In early 1978, they scored a surprise Top 10 country hit with the up-tempo, fiddle-sweetened "Sweet, Sweet Smile", written by country singer Juice Newton. A second compilation, "The Singles: 1974-1978", was released in the UK. Meanwhile, in the United States, their first holiday album, Christmas Portrait, proved to be an exception to their faltering career at home and became a seasonal favorite, returning Karen and Richard to platinum status.

Richard sought treatment for his addiction to quaaludes at a Topeka, Kansas facility for six weeks starting in January 1979. He then decided to take the rest of the year off for relaxation and rehabilitation. Karen, on the other hand, not wanting to take a break from singing or seek help for her anorexia, decided to pursue a solo album project with renowned producer Phil Ramone in New York. The choice of more adult-oriented and disco/dance-tempo material represented an effort to retool her image. The resulting product met a tepid response from Richard and A&M executives in early 1980, and Karen eventually wavered in her dedication to the project. Unfortunately, the debt for its production (more than half a million dollars) was charged against Carpenters' royalties after the decision was made not to release it.

Angry, but for the most part unfettered by the decision, Karen decided to launch a new LP with her brother, who had now recovered from his addiction. The solo LP, Karen Carpenter, remained unreleased until October 1996, although Karen's fans got a taste of the album in 1989 when four of its tracks, "Lovelines", "If We Try", "Remember When Lovin' Took All Night" and "If I Had You", turned up, albeit remixed, on their second posthumous album Lovelines. "If I Had You" was released as a single and reached the Top 20 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

The Carpenters produced a final television special in 1980 called Music, Music, Music!, with guest stars Ella Fitzgerald, Susan Sommers, and John Davidson. This event was filmed the same year Karen married Tom Burris and she had temporarily returned to a healthier weight. However, ABC was not at all happy with their special, as it was just music from start to finish, unlike the previous specials which included sketch-based comedy. ABC felt it was too much like a PBS program.

On June 16, 1981 the Carpenters released their next LP as a duo, Made in America. The album was a sold only around 200,000 copies before Karen's death in early 1983. However, it did spawn a final top 20 pop single, the romantic "Touch Me When We're Dancing", which reached #16 on the Hot 100. It also became their fifteenth number one Adult Contemporary hit.

Personal troubles dimmed the prospects of this modest return to the charts. After a whirlwind romance, Karen married real estate developer Thomas James Burris in a lavish wedding held in the Crystal Room of the Beverly Hills Hotel on August 31, 1980. A new song performed by Karen at the ceremony, "Because We Are In Love", surfaced in 1981 on Made in America (as well as the B-side of "Touch Me When We're Dancing"). Karen's physical appearance had changed drastically since her wedding a year earlier. The music videos produced to promote the Made In America album were ample evidence that Karen was now seriously ill. The marriage turned out to be a disaster, and the couple separated at the end of 1981. In 1982, Karen sought therapy with noted psychotherapist Steven Levenkron in New York City for her disorder and returned to California in November that year, determined to revive her professional career and finalize her divorce. Karen, who had a normal thyroid, was found to be taking ten times the normal daily dose of thyroid medication in order to speed up her metabolism. This, combined with large amounts of laxatives (between 90 to 100 a day), weakened her heart.

Karen Carpenter gained a total of 30 pounds (13.6 kilograms) over a two-month stay in a New York hospital, but the sudden weight gain further strained her heart, which was already damaged by years of dieting and abuse. On the morning of Friday, February 4, 1983, at the age of 32, Karen suffered cardiac arrest at her parents' home in Downey and was taken to Downey Community Hospital, where she was pronounced dead twenty minutes later. She was scheduled to sign her divorce papers on the day she died.

The autopsy stated that Karen's death was due to emetine cardiotoxicity due to, or as a result of, anorexia nervosa. Under the anatomical summary, the first item was heart failure, with anorexia as second. The third finding was cachexia, which is extremely low weight and weakness and general body decline associated with chronic disease. Emetine cardiotoxicity implies that Karen abused Syrup of Ipecac, or Ipecacuana Wine, a then easily-obtained medicine that is intended to induce vomiting for people who have accidentally ingested a poison. However, there is no definite evidence that Karen did abuse ipecac.

On October 12, 1983, the Carpenters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a few yards from the Kodak Theater. Richard, Harold, and Agnes Carpenter attended the inauguration, as did many fans.

Karen's death brought lasting media attention to anorexia nervosa and also to bulimia. Karen's death encouraged celebrities to go public about their eating disorders, among them Tracey Gold and, later, Diana, Princess of Wales. Medical centers and hospitals began receiving increased contacts from people with these disorders. The general public had little knowledge of anorexia and bulimia prior to her death, making the conditions difficult to identify and treat.

In December 2003, the remains of Karen and her parents were exhumed from Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Cypress, California and reinterred in Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village, California.

Following Karen's death, Richard Carpenter has continued to produce recordings of the duo's music, including several albums of previously unreleased material and numerous compilation albums. Voice of the Heart, an album that included some finished tracks left out of Made In America and earlier LPs, was released in late 1983. It peaked at #46 and was certified Gold. Two singles were released. "Make Believe It's Your First Time", a second version of a song Karen had recorded for her solo album (and a song which had been a minor hit in 1979 for Bobby Vinton), reached #7 Adult Contemporary but only got to #101 on the pop side. "Your Baby Doesn't Love You Anymore" got to #12 Adult Contemporary. Richard Carpenter married his adopted first cousin, Mary Rudolph, on May 19, 1984. Kristi was born on August 17, 1987, Traci on July 25, 1989, Mindi Karen (named after her late aunt) on July 7, 1992, followed by Colin and Taylor.

In 1984, using outtake material from the duo's first Christmas album (A Christmas Portrait) and recording new material around it, Richard constructed a "new" Carpenters Christmas album, An Old-Fashioned Christmas. In 1987, Richard released his first solo album, Time, which generated one hit single, "Something in Your Eyes", sung by Dusty Springfield.

His dedication to protecting the Carpenters's image and recording legacy has sparked criticism, as Richard has insisted on substantial project oversight in any documentary or drama about them. In 1987, he intervened to limit the distribution of the Todd Haynes short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (which used Barbie dolls to relate a perspective on Karen's untimely death). Although critics found Karen's portrayal sympathetic, the film depicted the Carpenter family in an unflattering light, and Richard prevailed in pulling the film from distribution on the basis that Carpenters's tracks were used without permission. A 1989 TV movie, The Karen Carpenter Story, (with Cynthia Gibb), produced with Richard's cooperation, gained favorable notices and reached a wide audience. In the first few weeks after the movie's airdate, many record stores sold out of their Carpenters stock.

Karen Carpenter, Karen's solo album, was released in October 1996, with an explanation in the CD's liner notes from Richard addressing the decision by A&M records to shelve the album in 1980. The collection of songs on the CD covers a wide range of musical styles, from rock ("Making Love in the Afternoon" with guest vocalist Peter Cetera) to blues ("Last One Singing the Blues") to lite jazz ("Guess I Just Lost My Head", "If We Try") and disco (Remember When Lovin' Took All Night", "Lovelines"). Coincidentally, the album's producer, Phil Ramone, produced many of the tracks for Cetera's former band, Chicago.

In Japan, the Carpenters's popularity reached large proportions and continued after Karen's death. Singles by non-Japanese artists typically do not sell well in Japan (although albums often do), but the Carpenters were an exception. Three of the Carpenters's singles ("Superstar", "Yesterday Once More", and the double-sided "I Need to Be in Love"/"Top of the World") made the top 10 on Japan's Oricon chart, and seven others reached the top 40. In 1995, a compilation assembled by Richard for the Japanese market, 22 Hits of the Carpenters, topped the charts and sold over two million copies, and received a tenth-anniversary re-release in 2005.

Richard Carpenter lives with his wife, Mary Rudolf-Carpenter, and their four daughters and one son in Thousand Oaks, California, where the couple are supporters of the arts. In 2004, Carpenter and his wife pledged a $3 million gift to the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza Foundation in memory of Karen Carpenter. The first annual "Richard Carpenter Scholarship Competition Award Show" was held at the Civic Arts Plaza on September 20, 2006. Richard and daughters Traci and Mindi performed after the show. Richard and his wife won the Philanthropists of the Year Award of Ventura County in 2007.

More recently, Richard is affiliated with the Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center located at California State University, Long Beach. He continues to make concert appearances, including fund raising efforts for the Carpenter Center. In 2001, he was a guest on the "Petula Clark: A Sign of the Times" concert in Norfolk, Virginia and portions were recorded for CD and DVD release and for a PBS special. In 2002, he introduced Clark at the Carpenter Center and appeared on her Ultimate Collection CD.

During February 2008, fans created an awareness campaign for the impending demolition of the Carpenter family home on Newville Avenue in Downey, California, which was made famous on the album cover of the 1973 release, Now & Then.

One of the elements that made the music of the Carpenters distinctive was Karen's use of her low register. Though present in jazz and country music, there were few alto singers in popular music at the time. However, Karen did have a wide vocal range that spanned about three octaves. Richard's voice was said to be very complementary to that of Karen's. Although Karen had an upper range to her voice, it didn't have the same quality as her lower range (or her "basement", as Karen called it). "Both Karen and I felt the magic was in her 'chest voice' (a.k.a. 'basement'). There is no comparison in terms of richness in sound, so I wasn't about to highlight the upper voice", states Richard in the "Fans Ask" section of the Carpenters' official website.

Because Karen's magic was in the "basement", Richard always rearranged cover songs and his own songs in a key that would suit her. Many of the Carpenters' songs are located in the keys of D ("You", "There's a Kind of Hush"), E ("Yesterday Once More"), E flat ("Only Yesterday"), F ("I'll Never Fall in Love Again", "Top of the World"), and G ("And When He Smiles", "Reason to Believe", "For All We Know", "You'll Love Me").

Although he played many keyboard instruments during the band's existence, including grand piano, harpsichord, Hammond organ and synthesizer, Richard is best known as an endorsee of Wurlitzer's electric pianos, whose sound he described as "warm" and "beautiful". He would often double his acoustic piano parts with a Wurlitzer in the studio to thicken the sound, creating one of the 1970s' most distinctive keyboard sounds. From the mid-1970s Richard also used Fender Rhodes pianos, often having an acoustic grand as well as both Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos on stage for different songs.

Apart from being a singer, Karen was also an accomplished drummer, and often played the drums on their pre-1974 songs. According to Richard, she considered herself a "drummer who sang". Karen was barely visible behind the drums during live performances. Although unwilling, she and Richard eventually reached a performance compromise: during the ballads she would sing standing and through the lesser known songs she would sit. As the years progressed, demand for Karen's vocals began to overshadow her drumming time, and gradually she played the drums less. By the A Kind of Hush album in 1976, Karen did not play the drums at all.

One night, we were doing a benefit dinner after the premiere of "Hello, Dolly!", and Burt Bacharach walked up to us, and he asked us if we would like to open the show for him at another dinner that he was going to be doing later on in the year. And he asked us to do something that turned out to be very, very special for us.

He wanted us to put together a medley of his songs; any tunes of his that we wanted to do, and it took a couple of months. We arrived at 8 tunes.

The medley eventually was abridged and released on their eponymous album, Carpenters in 1971. The song was shortened from almost 13 minutes to only 5 minutes.

The band maintained a demanding schedule of concert tours and television appearances. Among their numerous television credits were appearances on such popular series as The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Carol Burnett Show in 1971 and 1972, The Mike Douglas Show in 1971, and The Johnny Cash Show, also in 1971, where they played their hits "For All We Know" and "Rainy Days and Mondays". The duo appeared in a television special on the BBC where they performed songs "live." They were also the featured performers in a summer replacement series, Make Your Own Kind of Music, which aired on NBC every Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. in the United States. Both Karen and Richard would later state in a 1980 radio interview that they were often taken advantage of in their dealings with television during the early Seventies and wanted more control in the production of future projects.

In May 1973, the Carpenters accepted an invitation to perform at the White House for President Richard Nixon and visiting West German chancellor Willy Brandt.

The Carpenters played numerous concerts from 1971–1975. They are taken straight from Richard's archived itineraries.

By the mid-1970s, extensive touring and lengthy recording sessions had begun to take their toll on the duo and contributed to their professional and personal difficulties during the latter half of the decade. Karen dieted obsessively and developed the disorder anorexia nervosa, which first manifested itself in 1975 when she collapsed during a show in Las Vegas. Exhausted, Karen was forced to cancel concert tours in the Philippines, UK and Japan. Richard has said that he regrets the six and seven day work schedules of that period, adding that had he known then what he knows now he wouldn't have agreed to it. Karen looked noticeably thin - although not sickly - in the music video produced for the "Only Yesterday" single. Richard developed an addiction to quaaludes, which began to affect his performance in the late 1970s and led to the end of the duo's live concert appearances in 1978.

The Carpenters' popularity often confounded critics. With their output focused on ballads and mid-tempo pop, the duo's music was often dismissed by critics as being bland and saccharine. The recording industry, however, bestowed awards on the duo, who won three Grammy Awards during their career (Best New Artist, and Best Pop Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus, for "(They Long to Be) Close to You" in 1970; and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group for the LP Carpenters in 1971. In 1973, the Carpenters were voted Favorite Pop/Rock Band, Duo, or Group at the first annual American Music Awards.

I don't even like milk. Not that we're totally opposite from that, we're not. But there is an in-between - I don't drink ... a lot. I do have wine with dinner. I voted to make marijuana legal....

In Coleman's "The Carpenters: The Untold Story", Richard stressed repeatedly how much he disliked the A&M Executives for making their image "squeaky-clean", and the critics for critiquing them for their image rather than their music.

I got upset when this whole "squeaky clean" thing was tagged on to us. I never thought about standing for anything! They (the critics) took Close to You and said: "Aha, you see that number one? THAT's for the people who believe in apple pie! THAT's for people who believe in the American flag! THAT's for the average middle-American person and his station wagon! The Carpenters stand for that, and I'm taking them to my bosom!" And boom, we got tagged with that label.

Their television specials also garnered solid ratings and kept them in the public eye during the late 1970s. They had a total of five television specials, all of which aired from 1976 to 1980. The Carpenters' Very First Television Special, which aired on December 8, 1976, was a hit, and went to #6 on the Nielsen's. Their TV specials usually contained "schticks", which Richard highly disliked. However, Karen seemed to enjoy it, and her personality shone on camera. Their next one was Carpenters at Christmas which aired on December 9, 1977. The following TV special was Carpenters Space Encounters which aired May 17, 1978. Their third Special was The Carpenters: A Christmas Potrait which aired December 19, 1978.

The Carpenters's final television special Music, Music, Music!, was aired in May 1980. It contained no "schticks" and only included music "from start to finish". Television host John Davidson and renowned standard singer Ella Fitzgerald guest starred, and performed various songs. Many of the songs performed on this television special were released on CD in 2004 on their album As Time Goes By. As evidenced on the Carpenters' official website, five of the fifteen songs on As Time Goes By were from Music, Music, Music!. However, ABC wasn't satisfied with the Carpenters' decision to go purely musical. On their documentary, Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters, Richard quotes them, saying: "What the hell do they think this is? A PBS special?" Ironically, the documentary originally was aired on PBS until MPI Home Video released it on DVD a year later, in 1998.

A critical re-evaluation of the Carpenters occurred during the 1990s and 2000s with the making of several documentaries produced in the United States, Japan, and Great Britain, like "Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters" (United States), "The Sayonara" (Japan), and "Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story" (Great Britain). The superior technical quality of the recordings, the sorrowful undercurrents in many of their songs and the pain in Karen's voice as well as her life have attracted many fans. It's been said that her signature vocals helped spur more alto singers into pop music such as Anne Murray, Rita Coolidge, and Melissa Manchester. Even '90s R&B group Boyz II Men list the Carpenters among their influences. In 1990, the alternative rock band Sonic Youth recorded "Tunic (Song for Karen)", which depicted Karen saying goodbye to relatives as she got to play the drums again and meet her new "friends", Dennis Wilson, Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin. Despite some criticism that their sound was "too soft", major campaigns and petitions exist toward inducting the Carpenters in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

A tribute album, If I Were a Carpenter, by contemporary artists such as Sonic Youth, Bettie Serveert, Shonen Knife, Grant Lee Buffalo, Matthew Sweet, and The Cranberries, also appeared that year and provided an alternative rock interpretation of Carpenters hits.

Several of their songs have achieved the status of popular standards. In particular, "(They Long to Be) Close to You" is frequently sung in karaoke bars. This song is heard in the film Parenthood, and is used in two episodes of The Simpsons as well as The Simpsons Movie. The duo's "signature tune", "We've Only Just Begun", is popular at weddings and receptions, and was memorably featured in the film version of Starsky & Hutch and 1408. "Superstar" has been covered by numerous artists, with popular recordings from Luther Vandross and Ruben Studdard to Bette Midler and Sonic Youth. Clay Aiken performed "Solitaire" on American Idol and introduced the song to a new generation.

Nicolas Cage is an enthusiast for Carpenters music. He received permission to use some of their music in the Ghost Rider (film).

Both "We've Only Just Begun" and "(They Long to Be) Close to You" have been honored with Grammy Hall of Fame awards for recordings of lasting quality or historical significance.

Modern contemporaries like Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani, Shania Twain, Anastacia, The Corrs, Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys, Leann Rimes, Kelly Jones of Stereophonics, Johnny Borrell of Razorlight, Jo O'Meara from S Club and Madonna have stated Karen Carpenter as a huge influence on their careers.

The Carpenters released 30 singles during their career. Of the thirty, thirteen were RIAA certified Gold, and twenty-two peaked in the top 10 on the Adult Contemporary Charts. In addition, the Carpenters also had ten albums from 1969-1983. Six of the albums contained two or more top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 (Close to You, Carpenters, A Song for You, Now & Then, and Horizon).

Throughout the 1970s, Richard and Karen were nominated numerous times for Grammy Awards. Richard Carpenter was also nominated for a Grammy Award for their instrumental song, "Flat Baroque". They won three Grammy Awards, and had two songs inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

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