The Carpenters were a brother and sister, active as a vocal and intrumental duo between 1969 and 1983. Richard Carpenter is a respected singer-songwriter, producer and musician, whilst his sister Karen had one of the most distinctive and best loved voices in music history, she was also an accomplished drummer. Known professionally as simply 'Carpenters', Richard and Karen were the number 1 selling American music act of the 1970's, and released ten albums between 1969 and 1983, as well as Christmas, live and compilation albums.
Karen Carpenter tragically died in 1983 from cardiac arrest, due to complications of anorexia nervosa, which she had battled for many years. At the time of Karen's death very little was known or understood about eating disorders, it is widely thought that Karen's story sparked enough interest and subsequent awareness, that todays more enlightened view of eating disorders is in some small way a result of Karen's death.
Richard posthumously released an album of Karen's solo tracks in 1996, and has also released or overseen Carpenters duo albums, as well as many compilations since Karen died.
40/40 is a compilation double album consisting of forty tracks, celebrating forty years since Richard and Karen signed their recording deal with A & M Records. The album was released in Japan in April 2009, and had a worldwide release in October 2009, all tracks have been digitally remastered. Since the release of the album, many fans have complained about the omission of the track 'There's A Kind Of Hush', so for this posting it has been added as a bonus.
For those who may question the relevance of this music in respect to todays artists, Christina Aguilera, Madonna, Shania Twain, Alicia Keys, Gwen Stefani, LeAnn Rimes, Anastacia, Mary J. Blige, Kelly Jones of Stereophonics and Johnny Borrell of Razorlight, are just some of todays artists who have have listed Karen Carpenter as a huge influence on their careers.

Carpenters - 40 / 40 [Disc One]

Carpenters - 40 / 40 [Disc Two]