Little Girl Blue cover art

Little Girl Blue

The Life of Karen Carpenter

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Little Girl Blue

By: Randy L. Schmidt
Narrated by: Cheryl Bentyne
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About this listen

Little Girl Blue is an intimate profile of Karen Carpenter, a girl from a modest Connecticut upbringing who became a Southern California superstar.

Karen was the instantly recognizable lead singer of the Carpenters. The top-selling American musical act of the 1970's, they delivered the love songs that defined a generation. Little Girl Blue reveals Karen's heartbreaking struggles with her mother, brother, and husband; the intimate disclosures she made to her closest friends; her love for playing drums and her frustrated quest for solo stardom; and the ups and downs of her treatment for anorexia nervosa. After her shocking death at 32 years of age in 1983, she became the proverbial poster child for that disorder; but the other causes of her decline are laid bare for the first time in this moving account.

Little Girl Blue is Karen Carpenter's definitive biography, based on exclusive interviews with her innermost circle of girlfriends and nearly 100 others, including childhood friends, professional associates, and lovers.

©2010 Randy L. Schmidt (P)2013 Randy L. Schmidt Entertainment & Celebrities Music Women Celebrity
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So much I never knew. What a journey the carpenters were on. There will never ever be anyone who will have such a beautiful distinguished voice like her. What a duo and so dedicated to giving the fans so much of themselves to the point of destruction. Great book

Finally a book that says it all

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I don't think there's anything in this book that any Carpenters fan or anyone with general knowledge of 1980s popular music wouldn't already know, but it's a well told story and it's good to have it all in one place. Any death like Karen's carries an additional element of grief, but her early death affected people around the world and was a huge loss to popular music. The book certainly provokes reflection on what Karen went through and if it promotes greater understanding it's a big plus.

Such a sad story

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