CARPENTERS OFFERING LP US 1969 RARE WITHDRAWN COVER A&M w/SHRINK, BEAUTY

$

80

Up for Buy It Now auction is THE CARPENTERS' OFFERING LP,   US RELEASE on A&M Records, 1969 . This is the infamous debut album on the A&M label, from the sibling duo of Karen & Richard Carpenter.  The Story behind the Album: The moment Karen and Richard were signed to A&M Records in April 1969 by none other than record owner/mogul/trumpeter/bandleader Herb Alpert (a friend of a friend of their mother's, Agnes), they began work on the first album, which, not surprisingly, contained a great deal of material from the siblings' former band Spectrum (a jazz outfit formed by Richard and longtime friend John Bettis, who was with the Carpenters as Richard's lyricist until Karen's untimely death in 1983, and was Richard's songwriting partner). When the album was released in the early summer of 1969, both Karen and Richard felt that the front photo was simply lackluster because their facial expressions in the photo made them look too somber, so Herb and staff  had the album recalled and soon after, replaced. According to some (possibly Richard himself), the cover made him and his sister Karen look like mindless Zombies, and according to others, made Karen look like an  "Overweight Nun".... (and, ummm, that was the deal breaker with Karen). Also the depiction of the 2 young people on the front with Karen holding out a cut stock of sunflowers made the cover look too contrived and lacked excitement that was evident in the music therein...needless to say, this cover was soon pulled off the shelves a la The Beatles' Yesterday  and Today 'Butcher Cover', and replaced with the Carpenters sailing in a yacht like 2 already successful artists, and the album  retitled  "Ticket To Ride",  their first hit of that year, 1969.  The rest, as they say, is history...that is, they both became what they sung about, "Superstars"...

 Now, the Details on this fine album

The Cover (Jacket): I grade this cover at VG ++ for the following reasons: This really nice example has a cover in beautiful condition, has sharp, crisp corners, and the artwork is vibrant and clean.  In shrink wrap (although, to keep it on the level, I don't think it's a factory shrink , but probably a record store reshrink~~nonetheless the album underneath looks absolutely clean, and simply fabulous), absolutely NO writing, seam splits, punch holes, or cutouts in the jacket whatsoever! The album jacket is so hard to find without the common ring wear, so this album is a rarity just for that fact alone! It is simply a gorgeous example...

The Record:The record is in VG+ condition with really very clean, stock tan-brown first pressing labels, that, from my observation, seem harder to find in collectible condition than the promo white label version (the labels on this particular copy has different variant with the smaller size A&M logo, the title and credits font , the production credits after the title, etc.) with minor paper scuffs to the disk (the minor scuffs seem to be the only thing keeping this disk from having an EXC rating).  Otherwise this album is in really nice condition, and plays beautifully! Definitely, collector's grade! Has original inner sleeve as well.. 

Overall, a beautiful example. Definitely a sought after album for any Carpenters or A&M collector. You will be hard pressed to find another example of this album in cleaner condition, anywhere around this price! A cleaner example is selling on gemm.com for $260.00. So you can own this one in very clean condition for almost one third that...So...take advantage of this great offer.  Cheers! 

This album was visually graded, as well as played on a high performance turntable with a high quality diamond stylus. The album plays clearly without skips, pops, or other obvious inconsistencies.  The imperfections are mostly visual as  far as the vinyl goes.  The cover was explained earlier. Overall, a nice addition to any RARE record collection. I have been collecting for almost 30 years, and if I didn't have a slightly higher grade copy which I had paid over $300.00 for (not a white label promo, a stock copy), I would not list this gem for sale today. But I only need one copy, so here is my duplicate copy for sale....

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