The Carpenters’ Hot 100 Singles Ranked From Worst to Best: Critic’s Picks

The Carpenters may have been the most polarizing pop music act of the 1970s.

Karen and Richard had millions of fans worldwide, but also their share of detractors who took delight in mocking their squeaky-clean image. (One jibe, “Goody-four-shoes,” was so clever that Richard got a kick out of it.) They also personified AM pop music at a time when rock, as well as FM radio, was coming to dominate the music business.

They were seen by some as uncool and even corny.

And, yes, they released a few singles, “Sing” chief among them, that almost defied their critics to go on the attack.

But image considerations fade over time.

You have to be of a certain age to even remember when the Carpenters stirred such passions — on both sides of these divides.

Karen and Richard could do no wrong on the pop charts in the first half of the 1970s.

They had 16 consecutive top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 at a time when you had to earn each hit one single at a time — unlike in the streaming era, when superstar acts frequently flood the top 20 with multiple hits upon the release of a new album.

And they were big around the world: Their greatest hits album The Singles 1969-1973 topped the Official U.K.

Albums Chart for 17 weeks, a record equaled by just two other groups or duos ( The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel ) in the chart’s 70-year history.

Related Remembering Carpenters, 50 Years After Their Hot 100 Debut But cracks started to appear in the latter months of 1975.

Richard, who produced the duo’s long string of hit, started to wear out. (Jack Daugherty was officially credited as producer in the early years, but Richard made the creative decisions.) Karen developed anorexia nervosa — a then-little-known eating disorder.

Nowadays, someone with a similar problem could promptly seek help and feel the love and support of friends and fans.

Then, it was held almost as a shameful secret.