Carpenters was released on May 14, 1971.  This was the first album to feature the now familiar Carpenters logo.  It is known as their self-titled album, the "Tan" album and the "envelope" album.

​

The album reached #2 on Billboards 200 chart.  The number one album at that time was Carol King's "Tapestry".  

​

This album would produce three singles:  "For All We Know", "Rainy Days and Mondays" and "Superstar" reaching 3, 2, 2 on the Billboard singles chart respectively.

​

With this album, they won the Grammy award for best recording by a duo or group.

​

This was one of the first Carpenters albums I owned, purchasing my first copy at a used record store in 1983 in Wichita, KS. We were visiting my oldest sister and her husband over Christmas break.  It was purchased on December 30, 1983 for $2.50. I have a couple other copies of this album now, including the 2017 180 gram version that came with the box set.

​

The photos on this page of the album jacket are taken of the 2017 release, as it is clean and new.  The photos of the labels are taken of my albums.  The "white" label is from the 1983 album I purchased.  It was a later pressing than the original album (post 1973).  The "ocre" label is from the 2017 release of the box set and is what the original label looked like.

​

I also have a West German pressing of this album.  It does not have the envelope feature, but is a normal jacket.  The cover of this album is the picture from the inside of the American release.