Ranked at #75 on the 2003 Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Close to You contained two hit singles, "(They Long to Be) Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun".  Both of the singles were certified RIAA-Gold and the albums is now 2x Platinum.  The album reached #2 on the Billboard chart and ranked #3 on the Billboard US 200 for 1971.  The week it peaked at #2, the #1 album was "Abraxas" by Santana.  "Close to You" topped the Canadian charts and did very well in the U.K. where it entered the top 50 for 76 weeks during the first part of the 1970s.

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The overdubbing of voices, heard on Ticket and  a signature of the Carpenters, became cleaner and bigger with this album.  An example of this is the song "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" where their voices are overdubbed into a 13 part 39 voice vocal harmony.  While on their first album, the lead vocals were somewhat split between the siblings, Karen takes most of the lead vocals on this album.  Richard does sing "I Kept on Loving You" and it is one of his best vocals.

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When I first purchased this album, it wasn't one that I listened to very often.  Over the last few years, it has grown on me and I truly enjoy listening all the way through the album.  Of course, the singles are two of my favorites from the album.  Other top songs in my opinion are "Baby it's You", "Crescent Noon" and "Another Song".  My high school choir (retired choral director) performed "Crescent Noon" a couple of years on our winter concert.  

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I have  two "Close to You" albums.  The first one was purchased at my local Walmart on February 9, 1984 for $6.98.  (written on the original sleeve). 

 

The second one was part of The Vinyl Collection, released by UMG in 2017 on 180 gram vinyl.  For the pictures of the album jacket, I used the 2017 UMG cover, as it was cleaner/brighter than my original.  For the labels, I used the UMG 2017 and the label from my 1984 purchase, which is a later A & M label.