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NOW AND THEN

1973

"Now and Then", named by their mother Agnes, was the next album by the duo.  It was released on May 1, 1973 and featured "now" songs on side one and an extended medley of "then" songs on side two, complete with a DJ.

Karen and Richard didn't have very much input into their album covers, and were not always pleased with what the powers that be decided would look good.  For this cover, the photographer showed up at their home and was going to take a picture of the two of them standing by the front door.  Richard protested and suggested they use one of their cars in the shot. If you look closely at Richard's face, you might see that he was irritated... 

The album cover is a tri-fold, with the car/house shot on the outside and portaits of Karen and Richard on the inside.  The car used on the cover, was one of Richard's that he owned at the time.  It was a  Ferrari 365 GBT/4 (Daytona).  The house in the photo was their home on Newville Ave. in Downey, California.  The inner jacket has the song lyrics, along with photos of cars. 

The album, which had two singles release in America ("Yesterday Once More" and "Sing"), reached number 2 (July 21, 1973) on the Billboard 200, kept out of the number one spot by George Harrison's "Living in the Material World".

While I have a couple of copies of this album, I used the 2017 release for the photos as it was pristine.  While, my older copies have the "white" label, the 2017 release has the "ocre" label...but with red font for "Carpenters".  I am not sure when or where I purchased my original copy of this album.  

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