The Carpenters: Karen Carpenter (vocals); Richard Carpenter (keyboards, background vocals).

Additional personnel includes: Ray Parker Jr. (guitar); Tom Scott (tenor saxophone); Hal Blaine (drums).

Producers: Jack Daugherty, Richard Carpenter, Karen Carpenter.

Compilation producer: Richard Carpenter.

Recorded between 1970 & 1997. Includes liner notes by Richard Carpenter.

Look no further for the definitive Carpenters collection; this two-disc, 40-song beauty tops them all. Not only do you get all of the band's hits (and they had many), but lots of equally great, lesser-known tracks sweeten the pot. Karen Carpenter's pure, gentle voice, and brother Richard's smooth-but-sophisticated arrangements and keyboards provided the signature sound of the soft-pop 1970s. You could put this collection into a time capsule for a hundred years and accurately inform subsequent generations of what AM radio sounded like in the '70s. This anthology is also a tribute the great talents of the Paul Williams/Roger Nichols songwriting team, from whose pens flowed "Rainy Days and Mondays," "We've Only Just Begun," "I Won't Last a Day Without You," and other mellow, tuneful gems--some of the classiest pure pop music of the era. Over the course of GOLD, the Carpenter's entire career is covered, and sparkling, ornately arranged melodic delights are in no short supply.