This began a one-sided love affair that spanned decades. That voice, that beautiful, resonant, otherworldly voice. The woman attached to it became a fixation for me that persists to a certain extent to this day. Her untimely and unbelievably premature death in 1983 from a heart attack and dehydration stemming from years of suffering from anorexia nervosa was a total shock to me. Back then, anorexia was even more misunderstood than it is now. I wish I’d known her. I wish I could have shown her the truth. I wish I could have helped her.
But yeah, I had it BAD for Karen Carpenter. She was the first. The beauty she brought into the world with her singing (and her formidable drumming skill) can never be replaced.
I've moved on to many other celebrity crushes over the years, but there is and was only one Karen...