"From the Top" is a 4-CD collection of all the Carpenters top musical hits and many other little heard rarities. If you are a Carpenters fan (like me!), you already have their greatest hits, and perhaps have all or many of their albums. What's great about this set is that it offers more than just the hits. On the first CD, we are treated to the Carpenter's earliest efforts to break into the music industry. Here we hear a sound quite different from the unique layered vocal sound that came to define Richard Carpenter's arrangements for the Carpenters. Karen's young voice does not have the mature emotional inflection that characterized her later work. Song by song we hear the distictive Carpenter sound develop.

Disc Two is a collection of all the great Carpenter hits, the songs of their prime. Included on this disc is a track of Karen singing the song "Sing" in Spanish. Her diction is remarkable considering she did not speak spanish! There is also a humorous track of outtakes in the making of the "Yesterday Once More" radio medley.

Disc Three has three tracks of TV/radio commercials the Carpenters did in Japan and the United States. I doubt that anyone in the US has heard the japan commercials. There are also four tracks taken from their popular Christmas albums.

The final disc has the better cuts from Karen's solo album, and cuts from Made In America. Two gems are found on this disc, these being the Medley of five songs from the TV special "Music, Music, Music, where Karen's rendition and interpretation of "Someday" is simply superb. One can sense the hearkache in her voice as she sings this tender song about a woman who is not ready to make a total committment to her love/lover. The final gen is Karen's "Now", a touching love song about a woman who at long-last finds love. The song is a studio work lead, which was so flawless that Richard later added the orchestration and made it into Karen's final recording. The song was originally released on the "Voice of the Heart" album.

For each disc there is an excellent song by song narrative written by Richard Carpenter which gives information about the song, pictures of the Carpenters, and credits. There are numerous color pictures that supplement the narrative.

For those unfamiliar with the Carpenters, this is an excellent introduction to the beautiful music the duo produced in the 1970's. For die-hard Carpenter fans, this is another "MUST" album. I have had the album for over 10 years and still listen to it regularly. It is a treasure of Carpenter music.

When I purchased this 4 CD box set, I had NO idea I would treasure it this much! There are two things to love about this compilation; the music and the booklet that's included. Being a Carpenter's fan for 25 years, I figured I knew/heard/seen everything! Boy, was I wrong. I love the way Richard chose to present the 67 selections chronologically, from 1965 through 1982. I had NO idea Karen was only 16 years old when she sang "Looking For Love" and "I'll Be Yours", recorded in 1966. My favorite is "You'll Love Me", from 1967. I was just amazed at the talent both Karen and Richard possessed as teenagers! And the booklet is packed with photos of the duo as well as Richards thoughts/comments he wrote about each title. (All 67 of them!) I definetly recommend "From The Top" for all Carpenter's enthusiasts; you won't be disappointed.

If you're an obsessive fan (like me) you've GOT to have this collection because of all the rare, previously unreleased tracks, the great remixes, and alternate versions of familiar hits like For All We know, for example.

If you are just a casual fan looking for a really good 3- to 4-CD collection, the best you can get are "Anthology" (a Japanese 4-CD import, which is kind of pricey), or "Their Greatest Hits and Finest Performances," a 3-CD set which is available at the Readers Digest website. In my opinion, the Readers Digest set is the better of the two (I play it very frequently), and it's more affordable.

Jim Meadows

I like the box set but it should have had more of their best tracks. For example,tracks like Crystal Lullaby,Drusilla Penny,Flat Baroque,Heather,Help,Love is Surrender,Saturday,Road Ode,Oldies Melody etc(I could go on a while!) could have been put on the box set with 4 cds. After all,4 cds can contain a lot of songs. One unkind reviewer in America,at the time of release of the set, really unfairly canned the Carpenters because she judged them on this box set which doesn't contain all their best songs. A box set should represent their absolute best. As I said,I like the box set(with The Carpenters superb vocals and production,it has to be good)but with so many tracks only available in Japan I hope that Richard can go for the ultimate next time and that is-live tracks,best songs and rare gems.

I didn't believe this album when I heard it. From that American critic, I would have thought of this set as a real dud. WRONG! This is one of the finer collections of songs! Sure, I beleive there are a few songs that are left off that certainly should not have been. But besides that, I was really impressed. I have all the main studio albums and will soon be getting "Live in Japan", "Live at the Palladium", and the "Anthology". Even if I got those titles, I don't think I would have been satisfied without the terrific compilation of songs in "From the Top".