Super Duos of the Sixties

Two talented musical artists are better than one

Left: The Everly Brothers. “Bruno of Hollywood” derivative work, GDuwen, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Right: Simon and Garfunkel. GAC-General Artists Corporation-management and Columbia Records, their recording company, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

During the early pop and rock era, individual musical artists dominated; later, trios and quartets became popular. Less common were duos — two musical stylists, typically singers, teaming up to create a distinctive sound. There was no shortage of super duos in the Sixties, and here are ten of them to prove it.

The Carpenters

Two Carpenter siblings achieved their greatest success in the Seventies, but they actually got their start in the Sixties, singing together in 1965 as part of the Richard Carpenter Trio. Then in 1969, A&M Records signed brother and sister Richard and Karen Carpenter to a contract as “Carpenters,” which the duo preferred to “the Carpenters.” Karen was the lead vocalist and played the drums (unusual for a female singer) while Richard provided harmonic accompaniment and played the piano. Their first song, “(They Long to Be) Close to You,” written by the famed Burt Bacharach-Hal David duo, was released in 1970, spending seventeen weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, four of them at the #1 spot. The 1970 follow-up, “We’ve Only Just Begun,” by Roger Nichols and Paul Williams, charted at #2. After the Carpenters had a remarkably successful run of fifteen years at or near the top of the soft rock genre, Karen Carpenter tragically died of heart failure…