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Carole King

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Carole King

Carole King (born February 9, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. She was most active as a singer during the first half of the 1970s, though she was a successful songwriter for considerably longer both before and after this period.

King has won four Grammy Awards and has been inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her songwriting, along with long-time partner Gerry Goffin.

Biography

Born Carol Klein in 1942 in Brooklyn, New York to a Jewish household, King started out playing the piano and then moved on to singing, forming a vocal quartet called the Co-Sines at James Madison High School.

She attended Queens College, where she was a classmate of Neil Sedaka and inspired Sedaka's first big hit, "Oh, Carol". She wrote "Oh, Neil" in return. While attending Queens College, King befriended Paul Simon and Gerry Goffin.

Goffin and King soon formed a songwriting partnership, eventually marrying and having two daughters, Louise Goffin and Sherry Goffin Kondor, who also became singers. Working in the Brill Building, where chart-topping hits were churned out during the 1960s, the Goffin-King partnership first hit it big with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow".

Recorded by The Shirelles, the song topped the charts in 1961; it was later covered by Dusty Springfield, Laura Branigan, Little Eva, Roberta Flack, and King herself. Another classic song written by King was the 1971 #1 US hit "You've Got a Friend".

In 1965, Goffin and King wrote a spec theme to Sidney Sheldon's new television series, I Dream of Jeannie, but the song was rejected in favor of an instrumental theme by Hugo Montenegro.

In 1968, she was hired to co-write two songs for Strawberry Alarm Clock with Toni Stern, "Lady of the the Lake" and "Blues for a Young Girl Gone," which appeared on the album, The World in a Seashell.

Hits written by King and Goffin

Year Song Artist U.S. Hot 100 Cover versions
1961 "Take Good Care of My Baby" Bobby Vee #1 Dion and the Belmonts (later in 1961), Smokie (in 1981), Bobby Vinton, Stephen Collins
1961 "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" Shirelles #1
1961 "Some Kind of Wonderful" The Drifters #32 Marvin Gaye (in 1968), King (in 1971); not the same song as the Grand Funk Railroad hit
1962 "Chains" The Cookies #17 The Beatles (in 1963), King (in 1980)
1962 "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby" Little Eva #12 The Beatles (in 1964, unreleased until 1994)
1962 "The Loco-Motion" Little Eva #1 The Chiffons (in 1963), Grand Funk Railroad (in 1974, #1), King (in 1980), Kylie Minogue (in 1988, #3), Tina Turner, Dwight Yoakam
1962 "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)" The Crystals The Motels (in 1982)
1962 "Go Away Little Girl" Steve Lawrence #1 Mark Wynter, Donny Osmond (in 1971, #1)
1963 "Don't Say Nothing Bad (About My Baby)" The Cookies #7
1963 "Hey Girl" Freddie Scott #10 Donny Osmond (in 1972, #9), King (in 1980), Billy Joel (in 1997)
1963 "One Fine Day" The Chiffons #5 Rita Coolidge (in 1979, #66), King (in 1980, #12), Aaron Neville (in 1993), Natalie Merchant (in 1996)
1963 "Up on the Roof" The Drifters 5 King (in 1970), Laura Nyro (in 1970), James Taylor (in 1979), Neil Diamond (in 1993), Billy Joe Royal, Peter Cincotti
1964 "I Can't Hear You No More" Betty Everett #66 Dusty Springfield (in 1965), King (in 1970), Helen Reddy (in 1976, #29)
1964 "I'm into Something Good" "Earl-Jean" McCrea #38 Herman's Hermits (later in 1964, #13)
1964 "Oh No Not My Baby" Maxine Brown #24 Manfred Mann (in 1965), Dusty Springfield (in 1965), Aretha Franklin (in 1970), Rod Stewart (in 1973, #59), King (in 1980 and 2001), Cher (in 1992), Linda Ronstadt (in 1994)
1965 "Don't Forget About Me" Barbara Lewis - Dusty Springfield
1966 "Don't Bring Me Down" The Animals #12 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (in 1986)
1966 "Goin' Back" Dusty Springfield - The Byrds (in 1968, #86), King (in 1980), Larry Lurex (1973)
1966 "I Can't Make It Alone" P.J. Proby - Dusty Springfield, Maria McKee (in 1993)
1967 "Pleasant Valley Sunday" The Monkees #3
1967 "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" Aretha Franklin #8 King (in 1971), Laura Nyro (in 1971), Rod Stewart (in 1974), Mary J. Blige (in 1995), Celine Dion (in 1995)
1968 "Porpoise Song" The Monkees #62
1968 "Wasn't Born to Follow" The Byrds King (in 1980)
1970 "Hi-De-Ho (That Old Sweet Roll)" Blood, Sweat & Tears #14 Dusty Springfield (non-LP B-Side in 1969), King (in 1980)
? "Care-O-Lot" For Care Bears the Movie -

Mainstream success

King's own singing career, however, was slower to gain momentum. She had a modest hit singing one of her own songs in 1962 with "It Might As Well Rain Until September" (#22 in the US and a top 10 success in the UK, later a hit in Canada for Gary & Dave), but after "He's a Bad Boy" made #94 in 1963, King did not make the Hot 100 singles chart again for eight years.

After failing several times at launching a solo career, King eventually helped pioneer a record label, Tomorrow Records, divorced Goffin and married Charles Larkey (of the Myddle Class). Moving to the West Coast, Larkey, King and Danny Kortchmar formed a group called The City, which released one album, Now That Everything's Been Said, but the album was a commercial failure. King then released Writer (1970), another commercial failure. Undaunted, the following year King gave thoughtful, folk-flavored reinterpretations of some of her early pop hits as a songwriter, placing them on an album alongside new compositions. Tapestry (1971) became a turning point in her career.

Tapestry

Her best-received album, Tapestry was instantly recognized as one of the landmark albums of the singer-songwriter genre of the early 1970s. With numerous hit singles, Tapestry would remain on the charts for nearly six years and sell over 10 million copies in the United States alone, an estimated 22 million world-wide, remaining her most popular album among fans and critics alike. The album garnered four Grammy Awards including Album of the Year; Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female; Record of the Year ("It's Too Late"); and Song of the Year ("You've Got a Friend"). Music (1971), Rhymes and Reasons (1972), Fantasy (1973) and Wrap Around Joy (1974) followed, each selling respectably. Tapestry was placed at #36 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of all time. [1] In addition, "It's Too Late" was placed at #469 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

In 1973, Carole King performed a free concert in New York City's Central Park and broke all previous records for such a concert with over 100,000 people attending. [2] (This record was subsequently broken in 1981 by Simon and Garfunkel, with 500,000 people.)

Wrap Around Joy

King again found major success with her 1974 album Wrap Around Joy. The album reached number #1 on the Billboard charts and only for the second time in her career she had a song reach as high as #2 on the singles chart with the big hit "Jazzman," as well as another top 10 single from the album "Nightingale." Although the album did not have the long lasting success and chart endurance of Tapestry, it was amongst King's most successful albums at the time of its release, and the singles received very strong radio play the year of its release.

Thoroughbred

Goffin and King reunited to write Thoroughbred (1975) with David Crosby, Graham Nash and James Taylor, a long-time friend of King's. Thoroughbred would be her last Gold record and major chart success. She married another songwriting partner, Rick Evers, after releasing Simple Things (1977); Evers died of a cocaine overdose one year later. Also in 1975, King scored a number of songs for the animated TV production of Maurice Sendak's work, Really Rosie.

Speeding Time to present

After releasing a collection called Speeding Time in 1983, King took a hiatus in Idaho, where she became an environmental activist. She returned to music in 1989, recording City Streets with guest Eric Clapton on two tracks, followed by Color of Your Dreams (1993), with a guest appearance by Slash of Guns N' Roses. In addition, her song "Now and Forever" is featured in the opening credits to the 1992 movie A League of Their Own.

In 1988 she starred in the off-Broadway production A Minor Incident, and in 1994 she played the role of Mrs. Johnstone on Broadway in Blood Brothers.

In 1991, she co-wrote the song "If It's Over", for Mariah Carey's sophomore album Emotions.

An all-star roster of artists paid tribute to King on the 1995 album Tapestry Revisited: A Tribute to Carole King. From the album, Rod Stewart's version of "So Far Away" and Celine Dion's cover of "A Natural Woman" were both Adult Contemporary chart hits. Other artists who appeared on the album included Amy Grant ("It's Too Late"), Richard Marx ("Beautiful"), Aretha Franklin ("You've Got a Friend"), Faith Hill ("Where You Lead"), and the Bee Gees ("Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?").

In addition to the numerous hit versions of her songs with Gerry Goffin and Tapestry Revisited, many other cover versions of King's work have appeared over the years. Most notably, "You've Got a Friend" was a smash hit for James Taylor in 1971 (in fact, just two weeks earlier King's "It's Too Late" was at number one for its fifth week on the Billboard Hot 100) and a top 40 hit for Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway that same year. Barbra Streisand had a top 40 hit with "Where You Lead" twice — by itself and as part of a live medley with "Sweet Inspiration." The Carpenters recorded King's "It's Going to Take Some Time" in 1972 and reached number 12 on the Billboard charts. Martika had a number 25 hit in 1989 with her version of "I Feel the Earth Move", and "It's Too Late" reappeared on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1995 by Gloria Estefan. Celine Dion also recorded King's song "The Reason" on her 1997 album Let's Talk About Love.

In 1996 a film loosely based on her life, Grace of My Heart, was released. In the film an aspiring singer, Denise Waverly/Edna Buxton, sacrifices her own singing career to write hit songs that launch the careers of other singers. Mirroring King's life, the film follows her from her first break, through the pain of rejection from the recording industry and a bad marriage, to her final triumph in realizing her dream to record her own hit album.

King is very politically active in the United States Democratic Party. In 2003 she began campaigning for John Kerry, performing in private homes for caucus delegates during the Democratic primaries. On July 29, 2004, she made a short speech and sang at the Democratic National Convention, about two hours before Kerry made his acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination for President. King continued her support of Kerry throughout the general election.

King's "Where You Lead (I Will Follow)" is the theme song to the TV series Gilmore Girls. In the theme-song version, King sings with her daughter Louise. King — who has appeared sporadically in acting roles — has guest starred three times on the show (in its second, fifth, and sixth seasons) as Sophie, the owner of the Stars Hollow music store.

Recent tours and releases

King launched her "Living Room Tour" (in a nod to her appearances in private homes during the Democratic primaries) on July 15, 2004, at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. That show, along with the shows at the Greek Theater (Los Angeles) in Los Angeles and the Cape Cod Melody Tent (Hyannis, Massachusetts) were recorded live and released as The Living Room Tour album on July 12, 2005. The 2005 leg of "The Living Room Tour" kicked off on July 3, 2005, in Ontario, Canada.

In May 2007, King released "Love Makes the World: Deluxe Edition" on her own label, Rockingale Records. The 2-CD set contains a bonus disc with five additional tracks, including "Where You Lead (I Will Follow)."

Carole King can be heard on the track "Everyday People" from Reba McEntire's "Duets" CD, released September 18th.

Awards and recognition

Discography

Albums

Compilations

  • A Natural Woman: The Ode Collection (1968–1976) (1994)
  • Goin' Back (1998)
  • Super Hits (2000)
  • Reba Duets (2007)

Singles

  • "It Might As Well Rain Until September," 1962, US #22 / UK #3 (re-charted at UK #43 in 1972)
  • "He's a Bad Boy," 1963, US #94
  • "It's Too Late" / "I Feel the Earth Move," 1971, US #1 (AC #1), Gold / UK #6
  • "So Far Away" / "Smackwater Jack," 1971, US #14 (AC #3)
  • "Sweet Seasons," 1972, US #9 (AC #2)
  • "Been to Canaan," 1972, US #24 (AC #1)
  • "Believe In Humanity," 1973, US #28
  • "You Light Up My Life," 1973, US #67 (AC #6) (different song from the Debby Boone hit)
  • "Corazón," 1973, US #37 (AC #5)
  • "Jazzman," 1974, US #2 (AC #4)
  • "Nightingale," 1975, US #10 (AC #1)
  • "Only Love Is Real," 1976, US #28 (AC #1)
  • "High Out of Time," 1976, US #76 (AC #40)
  • "Hard Rock Cafe," 1977, US #30 (AC #8)
  • "Simple Things," 1977, US AC #37
  • "Morning Sun," 1978, US AC #43
  • "One Fine Day," 1980, US #12 (AC #11)
  • "One to One," 1982, US #45 (AC #20)
  • "City Streets," 1989, US AC #14
  • "Now and Forever," 1992, US AC #18
  • "Love Makes the World," 2001

References

  1. ^ The RS 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
  2. ^ Carole King Artistfacts
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