Carole King (born February 9, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, her Tapestry album topped the U.S. album chart for 15 weeks in 1971, and remained on the charts for more than six years.
She was most successful as a performer in the first half of the 1970s, although she was a successful songwriter long before and long after. She had her first number 1 hit as a songwriter in 1960 at age 18, with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", which she wrote with Goffin. In 1997, she co-wrote "The Reason" for Aerosmith, but instead it was sung by Celine Dion.
In 2000, Joel Whitburn, a Billboard Magazine pop music researcher, named her the most successful female songwriter of 1955–99, because she wrote or co-wrote 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2005 music historian Stuart Devoy found her the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts 1952 - 2005.
King has made 25 solo albums, the most successful being Tapestry. Her most recent non-compilation album is Live at the Troubadour, a collaboration with James Taylor, which reached number 4 on the charts in its first week, and has sold over 600,000 copies.
She has won four Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her songwriting. Her album Tapestry held the record for most weeks at#1 by a female artist for more than 20 years until broken by the late Whitney Houston for the album The Bodyguard, and later by Adele for the album 21
Born Carol Joan Klein (she added the "e" to her first name) in 1942 to a Jewish family in Manhattan, New York City, King grew up in Brooklyn. She learned the piano at age 4 and began performing - singing, dancing and acting by age 8. She and school mates from formed 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 second hit, "Oh! Carol". She responded with "Oh! Neil" and then with "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" which she wrote with Gerry Goffin, whom she befriended at Queens College, as she did with Paul Simon. She later married Goffin and they had two daughters.
Goffin and King formed a songwriting partnership for Aldon Music at 1650 Broadway in New York. Their first success was "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", recorded by The Shirelles. It topped the American charts in 1960, becoming the first No.1 hit by a girl group. It was later recorded by Linda Ronstadt, Ben E. King, Dusty Springfield, Laura Branigan, Little Eva, Roberta Flack, The Four Seasons, Bryan Ferry, Dave Mason, Dionne Warwick, and Melanie Safka as well as by King herself, and Amy Winehouse.
On August 30, 1959, Goffin and then 17-year-old King married in a Jewish ceremony on Long Island. King gave birth to a daughter, Louise, and would later have another daughter, Sherry. Louise Goffin is a songwriter, musician & record producer. Sherry Goffin-Kondor is an artist manager, and in fact, manages Carole as well as other artists.
In 1965, Goffin and King wrote a theme song for Sidney Sheldon's television series, I Dream of Jeannie, but an instrumental by Hugo Montenegro was used instead. Goffin and King's 1967 song, "Pleasant Valley Sunday", a No. 3 for The Monkees, was inspired by their move to suburban West Orange, New Jersey. Goffin and King also wrote "Porpoise Song (Theme from Head)" for Head, the Monkees' film. (King also co-wrote "As We Go Along" with Toni Stern for the same film soundtrack.)
King sang backup vocals on the demo of Little Eva's "The Loco-Motion" which she also co-wrote. She had had a modest hit in 1962 singing one of her own songs, "It Might As Well Rain Until September" (22 in the US and 3 in the UK, later a hit in Canada for Gary and Dave), but after "He's a Bad Boy" made 94 in 1963, it took King nearly nine years years to reach the Hot 100 singles chart again as a performer.
As the 1960s waned, King helped start Tomorrow Records. Moving to the West Coast, Larkey, King, and Danny Kortchmar formed The City, which made one album, Now That Everything's Been Said. In 1968, King was hired, with Toni Stern, to write for Strawberry Alarm Clock. The duo wrote "Lady of the Lake" and "Blues for a Young Girl Gone"—which appeared on the album The World in a Seashell.
King made her first solo album, Writer, in 1970 for Lou Adler's Ode label. It peaked at number 84 in the Billboard Top 200.
King followed Writer in 1971 with Tapestry, featuring new folk-flavored compositions, as well as reinterpretations of two of her songs, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman". Tapestry was an instant success. With numerous hit singles – including a Billboard No.1 with "It's Too Late" – Tapestry held the No.1 spot for 15 consecutive weeks, remained on the charts for nearly six years, sold 10 million copies in the United States, and 25 million worldwide. The album garnered four Grammy Awards including Album of the Year; Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female; Record of the Year ("It's Too Late," lyrics by Toni Stern); and Song of the Year, become the first woman to win the award ("You've Got a Friend"). The album signaled the era of platinum albums, though it was issued prior to the invention of the platinum certification by the RIAA. It would eventually be certified Diamond. Tapestry was the top-selling solo album until Michael Jackson's Thriller in 1982.[citation needed] The album was later placed at 36 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list. In addition, "It's Too Late" was placed at No.469 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Carole King: Music was released in December 1971, certified gold on December 9, 1971. It entered the top ten at 8, becoming the first of many weeks Tapestry and Carole King: Music simultaneously occupied the top 10. The following week, it rose to 3, and finally No.1 on January 1, 1972, staying there for three weeks. The album also spawned a top 10 hit, "Sweet Seasons" (US No.9 and AC #2). Carole King: Music stayed on the Billboard pop album charts for 44 weeks, and was eventually certified platinum.
Rhymes and Reasons (1972), and Fantasy (1973) followed, each earning gold certifications. Rhymes and Reasons produced another hit, "Been to Canaan" (US No.24 and AC No.1), and Fantasy produced two hits, "Believe in Humanity" (US #28) and "Corazon" (US No.37 and AC #5), as well as another song that charted on the Hot 100, "You Light Up My Life" (US No.68 and AC #6).
In 1973, King performed a free concert in New York City's Central Park with 100,000 attending.
In September 1974, King released her album Wrap Around Joy, which was certified gold on October 16, 1974 and entered the top ten at 7 on October 19, 1974. Two weeks later it reached 1 and stayed there one week. She toured to promote the album. Wrap Around Joy spawned two hits. "Jazzman" was a single and reached 2 on November 9 but fell out of the top ten the next week. "Nightingale", a single on December 17, went to No.9 on March 1, 1975.
In 1975, King scored songs for the animated TV production of Maurice Sendak's Really Rosie, released as an album by the same name, with lyrics by Sendak.
Thoroughbred (1976) was the last studio album she made under the Ode label. In addition to enlisting her long-time friends such as David Crosby, Graham Nash, James Taylor and Waddy Wachtel, King reunited with Gerry Goffin to write four songs for the album. Their partnership continued intermittently. King also did a promotional tour for the album in 1976.
In 1977, King collaborated with another songwriter Rick Evers on Simple Things, the first release with a new label distributed by Capitol Records. Shortly after that King and Evers were married; he died of a cocaine overdose one year later. Simple Things was her first album that failed to reach the top 10 on the Billboard since Tapestry, and it was her last Gold-certified record by the RIAA, except for a compilation entitled Her Greatest Hits the following year. Neither Welcome Home (1978), her debut as a co-producer on an album, nor Touch the Sky (1979), reached the top 100.
Pearls – The Songs of Goffin and King (1980) yielded a hit single, an updated version of "One Fine Day".
Goffin and King divorced in 1968 but Carole and Goffin still co-wrote together, as well as with others. King lost touch with Goffin because of his declining mental health and the effect it had on their children
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