Carole King (1942-present) is one of the most celebrated singer-songwriters of all time. She wrote her first hit song at seventeen and has recorded over 25 solo albums.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan. And this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today we’re talking about one of the most celebrated singer-songwriters of all time. She wrote her first hit song at seventeen and has recorded over 25 solo albums.
Let’s talk about the earth-moving Carole King.
Carole King was born “Carol Joan Klein” in New York in 1942. Her dad was a firefighter, her mom a school teacher. A drama major in college, Carol’s mom loved music and theater and practiced the piano from time to time. That was how a curious young Carol was introduced to music. By the time she was four, Carole’s parents discovered that Carole had perfect pitch – she was able to name a note correctly just by hearing it. Propped up on a piano stool made higher by a phone book, Carole learned basic piano technique from her mom. Carole later said, “My mother never forced me to practice. She didn’t have to. I wanted so much to master the popular songs that poured out of the radio.”
Carole was also gifted with words and numbers, and even skipped a few grades.
Around the time she was in second grade, she started writing songs and in high school, Carole formed a band and made demo records. At just 16, Carole graduated from high school and enrolled at Queens College. There, she met Gerry Goffin, who became her songwriting partner - and husband. The two co-wrote the Shirelles’ number one hit “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”. The song was the first No.1 hit by a Black girl group. Still in their teens, Carole and Gerry, quit their daytime jobs to become full-time songwriters.
In the 1960s, Carole and Gerry wrote dozens of chart hits for artists including Bobby Vee and The Beatles. The duo’s songwriter career hit a crescendo with Aretha Franklin’s recording of “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman” in 1967. The next year, however, the couple separated and Carole began her solo career.
Carole moved with their two daughters to Los Angeles. She formed a short-lived music trio called “The City”, where she met her second husband, bassist Charles Larkey. They would go on to have two children. Around that time, Carole met James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and lyricist Tony Stern. They would go on to become her frequent collaborators.
In 1971, Carole’s solo album Tapestry took the world by storm. Tapestry held the number one spot on the Billboard album chart for 15 weeks and earned Carole four Grammys -- a first for a female artist. She received awards for best song for “You Got a Friend,” a collaboration with James Taylor, and best single for “It’s Too Late”. Other hit singles included “I feel the Earth Move” and “So Far Away”. Tapestry remained the best-selling album by a female artist for a quarter century and in 1998 the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Looking back at Tapestry, Carole said “it might have been the Vietnam War, the violence, the cultural divide.. people around the world have told me Tapestry helped them reconnect with basic human feelings when they really needed that”. Carole went on to earn three other platinum and eight gold albums.
While Carole’s career was on the up and up, her personal life was more of a challenge. In the mid 1970s, she and Charles Larkey divorced and Carole married Rick Evers, who turned out to be abusive. Not long after they married, Rick Evers died.
Through the 1980s and 1990s, Carole collaborated with artists including Eric Clapton, Faith Hill, and Rod Stewart. In 1987, she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Despite her success, Carole famously kept a low public profile, preferring to live quietly in her Idaho home, spending her energy on environmental and political issues. In 2003, she campaigned for John Kerry and in 2017, marched in the Women’s March carrying a sign that said “One Small Voice” - later saying “I’ve never stopped believing that one small voice plus millions of other small voices is exactly how we change the world”.
Carole released her memoir, A Natural Woman, in 2012, and two years later, “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” opened on Broadway - a musical capturing her life story. That same year, Carole King was honored as MusiCare’s Person of the Year and stars including Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys, and Kacey Musgraves performed some of Carole’s classics. At the end of the show, at 72, Carole told a captivated crowd: “I am first, last, and always a songwriter.”
To date, over 400 of Caroles compositions have been recorded by over 1,000 artists. She remains one of the most revered and influential female singers in U.S. music history.
All month we’re talking about musicians. Tune in tomorrow to hear about another amazing trailblazer. For more on why we’re doing what we’re doing, subscribe to our newsletter, Womannica Weekly. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram @EncyclopediaWomannica and you can follow me directly on Twitter @jennymkaplan.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow!