Carole King is one of the greatest songwriters to ever live. She is the most successful female songwriter of the last half of the twentieth century, having written or co-written 118 hits which charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Besides this one, she wrote seven other number one songs for other artists. After more than a decade writing for other people, she decided to record her own album. She had been told all her life that she had a great voice, so it was time to test that.

Her first album called Writer was a disappointment. It peaked at number 84 on the Billboard album charts. But, the second one was the charm. Tapestry was released in 1971 and became one of the most successful albums of all time. It stayed at number one on the album charts for 15 weeks and on the charts for a total of six years. At the time it was released, it became the best selling album of all time (a record which has been broken since.) It sold over 25 million copies. Tapestry earned four Grammy Awards that year, including Album of the Year and “It’s Too Late” won the Grammy for Song of the Year. Rolling Stone magazine has voted Tapestry number 36 of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. “It’s Too Late” is ranked number 469 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Carole King was born Carol Joan Klein in 1942 to a Jewish family in Manhattan, New York. After high school, she went to Queens College where she met and married Gerry Goffin. They worked at regular jobs until 1959 when Neil Sedaka, who had dated Carole in high school wrote and recorded the song “Oh, Carol.” Well, Carol couldn’t let him get away with that, so she sat down and wrote a response song, which she recorded called “Oh, Neil.” It was not a hit. However, songwriting seemed like a good way to make a living, so she wrote a second song “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” which was recorded by the Shirelles and went to number one. She was on her way. Her and Gerry quit their day jobs and started writing full time.

Another song which is on the Tapestry album was “You’ve Got a Friend” which Carol also wrote. Her friend James Taylor heard the song and decided he wanted to record it. It became a number one song for Taylor and we’ll get to the song in just a little while.

The double sided hit “It’s Too Late”/”I Feel the Earth Move” hit number one and, surprisingly, was Carole King’s only number one single. The songs entered the pop charts on May 22, 1971 and as was Billboard’s custom of putting back to back singles at the same position, spent five weeks at number one.