Legendary singer/songwriter Carole King is celebrating her 58th birthday
today. Perhaps best-known for her classic 1971 album, Tapestry, King
also co-wrote some of the biggest Brill Building hits in the '60s,
including "The Loco-Motion," "Will You Still Love Me
Tomorrow?" and "Up on the Roof," among others.
King was born Carole Klein in Brooklyn, N.Y., and began playing the piano at
age 4. Inspired by Alan Freed's rock concerts at Brooklyn's Paramount
theater in the late 1950s, she started her first band while still in high
school, the Co-sines. As a teen, King would take the train into Manhattan
and beat on the doors of the record industry, demanding to be heard. By
the age of 16, she had a few singles to her name, but it would not be until
she met future husband and fellow songwriter Gerry Goffin in 1958 that she
would begin her true walk toward rock stardom. Goffin and King scored
their first hit when the Shirelles hit #1 with "Will You Still Love Me
Tomorrow?," a song that was originally
turned down by Columbia Records. The songwriting duo quickly took up
residence with the songwriters in the Brill Building, writing hits for such
groups as the Byrds ("Wasn't Born to Follow"), the Animals ("Don't Bring Me
Down"), Herman's Hermits ("I'm into Something Good") and the Chiffons ("One
Fine Day"), among countless others.
In the late '60s, King, Goffin and writer Al Aronowitz tried to form their
own label but never quite got it off the ground. The only band on the
label, Myddle Class, featured a bass player named Charles Larkey, a man who
would eventually become King's second husband. In 1968, King formed a group
called the City but never toured due to extreme stage fright. Although
their one album was hardly a success, songs on it were covered years later by Blood,
Sweat and Tears ("Hi-De-Ho") and James Taylor ("You've Got a Friend") to
resounding success. With the encouragement of Taylor, King
wrote and recorded her first solo album. Released in 1970, Carole King:
Writer was merely a warm-up to the massive success that would come in
the form of 1971's Tapestry. Packed with wonderfully crafted pop
songs that were filled with heartfelt emotions, the album went #1, spawned two hit singles
("It's Too Late" and "So Far Away") and stayed on the charts for almost six
years. Kings next few albums were also successes, but none came near the
massive sales of Tapestry. 1975 saw King writing the music for
the children's television program "Really Rosie." King's albums have
continued to sell modestly through the '80s and '90s, and she continues to
tour. In 1990, she and Goffin were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame as songwriters.
Other birthdays: Major Harris (Delfonics), 51, and Joe Ely, 51.