In the 1970s, Carole King was to females what Paul Simon was to males in terms of songwriting and pop music mainstays. Basically, if you didn't own King's most famous album, Tapestry you didn't know music.Carole King was born Carole Klein in Brooklyn, New York in 1942, where she first learned to play the piano at the age of four and formed her first band in high school, the vocal quartet the Co-Sines. While attending Queen's college the budding singer was a fixture at DJ Alan Freed's local Rock ‘n' Roll Shows and in addition to being a fan of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller (the composing team behind hits from Elvis Presley, the Coasters and Ben E. King), she was enraptured with the young Paul Simon, Neil Sedaka and Gerry Goffin, with whom she began writing (and later married). In 1959 Sedaka wrote hit single "Oh! Carol" for King but her response, "Oh! Neil!" didn't fare as well.Goffin and King began writing with pop songwriting factory Brill Building, where they worked alongside acts like Doc Pomus, Mort Shuman, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich and eventually wrote their first hit in 1961, the Shirelles' "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," followed by Bobby Vee's "Take Good Care of My Baby" and Little Eva's "The Locomotion." The couple eventually penned over 100 chart-topping hits like the Chiffons' "One Fine Day" and Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman" among others. King's solo career only spawned one hit single, 1962's "It Might as Well Rain Until September," and she continued to work with Goffin, with whom she and columnist Al Aronowitz founded fleeting label Tomorrow Records. Although the label crumbled, King married one of Tomorrow's acts, Charles Larkey of the Myddle Class when her marriage to Goffin fell apart and the couple moved out West. King, Larkey and N.Y.C. musician Danny Kortchmar formed City and released one LP, Now That Everything's Been Said but due to King's paralyzing stage fright the album was a commercial flop.Carole King's first solo record, 1970's Writer wasn't successful but one year later Tapestry was hailed the album of the era with singles "So Far Away" and "It's Too Late." The songstress went on the pursue a successful solo career that resulted in a series of albums into the new millennium.
