Carole King Klein (born Carol Joan Klein; February 9, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who has been active since 1958, initially as one of the staff songwriters at the Brill Building and later as a solo artist.
Regarded as one of the most significant and influential musicians of all time, King is the most successful female songwriter of the latter half of the 20th century in the US, having written or co-written 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100. King also wrote 61 hits that charted in the UK, making her the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts between 1962 and 2005.
King’s major success began in the 1960s when she and her first husband, Gerry Goffin, wrote more than two dozen chart hits, many of which have become standards, for numerous artists. She has continued writing for other artists since then. King’s success as a performer in her own right did not come until the 1970s, when she sang her own songs, accompanying herself on the piano, in a series of albums and concerts. After experiencing commercial disappointment with her debut album Writer, King scored her breakthrough with the album Tapestry, which topped the U.S. album chart for 15 weeks in 1971 and remained on the charts for more than six years.
King has made 25 solo albums, the most successful being Tapestry, which held the record for most weeks at No. 1 by a female artist for more than 20 years. Her record sales were estimated at more than 75 million copies worldwide. She has won four Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. She has been inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a performer and songwriter. She is the recipient of the 2013 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the first woman to be so honored. She is also a 2015 Kennedy Center Honoree.
Tapestry Revisited: A Tribute to Carole King is a 1995 tribute album honoring American singer, songwriter, and pianist Carole King. It features a diverse lineup of artists including Richard Marx, Aretha Franklin, Rod Stewart, Celine Dion, The Bee Gees and Amy Grant. The idea of this release was to re-create King’s 1971 album Tapestry track-for-track using other artists.
The album peaked at number 53 on the Billboard 200 and was certified Gold by the RIAA in the United States. (wikipedia)
Carole King’s 1971 album Tapestry was one of the best-selling LPs of the early ’70s and has had a lasting influence on pop singer/songwriters ever since. The idea of this tribute album was to re-create the album track-for-track using other artists. Since King had begun her career as a songwriter, with songs such as “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” hitting for other artists before turning up on Tapestry, it was an appropriate concept. Though each artist was asked to submit a finished track, there was some musical continuity in that several tracks — “You’ve Got a Friend,” by BeBe & CeCe Winans, featuring Aretha Franklin, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?,” by the Bee Gees, and “Smackwater Jack,” by the Manhattan Transfer — were produced by Arif Mardin, and a couple of others — “So Far Away,” by Rod Stewart, and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” by Celine Dion — were handled by David Foster.
In such a project, casting is everything, and the best versions were turned in by artists who grew up with the original album, such as Amy Grant (“It’s Too Late”), Richard Marx (“Beautiful”), and Faith Hill (“Where You Lead”). Such artists achieved a reasonable compromise between the King versions and their own sound. Artists like the Bee Gees and Stewart, who were King’s contemporaries, seemed to be going through the motions, and a raft of newer artists, such as Eternal, Curtis Stigers, Blessid Union of Souls, All-4-One, and Dion, seemed to be on the album because someone at their management companies thought it would be a good idea and displayed little feel for the material. But King’s music has a flexibility that allows for many interpretations, and while this album could not be recommended over the original, the new performances didn’t do it much harm. (by William Ruhlmann)
Personnel:
I am too lazy to list all the musicians who participated in this album (see booklet)
Tracklist:
01. Eternal: I Feel the Earth Move(King) 4.59
02. Rod Stewart: So Far Away (King) 4.25
03. Amy Grant: It’s Too Late (King/Stern) 3.58
04. Curtis Stigers: Home Again (King) 3.41
05. Richard Marx: Beautiful (King) 3.46
06. Blessid Union of Souls: Way Over Yonder (King) 3.53
07. BeBe & CeCe Winans feat. Aretha Franklin: You’ve Got A Friend(King) 6.03
08. Faith Hill: Where You Lead (King/Stern) 3.32
09. Bee Gees: Will You Love Me Tomorrow (King/Goffin) 5.02
10. The Manhattan Transfer: Smackwater Jack (King/Goffin) 4.37
11. All-4-One: Tapestry (King) 3.12
12. Celine Dion: (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (King/Goffin/Wexler) 3.43
More from Carole King:
ManyFantasticColors 