Carole King was born in New York City as Carol Joan Klein on Feb. 9, 1942 to firefighter Sidney N. Klein and his wife Eugenia Cammer, a teacher. When she was 4-years-old Carole could name a note just by hearing it, a skill her parents enjoyed showing off to their friends. She began learning piano the same year, and after a year of kindergarten was promoted to second grade, so advanced was she with words and numbers.
At James Madison High School in the 1950s, she formed a band called the Co-Sines, and changed her name to Carole King. With her friend Paul Simon, she made demo records. A age 17 she married Gerry Goffin, a classmate at Quens College, with whom she was expecting a baby and who became her songwriting partner. In August 1959, her daughter Louise was born. Around the same time, Neil Sedaka who had dated King, wrote “Oh! Carol.” Goffin and King wrote “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” by the Shirelles, which became a Number One hit, and persuaded King and Goffin that they could give up their day jobs respectively as a secretary and assistant chemist to concentrate on songwriting.
With King composing the music and Goffin writing the lyrics they wrote a string of hits for various groups including “Chains,” “The Loco-Motion,” “Half Way to Paradise,” “Take Good Care of My Baby,” “Up on the Roof,” “I’m into Something Good,” “One Fine Day,” “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” and “(You make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.” By 1968, Goffin and King were divorced and King moved to Los Angeles, where King met James Taylor and Joni Mitchell. Taylor provided backing vocal and played acoustic guitar for King’s first solo album “Writer.” Next came her breakthrough album “Tapestry” with reinterpretations of her songs “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” and originals “It’s Too Late” and “You’ve Got a Friend,” which Taylor also recorded.
“Tapestry” won the Grammy Award as album of the year and three other awards: Record of the Year (lyrics by Toni Stern), Song of the Year, and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female. In 1973, 100,000 attended King’s free concert in New York City’s Central Park. She continued concertizing and composing songs until 2012, when she announced her retirement from music but “retirement” was short-lived. She did an Australian concert tour in 2013, and performed in Boston with James Taylor for victims of the Boston Marathon Bombing. That same year U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hosted a concert at the White House in honor of King receiving the Library of Congress’s Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the first woman to receive the distinction.
King was married four times, respectively to Goffin, Charles Larkey, Rick Evers, and Rick Sorenson. She had three children: Louise Goffin, Sherry Goffin Kondor, Molly Larkey and Levi Larkey. She guest starred in different television series, and campaigned for Democratic presidential candidates John Kerry and Joe Biden. Among artists who covered her songs: James Taylor, Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, Barbra Streisand, Helen Reddy, The Carpenters, Martika, Gloria Estefan, Linda Ronstadt, and Celine Dion. Her song “Where You Lead” was the theme song of the television’s Gilmore Girls.
Tomorrow, February 10: Mark Spitz
*
SDJW condensation of a Wikipedia article