- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- Carole King had already been a legendary songwriter for more than a decade; but Tapestry put her in the front ranks of pop music performers as well.
Carole King – Tapestry (1971): Carole King had already been a legendary songwriter for more than a decade, often for material that she co-wrote with her ex-husband Gerry Goffin; but Carole King’s second solo album, Tapestry put her in the front ranks of pop music performers as well. Carole King’s vocal style is more idiosyncratic and less polished than pure singers like Linda Ronstadt and Barbra Streisand, but her singing is packed with warmth and emotion; and with Tapestry, Carole King made a connection with her audience that few others have been able to match over the years. James Taylor had originally encouraged Carole King to record the songs that she had written; he played guitar on Tapestry and also wrote the liner notes.
Naturally, Carole King wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the album; and two of these songs had already been major hits for others: “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” by Aretha Franklin (in 1967), and “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” by the Shirelles (in 1960). Two of the songs on the album became hits while Tapestry was still on the charts: James Taylor had a #1 hit single with “You’ve Got a Friend” later in 1971, and Barbra Streisand made the Top 40 with her cover of “Where You Lead”, also in 1971. Carole King’s own renditions of two singles from Tapestry – “It’s Too Late” and “I Feel the Earth Move” – each spent five weeks at Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. With 25 million copies sold, Tapestry is one of the largest selling albums of all time and stayed on the Billboard album charts for more than six years. Tapestry’s run of 15 consecutive weeks as the #1 album is still the record for a female solo artist. At the Grammy Awards in 1972, Tapestry was named Album of the Year and won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; also, “It’s Too Late” was named Record of the Year, and “You’ve Got a Friend” was named Song of the Year. (Record of the Year is awarded for the performance, while Song of the Year is a songwriter’s award). Carole King is the first woman to be given the Grammy for Song of the Year, and she is the first female solo artist to win Record of the Year. In 2016, Carole King performed all of the songs on Tapestry live for the first time; an album of the concert was released the following year, called Tapestry: Live at Hyde Park. On its most recent listing (in 2020) of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”, Rolling Stone magazine moved Tapestry up to #25.