Carole King Songwriter & Artist
1960 # 1 Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow - The Shirelles 1961 # 1 Take Good Care of My Baby - Bobby Vee 1961 #32 Some Kind of Wonderful _ The Drifters 1962 #22 It Might As Well Rain Until September - Carole King 1962 # 1 The Loco-Motion - Little Eva 1962 #17 Chains - The Cookies 1962 # 6 Cryin In The Rain - Everly Brothers 1962 # 1 Go Away Little Girl - Steve Lawrence 1962 # 5 Up On The Roof - The Drifters 1963 # 7 Don't Say Nothin Bad About My Baby - The Cookies 1963 # 5 One Fine Day - The Chiffons
You won't find a Fifties Music Collection by Carole King, but her entrance into the world of pop music in the late 1950's reads like a script for an old Hollywood movie. She is a prime example of how the youth of America impacted popular music at that time. Carol Klein from Sheepshead Brooklyn, NY, believed strongly in her own talents. Every few days she would embark on the long train ride into Manhattan, after school, to knock on the doors of some of the industry's most powerful publishers and record executives. In a world dominated by middle-age, cigar smoking, wheeler-dealers, this 15 year-old girl with guts and determination eventually got the break she deserved. The bold teenager wound up recording her own 45s such as "Oh, Neil" on Alpine Records (an answer to Neil Sedaka's hit of the day, "Oh Carol") and "Short Mort" on RCA (a parody of Annette Funicello's "Tall Paul"). Neither was a hit but, both got some airplay and attention. Legend has it that Neil Sedaka, a high school classmate of Carole's, wrote his super hit "Oh, Carol" as an ode of sorts to Carole King. In addition to those recordings noted above, she had four other releases on the ABC-Paramount label. All of this before she was 16 years old! It wasn't, however, until after she joined forces with Gerry Goffin at the dawning of the 1960s that the promise of those early recordings was fulfilled with a the hit recording of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" by the Shirelles. Originally turned down by Columbia Records, the song became Goffin & King's first #1 hit when it was released on the Scepter label in 1960. Goffin & King quickly became not only one of the rock era's most popular songwriting teams, they also quickly won the respect and admiration of their peers. Lennon & McCartney idolized them; on their first visit to NYC, meeting Goffin & King was top on their list of priorities. In 1971 Carole released her now classic album, "Tapestry." The Album, with every song written or co-written by Carole remained on the Billboard charts for six years. In January of 1990, Gerry Goffin and Carole King were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This honor followed being inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in January 1987 and being awarded a Lifetime Achievement award by the Academy of Songwriters in 1988.
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