Carole King
Carole King ( born February 9, 1942 in Manhattan, New York; actually Carol Joan Klein ) is a major American musician, songwriter, singer and pianist. During their live performances, they also occasionally plays guitar. With the album Tapestry she was instrumental in the establishment of the singer-songwriter genre. Carole King is also one of the most successful songwriters of the rock and pop music. More than 100 of their songs were represented in the top 100 of the U.S. Billboard charts.
Career
Songwriter duo with Gerry Goffin
King grew up as the child of Jewish parents in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of four years, Carole King took piano lessons during high school, she began composing songs. In high school, she went for a while with Neil Sedaka, who later became his hit Oh! Carol named after her; she wrote in return a new text and published a song called Oh! Neil. During her time at the College, which also Paul Simon visited, she met her first husband Gerry Goffin know. Together with him, they formed next to Burt Bacharach and Hal David another major songwriting duo of the 1960s. While King composed the melodies, Goffin wrote the lyrics, including for The Everly Brothers, The Drifters, The Byrds, Dusty Springfield and Aretha Franklin. Their first number one hit was the 18 -year-old Carole King with the song Will You Love Me Tomorrow, written for the black girl group " The Shirelles ". More Top Five hits have included: The Locomotion ( Little Eva ), Take Good Care of My Baby (Bobby Vee ) One Fine Day ( The Chiffons ) and Up on the Roof ( The Drifters ). Among her admirers were the Beatles, who published the piece Chains on their first album Please Please Me. John Lennon and Paul McCartney later commented: "Our goal was to write compositions in the style of Carole King and Gerry Goffin. "
From the early 1960s, there are also some publications with Carole King as a singer, including the hit song It Might As Well Rain Until September. The plate was first published on Companion No. 2000 early 1962 and later appeared at Dimension No. 2000; the title in 1962 reached number 22 in the U.S. charts. The single He's A Bad Boy U.S. catalog number Dimension 1009 1963 reached number 94
Solo artist
After her success for Natural Woman Aretha Franklin separated by Gerry Goffin and Carole King went to California, where she lived in the famous Laurel Canyon with her second husband, bassist Charley Larkey, and her two daughters Louise and Sherry in Los Angeles, in close contact with James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and many other distinguished musicians of the time. With Gerry Goffin they remained friends, and both composed in the following years regularly songs. Their first album in 1968, she took on even within a group called "The City", as they primarily saw himself as a songwriter and as a singer less.
Under the influence of James Taylor began in 1970 with its own stage performances and released her, although critics praised, but otherwise hardly noticed first solo album Writer. The following year saw with Tapestry one of the most successful albums in pop music. With a system based on Jazz, Blues and Soul soft rock Carole King created its own style of music lasting influence on pop and rock music had. The winner of four Grammys LP has sold worldwide over 25 million times and stayed for 25 years the best-selling album by a solo singer. In Tapestry are classics like So Far Away, It's Too Late, You've Got a Friend and Natural Woman. The single from the It's Too Late held in 1971 five weeks at No. 1 on the U.S. singles charts.
The following record releases were successful and received multi-platinum status. According to the " soulful " album Music (1971 ) and the bittersweet Rhymes and Reasons (1972 ) they showed on their concept album Fantasy in 1973 that it is also an excellent jazz pianist and composer -.
After more commercial pop album Wrap Around Joy by 1974 and contained No. 2 hit Jazzman, which was nominated for a Grammy in 1975, she brought the 1976 critically acclaimed album Thoroughbred out that looked like Tapestry. Some pieces she wrote for it again together with her ex-husband Gerry Goffin, including the melancholy ballad High out of Time - with James Taylor as a background singer. On her album Simple Things (1977 ), she released the hit Hard Rock Cafe.
After separation by Larkey, the sudden drug-related death of her third husband and some less successful albums she retired early 80s from the music business. Carole King, who was politically very active and always had been engaged early 70s also in the peace movement, now made himself strong for environmental protection projects.
Since the late 80s: singer, songwriter, actress
After a long pause, she brings musical since the late 80s at irregular intervals new releases on the market, where it is supported among others by musicians such as Eric Clapton, KD Lang, Slash and Babyface. In July 1989, it reached " City Streets " for the only time the German single charts (# 67). It continues to be very successful as a songwriter - also in the RnB genre; for example, Mariah Carey and Celine Dion, she wrote hits. With their published 1993 rock album Colour of Your Dreams, and the top 20 single Now and Forever - also the title song for the movie " A League of Their " with Tom Hanks, Geena Davis and Madonna - she made a commercial comeback in the music scene.
As part of the renaissance of the singer-songwriter genre in the 90s by singers like Tori Amos or Tracy Chapman, Carole King called repeatedly as a model for their musical style, put one of the artist with the album Tapestry Revisited 1996, a musical monument. The twelve songs of their album from 1971 be interpreted on by well-known artists such as Aretha Franklin, Rod Stewart, Amy Grant or Faith Hill.
In 1998 she performed at the " VH1 Divas " concert on as a surprise guest stars such as Aretha Franklin, Shania Twain, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Gloria Estefan with 've Got a Friend and Natural Woman.
Carole King is also active as an actress and had great success in the 90's on Broadway. Politically, she sits still for a left-wing liberals and the civil rights movement. In the U.S. election campaign in 2004, she supported the Democrats. Your 60th birthday celebrated in Cuba - along with Fidel Castro - to set as a sign of a policy of reconciliation.
With its publication Love Makes the World ( 2001) they earned back the praise of critics.
In summer 2004, Carole King was after more than ten years of stage break in the U.S. back on a concert tour. The concert recording of the Living Room Tour came in the summer of 2005 on the market, reaching number 17 on the Billboard charts. Together with her daughter Louise Goffin, she brought the song Where You Lead as the theme song for the TV series " Gilmore Girls" in a revised version on. In this series, King has also appeared as a guest star and played several times, the music store owner Sophie.
End of 2006, Carole King toured for the first time by Australia and New Zealand. On 3 December 2012, she got her star with the number 2486 on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.