Carole King is a singer-songwriter who was born on 9th February 1942. She has been active for more than 60 years, since 1958. Carole King was first a staff-songwriter, at the Brill Building, and then later began her career as a solo artist. She is one of the most outstanding singer-songwriters in the second half of the 20th century in the US and had written over hundred-eighteen pop hits for the Billboard Hot 100. She also had 61 of her songs charting in the UK – which made her the most successful female songwriter in the UK for the period 1962-2005. Carole King came into the spotlight back in the 1960s when she and her then-husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than 24 songs which have now become legendary. However, this was only her success as a songwriter. As a singer, she knew success in the 1970s when she sang her own songs, with a piano.
Her first major album was Tapestry, which remained in the top for 15 weeks in the US album chart, and in the chart for more than 6 years. Since then, Carole has made 25 solo albums and has won 4 Grammys and has had her name inducted in the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, once and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice
Carole King: Early Life and Her Long Career
She was born Carole Joan Klein in New York to Jewish parents Eugenia and Sidney N Klein. The family faced quite a lot of difficulties due to the great depression and then the war. Carole’s mother learned piano from her mother, and when she was only 4 her parents noticed that she had the “absolute pitch.” This was also when her real music lessons began – and she was never forced into it. She was also quite a prodigy, as she skipped from Kindergarten straight to second Grade. Carole then attended Queens College. She and her first husband, Gerry Goffin wrote the hit single for the Shirelles, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” which went on to become the first No. 1 Billboard hit by an all-black girl group.
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The 1960s and 1970s:
Carole mastered the art of composition and Goffin wrote the lyrics. The couple then created a string of music for a ton of artists. They were the songwriter staff for Don Kirshner’s Dimension Records. Some of the songs the duo wrote include: Take Good Care of my Baby (for Bobby Vee), Up on the Roof (for Drifters), Pleasant Valley Sunday (for the Monkees), (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (for Aretha Franklin) and so on. After divorcing her first husband she moved to Los Angeles with her 2 young daughters and formed “The City,” consisting of Charles Larkey, her next husband, Danny Kortchmar and she herself as piano and vocals. But the group disbanded in 1969 without much success.
While in LA, Carole met James Taylor and Joni Mitchell. They wrote and composed many songs together. Her first solo album, Writer was for ODE Label of Lou Adler and peaked at 84 on Billboard Top 200 that year. Then Carole created her album Tapestry which was basically a blockbuster hit. The album won Album of the Year, Female Record of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Performance, and Song of the Year at the Grammys. It has also been inducted in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, at number 36. She made many other albums, but none so much successful as Tapestry. Carole King is also known for her free concert of 1973 which was held in New York City. More than 100,000 people attended.
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The 1980s and further:
Carole King signed under Atlantic Records, for whom she made One to One and Speeding Time. She also wrote the song, “Care a Lot,” for the Care Bear Movies. Her song, “Where You Lead” was re-recorded for the show Gilmore Girls. Then she wrote the song Sayonara Dance, recorded by Yuki. In 2010, she and James Taylor staged their Troubadour Reunion Tour. She returned to Capitol Records in 1989 and recorded City Streets and Colour of Your Dreams. Her song, “Now and Forever” was also nominated for a Grammy!
Recently she sang the song again during the quarantine. You can watch it here.
Carole King Net Worth
Apart from more than 15 albums, she also had 5 life albums and had occurred in many roles on Television such as Aunt Helen in The Mary Tyler Moor Show, Mother in Faerie Tale Theater, Sophie Bloom in the Gilmore Girls, and also in many movies like Murphy’s Romance, Ruskies and Hider in the House. She has written 118 pop hits after all! So it is no surprise that the legendary singer’s net worth is currently more than 70 million USD.
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