Although it doesn’t cover everything she accomplished, the documentary Carole King: Natural Woman hits the high points of an impressive career. Framed by her performance at the White House, where Pres. Barack Obama presented her with the Gershwin Prize, Natural Woman includes interviews with fellow songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, a smattering of home movies and snapshots from her early years along King’s contemporary reminiscences. Interspersed throughout are segments of a lengthy interview conducted with her at home in the late ‘70s.
Born Carole Klein in Brooklyn, she Anglicized her name as was not uncommon in America before the mid-1960s for entertainers. She was a teenager when she married her first important collaborator, Gerry Goffin. It was a fruitful marriage of sensibilities. Raised on a diet of Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, King wrote unselfconscious yet sophisticated little masterpieces, often imbuing her husband’s melancholic lyrics with a brighter tone. Goffin and King worked in the Brill Building, headquarters for many New York music publishers, from a cramped office furnished with a piano, two chairs and an ashtray. They wrote to order at a time when few singers penned their own material. Goffin’s genius was to write believably from a woman’s perspective; together they composed songs that were often deeply personal yet somehow universal.
The catalogue of their accomplishments through the mid-1960s is extensive. Goffin and King came to attention with The Shirelles’ “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” (1961), whose understated melody conveyed a girl’s emotional anxiety following her initial sexual encounter. Their succeeding hits included The Cookies’ “Chains” (1962), The Drifters’ “Up on the Roof” (1962), Herman’s Hermits’ “I’m Into Something Good” (1964), The Animals’ “Don't Bring Me Down” (1966), Aretha Franklin’s (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” (1967) and The Monkees’ “Pleasant Valley Sunday” (1967). Discovering talent in their 17-year old babysitter Little Eva, they wrote and produced her hit, “The Loco-Motion” (1962).
Although John Lennon and Paul McCartney admired Goffin and King (The Beatles covered “Chains” on an early album), their success changed the music industry through the example of rock bands recording their own songs rather than relying on professional writers. In 1968 with the Brill Building’s influence fading, Goffin and King moved to the burgeoning music scene in Los Angeles as their marriage was dissolving. King formed a combo, The City, with her new collaborator-husband, Charles Larkey. The band’s lone album, Now That Everything’s Been Said (1969), sold few copies but yielded two songs that became hits in other hands, “Hi-De-Ho” as covered by Blood Sweat and Tears and “You’ve Got a Friend” by James Taylor, who became a frequent collaborator.
The City’s producer, Lou Adler, saw greater potential for King as a soloist. The first album released under her name, Writer (1970), sold modestly. However, her second release, Tapestry (1971), set new sales records for an LP. Adler set an intimate mood by turning the lights low in the studio during the recording sessions. The resulting sound was warm and comfortable, and together with King’s songs, Tapestry became a relaxed coda to the chaos of the 1960s. The album had special appeal to women finding their way out of the sexism of the era’s culture and counterculture. Tapestry contained a number one hit, “It’s Too Late,” which addressed reality of the impermanence of marriage in post-1960s society through the lyrics of Toni Stern. Also included were new versions of “You’ve Got a Friend” and “A Natural Woman.”
Finally overcoming stage fright, King began touring in support of a string of successful albums, albeit none sold as well or had the impact of Tapestry. She continued to enjoy hit singles through the mid-1970s, including “Sweet Seasons” from Carol King: Music (1971), “Been to Canaan” from Rhymes and Reasons (1972) and “Jazzman” from Wrap Around Joy (1974). She has recorded and performed prolifically through the present day, authored an autobiography, and received many prizes and awards including the Gershwin Prize (2013) and Kennedy Center Honors (2015).
