ALBUM: Tapestry (1971)
MVC Rating: 5.0/$$$
When I was growing up — I was about 11 when this came out — nearly all of the songs on Tapestry were on the radio. Or so it seemed. They are among the all time greatest pop songs ever written.
Rolling Stone magazine has her and writing partner Gerry Goffin at #7 on the list of greatest songwriters behind Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Chuck Berry, Smokey Robinson and Mick Jagger/Keith Richards. She’s the highest ranking female on the list. But I could argue for an even higher rank.
I think King hops the Stones’ boys and Smokey, all brilliant mind you, and on my desert Island I’d probably take the Stones first. But from a purely objective point of view, I think she’s a No. 5 on the list. And if you pulled the two Beatles together into one rank – the No. 2 slot — she would move up to the No. 4 slot. I’m not going to do a side-by-side on these but Tapestry, the album, is astonishing in that nearly every song is a standard.
But the kicker is this: Look at what she has written for other artists including a song — Chains — covered by the Beatles. Here’s a small sampling of non-Tapestry songs she wrote:
- ‘The Loco-motion’ for their babysitter Little Eva.
- “Go Away Little Girl,’ Donny Osmond and Steve Lawrence.
- ‘Up on the Roof,’ the Drifters.
- ‘Don’t Bring Me Down,’ the Animals.
- ‘If it’s Over,’ Mariah Carey.
- ‘One Fine Day,’ the Chiffons,
- ‘I’m into Something Good,’ Herman’s Hermits.
At one time I remember Tapestry being the biggest seller ever, at least for a period, eclipsing Beatles. Then I remember hearing Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ surpassed Tapestry. Don’t know if this is accurate, but it comes out of my Lewy body dementia memory that way. Tapestry is still in theTop 10 best selling album of all time.
The copy of Tapestry I have in the house is from my wife’s collection. We began dating in 1978 and were married 1981 and that involved ‘merging’ of some records and tastes. Catherine loved Tapestry and knew every word to every song. Here’s the songs from Tapestry as listed on Wikipedia.:
Side 1
- “I Feel the Earth Move” – 3:00
- “So Far Away” – 3:55
- “It’s Too Late” (lyrics by Toni Stern) – 3:54
- “Home Again” – 2:29
- “Beautiful” – 3:08
- “Way Over Yonder” – 4:49
Side 2
- “You’ve Got a Friend” – 5:09
- “Where You Lead” (lyrics by Carole King and Toni Stern) – 3:20
- “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” (Gerry Goffin, King) – 4:13
- “Smackwater Jack” (Goffin, King) – 3:42
- “Tapestry” – 3:15
- “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” (Goffin, King, Jerry Wexler) – 3:59
I was learning to like some of Catherine’s music: James Taylor, for whom I skipped class to camp out and buy tickets to his sold-out concert at Auburn University in, oh, 1980 maybe; Carly Simon, whose ‘Your So Vain’ was one of the few songs I could listen to a million times without getting tired of it. Other groups she loved that I came to appreciate, for the most part anyway: Bread, America, the Carpenters and Diana Ross.
Here’s a good overview of her work by Rolling Stone.