The show Carole King called the pinnacle of her career: “I’m just grateful”
There’s no better story of slowly burning genius than the career of Carole King.
While in 2025, we now rightly view her as a singer, songwriting icon whose greatest work lives through her iconic album Tapestry, it took the best part of a decade for her to begin building that legacy. Because in the late 1960s, King was happy playing the role of facilitator.
In the 1960s, she and her first husband, Gerry Goffin, were two of the most prolific songwriters in the business, quietly weaving a tapestry of influence that defined the era. A handful of bona fide hits from the decade were penned by the pair, and suddenly, this sound that was sweeping across the globe and being so beloved by audiences was the responsibility of two humble and relatively unknown musicians.
If you think I’m overstating her reach, just take a look at some of her credits. King wrote songs for The Monkees, Bobby Vee and The Drifters. Hefty contributions indeed, but nothing compared to The Beatles, who she penned ‘Chains’ for and of course, Aretha Franklin, for whom she gifted the impervious ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman’.
In total, 118 songs of hers have conquered the Billboard Hot 100, and so it was safe to say that she had her finger on the pulse. But then, at the turn of the decade, the King decided to step out of the shadow cast by her support role and fly on the wings of her own artistry. Her 1970 album Writer politely introduced her to the world, before the 1971 follow-up Tapestry grabbed its hand and shook it with authority.
On the track, she displayed how her own voice could give the songs she would have ordinarily gifted a whole new personal meaning. In fact, she rightly included ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman’, as well as ‘You’ve Got A Friend’, which she previously gifted to James Taylor.
But when Taylor heard Tapestry and King singing her own songs, in her own right, he was rightly stunned by the finished result. He said King had “decided to own her voice – no gauze on the lens, no affected technique – writing from her own personal experience and her own heart. She was herself, it read as being absolutely sincere, and it connected.”
So in 2021, this young songwriter who had started her career in the wings of the stage, watching others perform her songs, was now being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was a slowly burning career that ended with the respect she deserved, and so the night served as her finest moment.
“To me, there’s no ‘long overdue’ about it. I feel like I’ve had an amazing life and an amazing career and I’m just grateful. If this comes along with it, it’s a pinnacle.”
King’s legacy is enduring, with generations now just learning about her music and ensuring that her name is continuously raised in the conversation of cultural greatness. We’re just over 50 years on from Tapestry now, and I’d be willing to bet we’ll still be talking about it in another 50 too.
