The singer Carole King called the purest voices ever: “Utter joy”
When Carole King finished writing ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman’, she would have been forgiven for thinking she had just written one of music’s greatest ever songs.
Encapsulating the unbridled feeling of love on top of a melody so expertly crafted, it was immediately apparent that this song was a timeless classic. When she later released that on her own album Tapestry in 1971, she proved it. Her voice ached over the piano, feeling every word that she wrote before bursting into the chorus. If we hadn’t known any better by that point, we would have thought it was King at her very purest.
But, despite the obvious brilliance of the song, she did what many would perceive as career suicide. In 1968, she gifted the song to the great Aretha Franklin, letting her use her power to take it into loftier realms of greatness.
Now, on the surface, this was a reckless decision. Judgement through the lens of capitalism tells us that upon the creation of something so brilliant, selfishness must prevail. But King sits outside of that attitude, as a true servant to music. Being the songwriter she was, she sought to protect the song and the song only, and so gifting the powerhouse track to Franklin seemed like the obvious option.
Unsurprisingly, King’s judgement was proved correct as Franklin took the song and moulded it into something iconic. She knew full well that the chorus line was tailor-made for a singer like Franklin, but more importantly, knew that her take would be the perfect companion for the piano part laid down by King.
“She is one of the purest vocalists,” King gushed of Franklin. “Many gospel singers don’t go in pop. She was happy to. When you hear her perform, what comes to you is the utter joy of that instrument, and she brought that to every performance of every song that she did, be it gospel or pop. She really loved to sing, and she really loved to play piano.
“She always saw her role as I kind of see mine, which is just show up and be the instrument. She had a profound influence on music and on humanity.”
The relationship the pair shared through that song was showcased in 2015, when Franklin delivered a stirring rendition of the song. As King sat in the crowd, jittering with excitement, you would have never believed it was she who wrote the song. She reacted like one of us mere mortals, just happy to be in the presence of Franklin.
But that’s what made King the songwriter she is. Her completely egoless approach to making music is what allows her vulnerability and honesty to shine through whatever song it is she is writing, and subsequently serve it in the best way possible. Sure, in her own 1971 version, she proved that she had all the ability to record a brilliant version of the song herself, but she also wasn’t too stubborn to realise that in Franklin, she had the perfect voice for it.
