Tapestry (album)

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Tapestry
Carole King's studio album

Publication
(s)

February 10, 1971

admission

January 1971

Label (s) Ode Records

Format (s)

LP , CD , MC , SACD

Genre (s)

Pop , soft rock , folk

Title (number)

12

running time

44:31

occupation

production

Lou Adler

Studio (s)

A&M Recording Studios, Hollywood

Tapestry is the second and most successful studio album by the American musician Carole King , who until then was best known as a songwriter of rock and pop songs . The album was released in 1971 on Lou Adler's label Ode Records.

history

James Taylor , companion and close friend, had persuaded Carole King to sing her own songs and present them on an album. She made her solo debut in 1970 with the critically acclaimed album Writer , which was not very successful commercially.

A year later she made her breakthrough as a singer with the gentle rock songs on the album Tapestry, based on jazz , blues and soul . Numerous well-known studio musicians as well as Joni Mitchell and James Taylor as background singers were brought in for the recordings . Tapestry was number one in the US charts for 15 weeks and is now one of the classics of pop and rock music. Of the releases, the songs I Feel the Earth Move and It's Too Late also reached first place in the charts. World was Tapestry sold more than 25 million times.

reception

source rating
Allmusic
Laut.de

At the 1971 Grammy Awards, Carole King received four awards in the following categories: Album of the Year , Single of the Year ( It's Too Late ), Best Female Vocal Contribution, and Song of the Year ( You've Got a Friend ). In the same year, James Taylor led You've Got a Friend to first place on the pop charts and received a Grammy Award for Best Male Vocal Performance in 1972, making Carole King's songs the big winners at that year's Grammy Awards 1972 were. Taylor released the song in 1971 on his album Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon , on which Carole King had also worked.

The music magazine Rolling Stone leads Tapestry at number 36 of the 500 best albums of all time . In the selection of the 500 best albums of the New Musical Express , it ranks 82. The magazine Time took Tapestry on the compilation of the 100 most important albums.

Track list

With the exception of the marked exceptions, all songs were written by Carole King .

page 1

  1. I Feel the Earth Move - 3:00
  2. So Far Away - 3:55
  3. It's Too Late (Text: Toni Stern, Music: Carole King) - 3:54
  4. Home Again - 2:29
  5. Beautiful - 3:08
  6. Way Over Yonder - 4:49

Page 2

  1. You've Got a Friend - 5:09
  2. Where You Lead (Text: Toni Stern, Music: Carole King) - 3:20
  3. Will You Love Me Tomorrow? ( Gerry Goffin , Carole King) - 4:13
  4. Smackwater Jack (Gerry Goffin, Carole King) - 3:42
  5. Tapestry - 3:15
  6. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (Text: Jerry Wexler , Music: Gerry Goffin and Carole King) - 3:59

CD release

In 1999 a new edition was released on CD. For this purpose, two previously unreleased bonus tracks were added to the twelve original songs: Out in the Cold (recorded in 1971) and a live version of Smackwater Jack .

Cover versions

The oldest song on the album is Will You Love Me Tomorrow . Carole King wrote this song together with her first husband Gerry Goffin in 1960 - at the age of 18 - for the girl group The Shirelles , which had one of their biggest hits. In 1966 Cher released her version of Will You Love Me Tomorrow on her solo album Cher . Dionne Warwick recorded this song again in the 1980s .

Likewise, (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman was a top 10 hit for Aretha Franklin back in 1967 . But other singers also had success with Natural Woman, such as Mary J. Blige , Celine Dion or Kelly Clarkson . As early as 1971 Barbra Streisand included the three pieces Beautiful , Where You Lead and You've Got a Friend in her repertoire and released these songs on the LP Barbra Joan Streisand .

The ballad You've Got a Friend in particular became an evergreen . Numerous international artists recorded the song; there are over 100 cover versions in total. James Taylor had his only # 1 hit in 1971 and also received a Grammy for his version. You've Got a Friend was part of Ella Fitzgerald's repertoire as early as 1972 .

Tapestry Revisited

In the course of the renaissance of the singer-songwriter genre in the 90s by singers like Tori Amos or Tracy Chapman , the artist was given a musical memorial with the album Tapestry Revisited in 1996. The twelve tracks on the 1971 album are then interpreted by artists such as Aretha Franklin, Rod Stewart , Amy Grant and Faith Hill .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Review by Jason Ankeny on allmusic.com (accessed May 8, 2018)
  2. Review by Giuliano Benassi on laut.de (accessed on May 8, 2018)
  3. 500 Greatest Albums of All Time on rollingstone.com (accessed May 8, 2018)
  4. The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time on pitchfork.com (accessed May 8, 2018)
  5. All-TIME 100 Albums on time.com (accessed May 8, 2018)