Carole King

Carole King is an American singer, songwriter and musician from Manhattan, born in 1942. She begins as a staff songwriter at 1650 Broadway in 1958 and later works as a solo artist. She is associated with singer-songwriter, folk, folk pop, soft rock, soul and brill building styles.

Songwriting career

King becomes one of the most important US popular songwriters of the second half of the 20th century. She writes or co-writes 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and 61 hits that chart in the UK, making her the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts between 1962 and 2005. In the 1960s, she and her first husband Gerry Goffin write more than two dozen chart hits for other artists, many of which become standards. She continues writing for other performers after that period.

Solo recordings

Her profile as a performer grows in the 1970s when she records and performs her own songs while accompanying herself on piano. Her first album, Writer, does not achieve commercial success, but Tapestry becomes her breakthrough. The album reaches number one on the US album chart for 15 weeks in 1971 and remains on the chart for more than six years. It also holds the record for the longest time at number one by a female artist for more than 20 years. King makes 25 solo albums in total, including Music, Rhymes & Reasons, Fantasy, Wrap Around Joy, Thoroughbred, Simple Things, Welcome Home, Touch the Sky, Pearls: Songs of Goffin and King, One to One, Speeding Time, City Streets, Colour of Your Dreams, Love Makes the World and A Holiday Carole.

Recognition

King sells more than 75 million records worldwide. She wins four Grammy Awards, is inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and is inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once as a performer and once as a songwriter. She receives the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2013 and becomes the first woman to receive it. She is also named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2015.

Associated acts and labels

Her associated acts include The City, The Keestone Family Singers and The Cosines. Her labels include Rockingale Records and ELORAC Music.