On February 10, 1971, Carole King changed the musical world forever with the release of her seminal sophomore album, Tapestry. What began as a collection of demos by a mother of two young children transformed into one of the best-selling albums of all time and a defining record of the decade.
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But if you were to ask King (and if she were to break her usual protocol of not speaking about past works), she’d have a much different take.
Why Carole King Said ‘Tapestry’ Was Just A Trick Of Speed
Carole King’s 1971 album Tapestry spent a whopping fifteen weeks at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Amazingly, this tenure at the top of the charts was three months longer than it took to record the album in the first place. King’s seminal record came on the heels of a massive move from her life on the East Coast with her ex-husband and co-songwriter Gerry Goffin to her new life in the West Coast’s famous Laurel Canyon soft-rock scene. She had two young children in tow as she made this massive cross-country move, which meant King had little time, energy, or finances to spare.
So, they worked quickly. King and her crew (including friends and collaborators Joni Mitchell and James Taylor) spent three weeks in the studio with a budget of $22,000, which translates to about $170,000 today. As the album title suggests, the entire 12-track record had a homegrown feel—a little rough around the edges, but all the more endearing because of it. Even the cover photo, featuring King comfortably resting on a windowsill, barefoot, with a homemade tapestry on her lap and a cat at her feet, hearkened to the natural woman vibe of the iconic album.
But to King, the speed with which she recorded the album wasn’t just an artistic choice: it was, in a way, a trick. “It was almost like Obama’s first presidential run when he sprinted through the campaign so quickly that the Republican dirt machine didn’t get him in their sights,” she mused. “People didn’t get a chance to say, ‘Oh, Carole, she doesn’t really have a singer’s voice. Or, ‘She’s a mother,’ or, ‘She’s from Brooklyn.’”
The Album’s Success Was Even A Surprise To The Songwriter
Although many would consider Tapestry to be their first formal introduction to Carole King, the pianist and singer-songwriter had already been working in the music industry for years. King and her writing partner, ex-husband, and father to her first two children, Gerry Goffin, wrote several hit songs for other artists, including “The Loco-Motion” and “One Fine Day.” King’s solo debut, Writer, came out one year before Tapestry. But with hit singles like “It’s Too Late” and “You’ve Got a Friend,” there was no getting out from under the shadow of Tapestry. It was a monumental success.
In the same interview where King said she was able to “trick” her colleagues by zooming in and out of the studio in an astonishing three-week time frame, the “I Feel the Earth Move” singer said that instead of having time to worry about whether her voice was good enough, if a young mother could be a successful pop star, etc., “The first thing you knew about it was, ‘Here’s this incredible material.’ People heard it and said, ‘Yeah, that’s for me. ‘ It was like a first-pitch home run. Of course, that wasn’t true. It came after a decade of work.”
Still, not even King could have expected the success she would enjoy following her 1971 release. In a 2006 interview with the ABC, King summed up her response to Tapestry’s historic success in two words, heavily decorated with a thick New York accent: “Who knew?”
Photo by Jim McCrary/Redferns
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