‘Tapestry’ at 50: How Carole King ‘bet on herself’ to record a singer-songwriter classic

In January 1971, Carole King — a native New Yorker recently transplanted to touchy-feely Los Angeles — entered A&M Studios on La Brea Avenue to record her first album of songs for which she’d written both music and lyrics. “Carole bet on herself,” says Bareilles, who calls King her “north star.” “She had the courage to step out from a framework that’s safe and lucrative and to make a decision that’s a little bit more honest and a little bit more authentic.” Barry Mann, another Brill Building pro who with wife Cynthia Weil came up alongside Goffin and King, wasn’t surprised when the world learned to take Carole King seriously. “If it wasn’t ‘Tapestry,’ it would’ve been something else — she’s just so talented that it was only a matter of time,” he says. Asher says King’s appeal among artists “proves that the other Carole — the Brill Building Carole — was still in there: ‘Here’s a hit song for you.’” And as in that earlier era, when acts like the Drifters and Aretha Franklin were singing her stuff, many of the best interpretations came from Black soul and R&B artists such as Donny Hathaway, who did “You’ve Got a Friend” on a classic live album cut at the Troubadour in L.A., and the Isley Brothers, who turned “It’s Too Late” into a lusty-tortured slow jam. “Then at the end of it, when everybody’s saying, ‘Keep the big ball rolling,’ Carole says, ‘No, let’s quit while we’re still ahead.’ And she walked away.”