The songwriting, composing, and arranging genius Carole King has been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2021 as a performer on the same day her zeitgeist-shifting album Tapestry turns 50.
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King was inducted to the Rock Hall in 1990 with a non-performer award as a songwriter with her writing partner and former husband Gerry Goffin (the “Non-Performer Award” was renamed The Ahmet Ertegun Award in 2008 and honors songwriters, producers, disc jockeys, record executives, journalists and other industry professionals who have had a major influence on rock & roll).
Meanwhile, Tapestry is marking its 50th anniversary. Released on Lou Adler’s Ode Records on February 10, 1971, a day after King’s 29th birthday, it is one of the biggest selling albums of the 70s, if not the biggest, and in 1995 was the first album by a woman to be certified Diamond for 10 million sales. Its songs have been covered hundreds of times and have become a soundtrack to several generations.
Tapestry features seven songs written by King, two she co-wrote with lyricist Toni Stern, and three with lyricist Goffin.
In 2020, it landed at #25 on Rolling Stone’s The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, encompassing the entire history of rock and pop music. In 2000, Joel Whitburn, the number one authority on music chart history, named King the most successful female songwriter of 1955–99, because she wrote or co-wrote 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100.
If King wins, it will add to a list of accolades that includes Songwriters Hall of Fame (1987); BMI Icon Award (2012); Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award (2013) The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song (2013); MusiCares Person of the Year (2014); Kennedy Center Honoree (2015) and many more including Beautiful: The Carole King Musical which is #19 on the all-time list of highest-grossing Broadway musicals. Solo and with Gerry Goffin, King was picked as #7 on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time list.
