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In the name of the King

Carole King's group hardly toured because of her stage fright

Born Carole Klein, Carole King started playing the piano when she was just four years old. In high school she was into lyrics, even forming her first band, the Cosines. When friend and neighbour Neil Sedaka, who went on to become a teenage heartthrob, left for New York to explore a career in music, King followed in his footsteps.

Sedaka dedicated his "Oh Carol" to her and it climbed the charts. But her riposte, "Oh Neil", got nowhere. While studying at Queen's College, an ability to pen lyrics like she did drew her to Gerry Goffin. The two became co-writers and were married not much later.

The songs they wrote together produced about a 100 hits, ranging across varied rock styles. The King-Goffin duo wrote and produced "The Loco-Motion" for their 17-year-old babysitter Little Eva Boyd, that scaled the charts and catapulted the latter to star status overnight. King went solo, but her only hit was "It Might As Well Rain Until September" that reached No. 22 on the charts. Along with columnist Al Aronowitz, King and Goffin launched their own label, Tomorrow Records, which failed. One band the brand featured was the Myddle Class that had Charles Larkey on bass. When King's relationship with Goffin soured and they divorced, she married Larkey.King formed another group, The City, that brought in guitarist Danny Kortchmar. Largely owing to King's stage fright, the band never toured but made an album called Now That Everything's Been Said. One of the tracks, "You've Got A Friend", earned James Taylor a hit. He encouraged her to write and sing her own songs. Working with Taylor and Kortchmar yielded Tapestry that had two hit singles, "It's Too Late" that peaked on the charts and "So Far Away" that touched No. 14. The offering won four Grammys, sold over 22 million copies and stayed on the charts for nearly six years.

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