Gerald Goffin (February 11, 1939 – June 19, 2014) was an American lyricist. Collaborating initially with his first wife, Carole King, he co-wrote many international pop hits of the early and mid-1960s, including the US No. 1 hits "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", "Take Good Care of My Baby", "The Loco-Motion", and "Go Away Little Girl". It was later said of Goffin that his gift was "to find words that expressed what many young people were feeling but were unable to articulate."
After he and King divorced, Goffin wrote with other composers, including Barry Goldberg and Michael Masser, with whom he wrote "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)" and "Saving All My Love for You", also No. 1 hits. During his career, Goffin wrote more than 114 Billboard Hot 100 hits, including eight chart-toppers, and 72 UK hits. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, with Carole King.
Biography
Early life and education
Goffin was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Queens, New York City. As a boy, he wrote lyrics in his head, as a game. He enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve after graduating from Brooklyn Technical High School. After a year at the U.S. Naval Academy as a member of the Class of 1961, he resigned from the Navy to study chemistry at Queens College.
Partnership with Carole King
At college he met Carol Joan Klein, who had started writing songs under the name Carole King. They began collaborating on songwriting, with King writing the music and Goffin the lyrics, and began a relationship. When King became pregnant, they left college and married in August 1959 when he was 20 and she was 17. Goffin began working with a chemicals manufacturer, and wrote the lyrics for King's 1959 single "Oh Neil", an answer song to her friend Neil Sedaka's "Oh! Carol". Goffin added the words to the tune written by Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, who both worked under Don Kirshner at the Aldon music publishing company in Manhattan; the single's B-side, "A Very Special Boy", was a Goffin-King composition. Although the record was not a hit, the couple both secured contracts to write songs professionally at Aldon.
Goffin at first worked with other writers including Barry Mann and Jack Keller, but he and Carole King soon established themselves as a successful writing team. The partnership's breakthrough hit was "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", for which Goffin wrote the lyrics. The song was recorded by the Shirelles and went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1961. Goffin and King formed one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of the period, with hit songs including: "Take Good Care of My Baby" (a hit for Bobby Vee), "Halfway to Paradise" (Tony Orlando, Billy Fury), "The Loco-Motion" (Little Eva, and later Grand Funk Railroad and Kylie Minogue), "Go Away Little Girl" (Steve Lawrence, and later Donny Osmond), "Don't Say Nothin' Bad (About My Baby)" (the Cookies), "It Might as Well Rain Until September" (Carole King), "One Fine Day" (the Chiffons), "Up on the Roof" (the Drifters and later James Taylor), "I'm into Something Good" (Herman's Hermits, but recorded first by Earl-Jean McCrea under the name Earl-Jean), "Don't Bring Me Down" (the Animals), "Oh No Not My Baby" (Maxine Brown, and later Rod Stewart), "Goin' Back" (Dusty Springfield, The Byrds), "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" (Aretha Franklin), and "Pleasant Valley Sunday" (the Monkees).
After splitting from King, Goffin released a solo album in 1973, It Ain't Exactly Entertainment, but it was not successful, and he began working with other composers, including Russ Titelman, Barry Goldberg, and then Michael Masser. He and Masser won an Academy Award nomination in 1976 for the theme to the film Mahogany, sung by Diana Ross; and also wrote "Saving All My Love for You", a worldwide hit for Whitney Houston, "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love", "Miss You Like Crazy" and "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You". Goffin and Masser also received a Golden Globe nomination for "So Sad the Song" from the 1976 Gladys Knight film Pipe Dreams. Goffin was one of the first people to take notice of Kelly Clarkson's talent and had hired her to do demo work before she auditioned for American Idol in 2002.
Goffin and his fourth wife, Michele, attended opening night of the musical Beautiful, which depicted his marriage to Carole King. Following their divorce, he married actress Michele Conaway (the sister of actor Jeff Conaway) in 1995.
Death
Goffin died on June 19, 2014, in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 75. His death was announced by his wife, Michele. No cause was specified. He left behind a wife, one son, four daughters, and six grandchildren. She went on to say, "His words expressed what so many people were feeling but didn't know how to say... Gerry was a good man and a dynamic force, whose words and creative influence will resonate for generations to come."