Tapestry is the second studio album by the American singer-songwriter Carole King. Produced by Lou Adler, it was released on February 10, 1971, through Ode Records. The album's lead single, "It's Too Late" / "I Feel the Earth Move", spent five weeks at number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts.
The album has received critical acclaim since its release and is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time. It won four Grammy Awards at the 14th Annual Grammy Awards in 1972, including Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year. Tapestry has been certified 14× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998 and into the National Recording Registry in 2003.
Production
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King began her career as a songwriter in the early 1960s, often in collaboration with her first husband Gerry Goffin. She wrote and co-wrote a string of hit songs performed mostly by other artists – a notable exception being her 1962 hit "It Might as Well Rain Until September" – before eventually deciding to sing her own material professionally.
She wrote and co-wrote all of the songs on the album. Two songs were co-written with Toni Stern: "It's Too Late" and "Where You Lead"; King wrote the music and Stern the lyrics. King's ex-husband Gerry Goffin co-wrote the lyrics for three of the songs, two of which had already been hits for other artists: Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" (in 1967), and The Shirelles' "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" (in 1960).
James Taylor, who encouraged King to sing her own songs and who also played on Tapestry, had a number one hit with "You've Got a Friend" later in 1971.
The album was recorded at A&M Recording Studios' Studio B It shows her sitting barefoot on a cushion on a bench beside a window, holding a tapestry that she had hand-stitched, with her cat Telemachus, named after the mythological son of Odysseus, near her foot.
Critical reception
Released on February 10, 1971, through Ode Records, Tapestry was met with widespread critical acclaim. Jon Landau of Rolling Stone wrote that King was one of the most creative pop music figures and had made an album of "surpassing personal intimacy and musical accomplishment". The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau wrote that her voice, free of "technical decorum", would liberate female singers; in the publication's annual Pazz & Jop poll, Tapestry ranked as the year's 10th best album.
In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Jason Ankeny called Tapestry a "remarkably expressive and intimate record" and a "work of consummate craftsmanship". Praising King's songwriting and performances, he concluded, "in its time it connected with listeners like few records before it, and it remains an illuminating experience decades later." It was also the most awards a single artist had received in one ceremony up to that point.
Commercial performance
Tapestry was a huge commercial success. It spent 15 consecutive weeks at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200. It still holds the record for most consecutive weeks at number one by a female solo artist. The album also spent more than six years on the Billboard 200 chart (318 weeks), including 302 consecutive weeks. For more than 40 years, it held the record for the longest-charting album by a female solo artist in the U.S., until Adele's 21 broke the record in 2017. As of 2021, Tapestry was certified 14 times platinum in the U.S. and had sold around 25 million copies worldwide.
In Canada, Tapestry spent nine weeks at number one beginning July 3, 1971. It was on the Top 100 chart from April 14, 1971, to January 20, 1973, and again from September 22, 1973, to February 16, 1974. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number 32 on UK Albums Chart and eventually rose to number four, spending 136 weeks in the Top 100.
Cultural impact
King had been writing hit songs for a decade, but Tapestry was her first project to win her international acclaim as a singer. Several songs from the album were recorded by other artists and became hits while the album was still on the charts: James Taylor's 1971 recording of "You've Got a Friend" from Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon hit number one in the U.S. and number four in the U.K., and Barbra Streisand's 1971 studio recording of "Where You Lead" from her album Barbra Joan Streisand reached number 40, while a live recording of a medley in which Streisand paired the song with the Sweet Inspirations' hit "Sweet Inspiration" from her album Live Concert at the Forum reached number 37 the following year. In a 2007 article for Mojo magazine, singer Tori Amos said that King's songs "are like stories or sonic movies", and that "I Feel the Earth Move" and "It's Too Late" make the listener "want to walk into them".
In 2015, for its sixth and final season, American TV series Glee paid tribute to the album in its episode "Jagged Little Tapestry". Five songs from Tapestry are performed by various artists. Two of them, "It's Too Late" and "So Far Away", are performed on their own, while the other three are used in a mashup with a song from Jagged Little Pill. "I Feel the Earth Move" is mashed up with "Hand in My Pocket", "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" with "Head Over Feet", and "You've Got a Friend" with "You Learn". The episode was watched by 1.98 million viewers and received a 0.7/2 in the adult 18–49 demographic.
In March 2016, it was announced that King would perform the album live in its entirety for the first time at the British Summer Time Festival in Hyde Park, London, on July 3, 2016. The performance was released the following year as Tapestry: Live at Hyde Park.
Rankings
Tapestry has appeared on critics' lists of the best albums. In 2000, it ranked 74th in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. VH1 ranked the album 39th on its list of 100 Greatest Albums, while Time magazine included it in a similar list. In 2003, it ranked 36th on Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, maintaining that rating in a 2012 revised list and moving up to 25th in the 2020 revision. In 2014, the magazine included the album in its list of the 40 most groundbreaking albums of all time, writing that with Tapestry, "Not only did King secure a foothold for women as hit songwriters, but as a singer, she broke down the double-standard that allowed men like Bob Dylan to use their imperfect voices to express personality, but constrained women to harsher standards of precision." In 2013, NME ranked Tapestry at number 82 in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2024, Paste ranked Tapestry number 33 on its list of the 300 greatest albums of all time. Staff writer Matt Melis said that the album is "arguably the definitive singer-songwriter album of the early '70s".
In 1998, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2003, Tapestry was one of 50 recordings chosen to be added to the National Recording Registry for preservation in the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important". The album is also included in the 2018 edition of Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Track listing
All songs written by Carole King except where noted.
2008 "Legacy Edition"
In 2008, Sony/BMG, Epic, and Ode released a two-disc "Legacy Edition". One disc is the original album remastered; the second is live performances of 11 of the 12 songs, recorded in 1973 in Boston; Columbia, Maryland; and Central Park, New York; and in 1976 at the San Francisco Opera House ("Where You Lead" is the song not included on the live disc).
Personnel
- Carole King – lead and backing vocals (1–12), piano and keyboards (1–12)
- Ralph Schuckett – electric piano (3,8,10)
- Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar – acoustic and electric guitars (1,3,6,8–10), congas (3,5,7)
- James Taylor – acoustic guitar (2,4,6,7,9), backing vocals (9)
- Charles Larkey – electric bass (1–3,5,6,8,10), string bass (4,7,9,12)
- Joel O'Brien – drums (1,3,5,6,10)
- Russ Kunkel – drums (2,4,8,9)
- Curtis Amy – flute (2), soprano saxophone (3), tenor saxophone (6), baritone saxophone (10)
- Barry Socher – violin (6,7)
- David Campbell – viola (6,7)
- Terry King – cello (6,7)
- Perry Steinberg – string bass (6)
- Merry Clayton – backing vocals (6,8,10)
- Julia Tillman – backing vocals (8,10)
- Joni Mitchell – backing vocals (9)
;Technical
- Lou Adler – producer
- Hank Cicalo – engineering
- Vic Anesini – mastering
- Roland Young – art direction
- Chuck Beeson – design
- Jim McCrary – photography
- Michael Putland – photograph on CD tray of 1999 re-release
- Bob Irwin – production for 1999 re-release
- Jessica Killorin – product manager for 1999 re-release
- Smay Vision – design for 1999 re-release
Charts
Weekly charts
Original release
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
!Chart (1971)
!Position
|-
|align="left"|Australian Kent Music Report
|3
|-
|align="left"|Canadian RPM Albums Chart
|1
|-
|align="left"|Japanese Oricon LPs Chart
|1
|-
|align="left"|Norwegian Albums Chart
|8
|-
|align="left"|Spanish Albums Chart
|1
|-
|align="left"|UK Albums Chart
|4
|-
|align="left"|U.S. Billboard Top LPs
|1
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
!Chart (1971)
!Position
|-
|align="left"|Australian Albums Chart
|7
|-
|align="left"|U.S. Billboard 200
|2
|-
!Chart (1972)
!Position
|-
|align="left"|U.S. Billboard 200
|2
|-
!Chart (1973)
!Position
|-
|align="left"|U.S. Billboard 200
|22
|-
! Chart (2018)
! Position
|-
| scope="row"| Australian Albums (ARIA)
| 95
|}
All-time charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+All-time chart performance for Tapestry
! Chart
! Position
|-
!scope="row"| U.S. Billboard 200
|10
|-
!scope="row"|U.S. Billboard 200 (Women)
|4
|}
Certifications and sales
See also
- List of best-selling albums
- List of best-selling albums by women