Mid-Week Birthday Tribute

 

It was just a week ago when we saluted Graham Nash on his 80th birthday, and today, one of the greatest rock and pop music songwriters and singers celebrates her 80th birthday, too: the amazing Carole King. Her landmark, record-setting album "Tapestry" cemented her place in the rock firmaments, selling over 25 million albums and counting, and producing numerous top ten hits. Before her solo career, she teamed with lyricist and husband, the late Gerry Goffin, to produce hits for other artists, including "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" (The Shirelles), "Up On The Roof" (The Drifters), "The Loco-Motion" (Little Eva),  "Chains" (The Cookies, The Beatles), "I'm Into Something Good" (Herman's Hermits), "You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman" (Aretha Franklin), "Wasn't Born To Follow" (The Byrds), and many many more. Here are two of her classic hits from the "Tapestry" album, released in 1971. Happiest of birthdays to a tremendous talent.

 

Mid-Week One Song

As we noted last Sunday, national treasure Carole King celebrated her 78th birthday on February 9, and is far from finished composing and performing the iconic songs of our time. Our choice today is "One," a song she wrote in 1977, but has updated, as she explained:

"It’s a song about wondering what we can do when we see injustice, and it expresses my long held belief that we - all of us humans - are most effective when we come together as 'One' and stand up for our values such as dignity, inclusivity, equality of opportunity, and caring for our most vulnerable neighbors.  Drawn to the piano like pins to a magnet, I was inspired to write some new lyrics for the last chorus to reflect my feelings about the 2018 election. And then I wanted to record it."

Sunday Reflection: You Aren't Alone

"Do the things you believe in, in the name of love. And know that, you aren't alone. We all have doubts and fears." -- Carole King, one of the greatest songwriters / singers that America has produced. King, who turns 78 today, teamed with her former husband Gerry Goffin to write some of rock music's classics: "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?", "Up On The Roof," "(You Make Me Feel Like)A Natural Woman," "One Fine Day," "Locomotion," and many more. After her breakup with Goffin, King went on to an enormously successful solo career, starting with her 1970 ten-times platinum / diamond album "Tapestry,"which produced hits like "You've Got A Friend," "So Far Away," and "I Feel The Earth Move." She created so much of the soundtrack of our lives in the name of love.

(photo: Brian Rasic, Eagle Rock)

Weekend Song

Today is songwriter extraordinaire Carole King's 70th (!) birthday. Her career as a songwriter and entertainer spans the past 50 years. This is the first of her songs to chart, hitting #1 in 1960. It's the Shirelles classic "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow."

The Earth Moved This Morning

At about 5:05 this morning, we had a 3.6 magnitude earthquake nearby, the largest on record here. Some shaking and rumbling, but little or no damage reported. Carole King can relate to the experience.