No Description Available
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Media Type: CD
Artist: KING,CAROLE
Title: TAPESTRY
Street Release Date: 05/25/1999
Domestic
Genre: ROCK/POP

Carole King's first ever holiday album, A Holiday Carole, will be released by Hear Music/Concord Music Group on November 1st, 2011. Produced by her daughter Louise Goffin, the album's 12 songs artfully blend the sacred and the secular with an eclectic mix of well-chosen standards and newly-written material. Goffin co-wrote three original tracks on the album, including the Latin-flavored "Christmas in Paradise," on which she collaborated with Grammy-winners George Noriega and Jodi Marr, the sublime Goffin/Marr composition "Christmas In The Air," and the deeply moving "New Year's Day," co-written with renowned songsmith Guy Chambers.

"As an experienced producer," King remembers, "Louise's first question to me as her artist was, 'What songs do you like?'" After compiling a list of favorites, Goffin went on the hunt for more unusual tracks, coming up with tunes like William Bell & Booker T. Jones' Stax classic "Every Day Will Be Like A Holiday." King puts her own indelible stamp on the music, lending it a special seasonal flair.

For King, the album's emotional highlight is undoubtedly "Chanukah Prayer." "Louise had the brilliant idea to take the Chanukah prayer that I learned from my parents, and they learned from their parents, and back through generations," she explains. "She said 'I want to record you singing that and I'm going to build a track around it.'" The result is a warm, jazz-inflected tune that brings together three generations on vocals: King, her daughter, and her grandson.

In a career with innumerable highlights, King has reached new pinnacles in recent years including 2010's bestselling Troubadour Reunion album and tour with James Taylor, American Idol devoting an entire episode to her music this season, and a forthcoming memoir due out in 2012.

In November of 1970 James Taylor and Carole King first performed together at the Troubadour on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, California. Taylor had just released his debut album for the Beatles' newly formed Apple Records and King was finding her way as a first time solo performer even though by then she was a famous songwriter with a string of hits for other artists. When they returned to the club for a two-week co-headlining run in 1971 their lives were somewhat different. That summer Taylor's "Fire and Rain" was topping the charts and King's landmark Tapestry was on its way to making her a music superstar. Thirty-six years later, in November 2007, James Taylor, Carole King and members of their renowned original band "The Section" (featuring guitarist Danny Kortchmar, bassist Leland Sklar and drummer Russell Kunkel) returned to the Troubadour for a three-night, six-show run to celebrate the venue's 50th anniversary. Those historic shows are documented in Live at the Troubadour, a special 2-disc CD/DVD. This remarkable recording, culled from these unforgettable shows, features 15 songs and 75 minutes of pristine video and audio including stunning performances of the pair's most beloved hits such as Carole King's "So Far Away," "It's Too Late," and "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" as well as James Taylor's "Carolina in My Mind," "Sweet Baby James," and "Fire and Rain," to name just a few.

The return to the intimate Troubadour--the fertile ground that served as the unofficial home to a some of the era's defining musicians such as the Eagles, Elton John, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and Joni Mitchell--rekindled King's and Taylor's love for making music together. Variety enthused at the time, "Taylor and King reminded us about the intensity of the song, that the artistically-rich and commercially-viable are not mutually exclusive and how one tiny club continues to be a birthing room for some of this city's most memorable music." The experience was deeply felt by everyone, the musicians on stage, and the fans in attendance as well as the project's technical crew: audio producer Peter Asher (an instrumental figure throughout Taylor's career) and Emmy-winning video director, Martyn Atkins. Live at the Troubadour is captured in sterling 5.1 stereo and state-of-the-art high definition video.

In the album's liner notes, Taylor states: "The Troubadour in 1971 wasn't the beginning, but it was a big step into the light for both of us. When we reunited for the Troubadour's 50th Anniversary celebration in 2007, it felt like yesterday. It was, and still is, all about the music and the celebration of performing together." King adds, "What's even more remarkable is that James's and my musical connection and friendship continue to transcend time and place. Whenever we're together, there we are. I feel a tremendous gratitude to be able to share this experience with James, with this fine band, and most of all, with the fans."

As a singer, Carole King won over millions of fans with her honest portrayals of love and life. As a songwriter, she penned dozens of hits for others, many of which became American pop standards. Now for the first time, these two aspects of a long and celebrated career are combined, presenting the best of Carole King as both singer and songwriter. From her record-breaking and iconic Tapestry, to more recent works, with Celine Dion and Babyface, Disc 1 covers the best of Carole King's own performances: the Grammy®-winning songs "It's Too Late" and "You've Got A Friend;" plus collaborations with Celine Dion and Babyface. Disc 2 highlights the best of Carole's best-known and most beloved compositions, as performed by others: "Up On The Roof" (The Drifters); "Natural Woman" (Aretha Franklin); and "Chains" (The Beatles). Together, these songs tell the complete story of an extraordinarily gifted and successful artist, who is still actively performing to this day, more than four decades later.

Her Greatest Hits: Songs of Long Ago (Remastered) Carole King Label: Sony Release Date: 5/25/1999 1 Jazzman - 3:46 2 So Far Away - 3:56 3 Sweet Seasons - 3:15 4 Brother, Brother - 3:00 5 Only Love Is Real - 3:33 6 I Feel the Earth Move - 2:58 7 It's Too Late - 3:54 8 Nightingale - 3:38 9 Been to Canaan - 3:39 10 Smackwater Jack - 3:42 11 Corazón - 3:58 12 Believe in Humanity - 3:20 13 Eventually [Live][*] - 4:38 14 (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman [Live][*] - 3:56

The striking cover photo says plenty about Carole King's wildly successful 1971 album Tapestry. Carole, barefoot in a bulky sweater and old jeans, was the obvious poster girl for a striking new singer/songwriter movement about to take the world by storm. A proven thoroughbred pop-song maven with a long track record of winners, King and songwriting partner Gerry Goffin had penned over 100 chart hits for the likes of the Shirelles, Drifters, Monkees, and Bobby Vee.

But belting out her own dazzling material from behind the piano, King charted new ground with Tapestry. A runaway-train success, its songs were heard everywhere in the 70's on a string of newly-minted FM radio stations featuring adult-oriented rock to a remastered version of this revered work, the Legacy edition adds a second disc with a thrilling live performance of Tapestry in its entirety.

It's astonishing how quickly Carole King slipped into relative obscurity. Tapestry has sold in excess of 22 million copies and was the biggest selling album of all time until Frampton Comes Alive surpassed it in 1977, yet while the latter remains at the very least an archetypal cultural kitsch, Tapestry has become a troublesome trivial question: "What's the bestselling album by a woman?" Part of the problem is that the singer-songwriter era she (and James Taylor and Carly Simon) came to represent hasn't aroused a whole lot of critical favor. Still, the restrained soul of King's best stuff (for instance, Tapestry, which is included here in its entirety) has it's own appeal, as do a few of the preblockbuster inclusions. --Steve Stolder

Recorded two months after Tapestry came out, this intimate, intoxicating performance (just Carole at the piano on six songs, then with guitar, bass and string quartet) captures a young, admittedly nervous Carole at the cusp of stardom. Originally released for the 25th anniversary of Tapestry , it returns from the vaults with dramatically improved remastered sound: I Feel the Earth Move; It's Too Late; So Far Away; Smackwater Jack; Child of Mine; Carry Your Load; You've Got a Friend; (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman ; a medley with James Taylor, and more!