Carole King

Short Biography
nullCAROLE KING & JAMES TAYLOR
LIVE AT THE TROUBADOUR
2-disc CD/DVD offer.... 

Following from the amazing Carole King and James Taylor's Troubadour Reunion shows in New Zealand comes the perfect memento, a 2-disc CD/DVD set for only $35.00 - get it through Ticketmaster today & go in the draw to win a CD/DVD Prize Pack!

The Prize Pack includes 1 x James Taylor ‘One Man Band' CD & DVD, 1 x Carole King ‘The Living Room' on CD, plus to celebrate the following artists coming to NZ, we have 1 x Jack Johnson ‘To The Sea' on CD, 1 x Cat Stevens Best of on CD and 1 x Yusuf ‘Roadsinger' on CD to add to the package!

In November of 1970 James Taylor an...

Short Biography
nullCAROLE KING & JAMES TAYLOR
LIVE AT THE TROUBADOUR
2-disc CD/DVD offer.... 

Following from the amazing Carole King and James Taylor's Troubadour Reunion shows in New Zealand comes the perfect memento, a 2-disc CD/DVD set for only $35.00 - get it through Ticketmaster today & go in the draw to win a CD/DVD Prize Pack!

The Prize Pack includes 1 x James Taylor ‘One Man Band' CD & DVD, 1 x Carole King ‘The Living Room' on CD, plus to celebrate the following artists coming to NZ, we have 1 x Jack Johnson ‘To The Sea' on CD, 1 x Cat Stevens Best of on CD and 1 x Yusuf ‘Roadsinger' on CD to add to the package!

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 set available through Ticketmaster.

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.

Live at the Troubadour track listing:

1.   Blossom (James Taylor)
2.   So Far Away (Carole King)
3.   Machine Gun Kelly (Danny Kortchmar)
4.   Carolina in My Mind (James Taylor)
5.   It's Too Late (Carole King - Toni Stern)
6.   Smackwater Jack (Gerry Goffin - Carole King)
7.   Something in the Way She Moves (James Taylor)
8.   Will You Love Me Tomorrow? (Gerry Goffin - Carole King)
9.   Country Road (James Taylor)
10.  Fire and Rain (James Taylor)
11.  Sweet Baby James (James Taylor)
12.  I Feel the Earth Move (Carole King)
13.  You've Got a Friend (Carole King)
14.  Up on the Roof (Gerry Goffin - Carole King)
15.  You Can Close Your Eyes (James Taylor)

In-depth Biography
While the landmark album Tapestry earned her superstar status, singer/songwriter Carole King had already firmly established herself as one of pop music's most gifted and successful composers, with work recorded by everyone from the Beatles to Aretha Franklin. Born Carole Klein on February 9, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York, she began playing piano at the age of four, and formed her first band, the vocal quartet the Co-Sines, while in high school. A devotee of the composing team of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller (the duo behind numerous hits for Elvis Presley, the Coasters, and Ben E. King), she became a fixture at influential DJ Alan Freed's local Rock 'n' Roll shows; while attending Queens College, she fell in with budding songwriters Paul Simon and Neil Sedaka as well as Gerry Goffin, with whom she forged a writing partnership.

In 1959, Sedaka scored a hit with "Oh! Carol," written in her honor; King cut an answer record, "Oh! Neil," but it stiffed. She and Goffin, who eventually married, began writing under publishers Don Kirshner and Al Nevins in the famed pop songwriting house the Brill Building, where they worked alongside the likes of Doc Pomus, Mort Shuman, Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, and countless others. In 1961, Goffin and King scored their first hit with the Shirelles' chart-topping "Will You Love Me Tomorrow"; their next effort, Bobby Vee's "Take Good Care of My Baby," also hit number one, as did "The Locomotion," recorded by their baby-sitter, Little Eva. Together, the couple wrote over 100 chart hits in a vast range of styles, including the Chiffons' "One Fine Day," the Monkees' "Pleasant Valley Sunday," the Drifters' "Up on the Roof," the Cookies' "Chains" (later covered by the Beatles), Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman," and the Crystals' controversial "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)."

King also continued her attempts to mount a solo career, but scored only one hit, 1962's "It Might as Well Rain Until September." In the mid-'60s she, Goffin, and columnist Al Aronowitz founded their own short-lived label, Tomorrow Records; Charles Larkey, the bassist for the Tomorrow group the Myddle Class, eventually became King's second husband after her marriage to Goffin dissolved. She and Larkey later moved to the West Coast, where in 1968 they founded the City, a trio rounded out by New York musician Danny Kortchmar. The City recorded one LP, Now That Everything's Been Said, but did not tour due to King's stage fright; as a result, the album was a commercial failure, although it did feature songs later popularized by the Byrds ("Wasn't Born to Follow"), Blood, Sweat & Tears ("Hi-De-Ho"), and James Taylor ("You've Got a Friend").

Taylor and King ultimately became close friends, and he encouraged her to pursue a solo career. 1970's Writer proved a false start, but in 1971, she released Tapestry, which stayed on the charts for over six years and was the best-selling album of the era. A quiet, reflective work which proved seminal in the development of the singer/songwriter genre, Tapestry also scored a pair of hit singles, "So Far Away" and the chart-topping "It's Too Late," whose flip side, "I Feel the Earth Move," garnered major airplay as well. 1971's Music also hit number one, and generated the hit "Sweet Seasons"; 1972's Rhymes & Reasons reached number two on the charts, and 1974's Wrap Around Joy, which featured the hit "Jazzman," hit the number one spot.

In 1975, King and Goffin reunited to write Thoroughbred, which also featured contributions from James Taylor, David Crosby, and Graham Nash. After 1977's Simple Things, she mounted a tour with the backing group Navarro and married her frequent songwriting partner Rick Evers, who died a year later after a heroin overdose. 1980's Pearls, a collection of performances of songs written during her partnership with Goffin, was her last significant hit, and King soon moved to a tiny mountain village in Idaho, where she became active in the environmental movement. After 1983's Speeding Time, she took a six-year hiatus from recording before releasing City Streets, which featured guest Eric Clapton. In 2001, she returned with Love Makes the World, a self-released disc on her own Rockingale label. Four years passed before her next record, The Living Room Tour, a double disc set documenting her intimate 2004-05 tour that found her revisting songs from throughout her career with only her piano and acoustic guitars as accompaniment. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi