October 2, 2020 —– Chart #59
Hello Musical Friends,
It’s Friday again, time to start the weekend. One of my favorite albums of all time is Carole King’s Tapestry. There is no telling how many times I have spun that one on my turntable over the years. “Will You Love Me Tomorrow“, sometimes known as “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow“, is a song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. It was originally recorded in 1960 by the Shirelles, who took their single to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song is also notable for being the first song by a black all-girl group to reach number one in the United States. It has since been recorded by many artists over the years, including a 1971 version by co-writer Carole King.
In 1960, the American girl group the Shirelles released the first version of the song with “Boys” on the B-side. The single’s first pressing was labelled simply “Tomorrow”, then lengthened later. When first presented with the song, lead singer Shirley Owens (later known as Shirley Alston-Reeves) did not want to record it, because she thought it was “too country.” She relented after a string arrangement was added. However, Owens recalled on Jim Parsons’ syndicated oldies radio program, Shake Rattle Showtime, that some radio stations had banned the record because they had felt the lyrics were too sexually charged.
In addition to reaching #1 in the U.S., the song also reached #2 on the R&B chart and #4 in the UK. It reached #3 in New Zealand. This version of the song, with session musicians Paul Griffin on piano and Gary Chester on drums, as of 2009 was ranked as the 162nd greatest song of all time, as well as the best song of 1960, by Acclaimed Music. It was ranked at #126 among Rolling Stone’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Billboard named the song #3 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time. The song later appeared on the soundtracks of Michael Apted’s Stardust, Emile Ardolino’s Dirty Dancing, and Tony Scott’s True Romance.
Carole King Klein (born Carol Joan Klein; February 9, 1942) is an American singer-songwriter who has been active since 1958, initially as one of the staff songwriters at the Brill Building and later as a solo artist. She is the most successful female songwriter of the latter half of the 20th century in the US, having written or co-written 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100. King also wrote 61 hits that charted in the UK, making her the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts between 1962 and 2005.
King’s major success began in the 1960s when she and her first husband, Gerry Goffin, wrote more than two dozen chart hits, many of which have become standards, for numerous artists. She has continued writing for other artists since then. King’s success as a performer in her own right did not come until the 1970s, when she sang her own songs, accompanying herself on the piano, in a series of albums and concerts. After experiencing commercial disappointment with her debut album Writer, King scored her breakthrough with the album Tapestry, which topped the U.S. album chart for 15 weeks in 1971 and remained on the charts for more than six years.
King has made 25 solo albums, the most successful being Tapestry, which held the record for most weeks at No. 1 by a female artist for more than 20 years. Her record sales were estimated at more than 75 million copies worldwide. She has won four Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her songwriting. She is the recipient of the 2013 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the first woman to be so honored. She is also a 2015 Kennedy Center Honoree.
Enjoy the original recording by The Shirelles:
And of course the recording that inspired me to select this chart of the day, Carole King from Tapestry:
Smokey Robinson? : https://youtu.be/p8VDWxLj5Wk
No way . . . . The Bee Gees somewhat butchering the song: https://youtu.be/65MEU-2Afv8
Linda Ronstadt in 1970: https://youtu.be/qYU_HqyAW3M
Carole King & James Taylor together, Oh Yeah…: https://youtu.be/Q4tF5lcMUpw
Keep rockin’,
Stan