Carole King Was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City in 1942, and began playing piano at a young age. As a teen she started to hang around with the doo-wop and rock hit makers from Brooklyn. Neil Sedaka, an early friend wrote his hit "Oh Carole" in her honor.

This connection with Sedaka landed Carole a position at a music publisher in the famous Brill Building in Times Square. The writers and publishers in this building were writing hits for shows and artists from the time of "tin pan alley," and by the late fifties were writing many of the pop and rock hits on American radio.

King partnered with writer Gerry Goffin and they scored their first big hit in 1961 with The Shirelles' "Will You Still Love Me Tommorrow?" Carole met Goffin at Queens College, and they would later marry, then divorce.

Their songwriting partnership was quite successful, though. Throughout the 1960's they had written many top ten hits for other artists, including Sedaka's "Take Good Care Of My Baby," The Beatles' "Chains," Little Eva's "The Locomotion," Herman's Hermits' "I'm Into Something Good," Aretha's "Oh No, Not My Baby," and "You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman," and Blood Sweat and Tears' "Hi De Ho."

In 1971, King embarked on an artist's carreer, recording her own songs. Her album Tapestryestablished Carole as a leading singer/songwriter, playing piano on all of her tracks. "It's Too Late" and "You've Got A Friend" helped propel Tapestry up to the top of the Billboard charts.Tapestry went on to be the biggest selling record of its' time, remaining so until 1983's Michael Jackson album Thriller.

Tapestry reached over 22 million in sales worldwide, with 10 million sales in the U.S. alone.Tapestry remained on the Billboard charts for 6 years. Rolling Stone Magazine placed Tapestryat #36 of the top 500 albums of all time.

At the height of her fame, Carole performed in concert in New Yorks's Central Park to a record setting audience of 100,000 people.

The 1996 movie, Grace Of My Heart, was loosely based on the musical life story of Carole King.

70s rock pianist Carole King continues to write and perform, both her singer/songwriter style songs and her rock and roll hits.

Photo by Angela George, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23053160