[Adapted from a review originally published in On The Town Magazine 12/10/96]
"Classic" may be one of the most overused words in the English language (and I plead as guilty as anyone to this). But if there ever was an album that deserved the adjective, surely this must be it.
As years of legend and a misfired attempt at a bio-pic (the heavily fictionalized 1996 flick 
Grace of My Heart) have told before, Carole King got her start at 18 as one of the original whiz kid songwriters in the Brill Building, the New York hit factory of the early '60s, cranking out terrific songs that other artists would make famous. If you're not enough of a liner notes junkie to rattle off all the hits King wrote (many in partnership with her first husband, Gerry Goffin), try these titles on for size: "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," "Go Away Little Girl," "Up On The Roof," "
After a decade of struggling in her side gig as a solo artist, King hit on the magic formula that had heretofore escaped her in her own singing career: don't run from the hits you wrote for others; embrace them. On Tapestry, King assembled some of the best songs she'd written for others (including "Natural Woman," "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" and "You've Got a Friend"), added the very best of her newer compositions ("It's Too Late," "I Feel The Earth Move" and "So Far Away"), and recorded the whole thing with her friend James Taylor sitting in on guitar.
The result is 40 minutes of smoky-voiced, piano-rolling, folk-rock magic that held the number-one spot on the popular music charts for 15 weeks over the summer of 1971 and stayed in the charts for an astounding six years, eventually selling over 20 million copies. If by some fluke you aren't one of those buyers, do yourself a favor—this time, 20 million fans definitely weren't wrong.