Carole King

Carole King Klein (born Carol Joan Klein; February 9, 1942) is an American singer-songwriter and musician renowned for her extensive contributions to popular music. She wrote or co-wrote 118 songs that charted on the Billboard Hot 100 during the latter half of the 20th century and 61 songs that reached the UK charts, establishing her as the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts from 1962 to 2005.

In the 1960s, King and her first husband, Gerry Goffin, composed over two dozen hit songs for various artists, many of which remain standards. She transitioned to a solo performing career in the 1970s, following her debut album Writer (1970) with the critically acclaimed Tapestry (1971), which topped the U.S. album chart for 15 weeks and stayed on the charts for over six years.

King has released 25 solo albums, with Tapestry being her most successful, and has sold over 75 million records worldwide. Her honors include four Grammy Awards, inductions into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as a performer and songwriter), the 2013 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song (as its first female recipient), and the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors.

King was born Carol Joan Klein on February 9, 1942, in Manhattan, New York City, to Jewish parents Eugenia (née Cammer), a teacher, and Sidney N. Klein, a firefighter.

King's parents met in an elevator in 1936 at Brooklyn College, where her father was a chemistry major and her mother was an English and drama major.: 10 They married in 1937 during the last years of the Great Depression.: 10 King's mother dropped out of college to run the household; her father also quit college and briefly took a job as a radio announcer.: 10 With the economy struggling, he then took a more secure job as a firefighter.: 10 After King was born, her parents settled in Brooklyn and were eventually able to buy a small two-story duplex where they could rent out the upstairs for income.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.