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Carole King

CAROLE KING
 
 
Carole King  (born February 9, 1942) is an American composer and singer-songwriter.  King’s career began in the 1960s when she, along with her then husband Gerry Goffin, wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists, many of which have become standards.  She has continued writing for other artists since then.  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.  In 2000 Billboard pop music researcher Joel Whitburn named King the most successful female songwriter of 1955–99 because she wrote or co-wrote 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100.  She is the recipient of the 2013 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the first woman to be so honored.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

The name of the Greg Shaw magazine called Who Put the Bomp is taken from “Who Put the Bomp (in the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp)”, a Top-40 hit by Barry Mann.  This was basically a one-hit wonder, but Mann always concentrated mostly on his songwriting, and he is well known for numerous songs that were co-written with his wife Cynthia Weil.  Barry Mann’s songwriting credits include an astounding 635 songs. 

 

“Who Put the Bomp (in the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp)” – which was co-written by Barry Mann and Gerry Goffin (an even more famous songwriter who co-wrote numerous 1960’s classics with his then-wife Carole King) – parodied and also honored the doo-wop songs of early rock and roll.  The singer is thanking the authors of these songs who helped his girl fall in love with him.  The “bomp bomp bomp” itself comes from the Marcels’ marvelous, over-the-top version of “Blue Moon”; another famous nonsense chorus, “rama lama ding dong” is also referenced, from “Rama Lama Ding Dong” by the Edsels. 

 

(May 2013)

 

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The girl group era attracted some of the greatest songwriters of all time:  Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry, Cynthia Weil, Barry Mann, etc.  Carole King would go to become one of the outstanding singer-songwriters in music history; her Tapestry album is one of the largest selling albums ever, with more than 25 million copies sold worldwide. 

 

(October 2013)

 

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Another lesbian singer-songwriter Meg Christian once interviewed Cris Williamson, and this connection led to the creation of Olivia Records, the foremost record label in what became known as “women’s music”.  Their first release was a single in 1973, with Meg singing the Carole King/Gerry Goffin song “Lady” on one side and Cris singing her own song, “If it Weren’t for the Music” on the other. 

 

(January 2014)

 

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Past UARB Ultra was every bit as different from Homer as the Outcasts; this hard rock band grew out of the final line-up of Homer, with Galen Niles and Don Evans joining the new band.  Chet Himes continued his career as a recording engineer, working with Ted Nugent, Carole King, Christopher Cross, and others.  Van Wilks left to start a solo career. 

 

(April 2014)

 

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For some reason, over the years the 1970’s have gotten a reputation as a poor decade for music. (So do the 1950’s, for that matter, even though that is where rock and roll came from). It certainly cannot be because everything sounded the same. Most of the British Invasion bands were still active. The top American acts were still going strong as well – Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Carole King, Simon and Garfunkel, Linda Ronstadt, the Beach Boys, the Band, Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra, etc. – and major stars who arrived in the 1970’s include Elton John, Michael Jackson, Queen, ABBA, Billy Joel, Aerosmith, Bruce Springsteen, AC/DC, Prince, James Taylor, and Tom Petty. Anyone who says they are a music fan has to be able to find someone, and probably several someones on that list that they like a lot.
(December 2016)