One of the tapestries in the series The Hunt of the Unicorn: The Unicorn is Found, circa 1495-1505, the Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven on a vertical loom, however it can also be woven on a floor loom as well. It is composed of two sets of interlaced threads, those running parallel to the length (called the warp) and those parallel to the width (called the weft); the warp threads are set up under tension on a loom, and the weft thread is passed back and forth across part or all of the warps. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike cloth weaving where both the warp and the weft threads may be visible. In tapestry weaving, weft yarns are typically discontinuous; the artisan interlaces each coloured weft back and forth in its own small pattern area. It is a plain weft-faced weave having weft threads of different colours worked over portions of the warp to form the design.^[1][2]

Most weavers use a naturally based warp thread such as linen or cotton. The weft threads are usually wool or cotton, but may include silk, gold, silver, or other alternatives.

Etymology[link]

First attested in English in 1467, the word tapestry derives from Old French tapisserie, from tapisser, meaning "to cover with heavy fabric, to carpet", in turn from tapis, "heavy fabric", via Latin tapes,^[3] which is the latinisation of the Greek τάπης (tapēs), "carpet, rug".^[4] The earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek ta-pe-ja, written in Linear B syllabic script.^[5]

Function[link]

Henry VIII is seated beneath a tapestry cloth of state

The success of decorative tapestry can be partially explained by its portability (Le Corbusier once called tapestries "nomadic murals").^[6] Kings and noblemen could roll up and transport tapestries from one residence to another. In churches, they could be displayed on special occasions. Tapestries were also draped on the walls of castles for insulation during winter, as well as for decorative display.

In the Middle Ages and renaissance, a rich tapestry panel woven with symbolic emblems, mottoes, or coats of arms called a baldachin, canopy of state or cloth of state was hung behind and over a throne as a symbol of authority.^[7] The seat under such a canopy of state would normally be raised on a dais.

The iconography of most Western tapestries goes back to written sources, the Bible and Ovid's Metamorphoses being two popular choices. Apart from the religious and mythological images, hunting scenes are the subject of many tapestries produced for indoor decoration.

Historical development[link]

Tapestries have been used since at least Hellenistic times. Samples of Greek tapestry have been found preserved in the desert of Tarim Basin dating from the 3rd century BC.

Tapestry reached a new stage in Europe in the early 14th century AD. The first wave of production originated in Germany and Switzerland. Over time, the craft expanded to France and the Netherlands. The basic tools have remained much the same since then.

A typical loom for hand weaving of smaller tapestries still in use in Scandinavia

.

In the 14th and 15th centuries, Arras, France was a thriving textile town. The industry specialised in fine wool tapestries which were sold to decorate palaces and castles all over Europe. Few of these tapestries survived the French Revolution as hundreds were burnt to recover the gold thread that was often woven into them. Arras is still used to refer to a rich tapestry no matter where it was woven.

By the 16th century, Flanders, the towns of Oudenaarde, Brussels, Geraardsbergen and Enghien had become the centres of European tapestry production. In the 17th century Flemish tapestries were arguably the most important productions, with many specimens of this era still extant, demonstrating the intricate detail of pattern and colour embodied in painterly compositions, often of monumental scale.

The Attainment, one of the Holy Grail tapestries, Morris & Co., 1890s

In the 19th century, William Morris resurrected the art of tapestry-making in the medieval style at Merton Abbey. Morris & Co. made successful series of tapestries for home and ecclesiatical uses, with figures based on cartoons by Edward Burne-Jones.

Kilims and Navajo rugs are also types of tapestry work.

Tapestries are still made at the factory of Gobelins and a few other old European workshops, which also repair and restore old tapestries. The craft is also currently practised by hobbyist weavers.

Jacquard tapestries, colour and the human eye[link]

The term tapestry is also used to describe weft-faced textiles made on Jacquard looms. Before the 1990s tapestry upholstery fabrics and reproductions of the famous tapestries of the Middle Ages had been produced using Jacquard techniques but then artists such as Chuck Close adapted the computerised Jacquard process to producing fine art.^{[citation needed]} Typically, tapestries are translated from the original design via a process resembling paint-by-numbers: a cartoon is divided into regions, each of which is assigned a solid colour based on a standard palette. However, in Jacquard weaving, the repeating series of multicoloured warp and weft threads can be used to create colours that are optically blended – i.e., the human eye apprehends the threads’ combination of values as a single colour.^[6]

This method can be likened to pointillism, which originated from discoveries made in the tapestry medium. The style’s emergence in the 19th century can be traced to the influence of Michel Eugène Chevreul, a French chemist responsible for developing the colour wheel of primary and intermediary hues. Chevreul worked as the director of the dye works at Les Gobelins tapestry works in Paris, where he noticed that the perceived colour of a particular thread was influenced by its surrounding threads, a phenomenon he called “simultaneous contrast.” Chevreul’s work was a continuation of theories of colour elaborated by Leonardo da Vinci and Goethe; in turn, his work influenced painters including Eugène Delacroix and Georges-Pierre Seurat.^{[citation needed]}

The principles articulated by Chevreul also apply to contemporary television and computer displays, which use tiny dots of red, green and blue (RGB) light to render colour, with each composite being called a pixel.^[6]

List of famous tapestries[link]

The Apocalypse Tapestry in the Château d'Angers, in Angers.

Tapestry with monogram "SA" of King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, Brussels, c. 1555. Part of famous Jagiellonian Tapestries, also known as the Wawel Tapestries or Wawel Arrases.

Tapestry of Christ in Glory, 1962, Coventry Cathedral, 75.5 feet high, designed by Graham Sutherland and woven by Pinton Frères, Felletin, France.

• The Trojan War tapestry referred to by Homer in Book III of the Iliad, where Iris disguises herself as Laodice and finds Helen "working at a great web of purple linen, on which she was embroidering the battles between Trojans and Achaeans, that Ares had made them fight for her sake." If such a tapestry had been made at the time, then it could explain how the battles were remembered in such great detail over the 400 or so years between the siege of Troy and the age of Homer.
• The Cloth of St Gereon - oldest European tapestry still extant.
• The Sampul tapestry, woollen wall hanging, 3rd-2nd century BC, Sampul, Ürümqi Xinjiang Museum.
• The Hestia Tapestry, 6th century, Egypt, Dumbarton Oaks Collection.
• The Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the events surrounding the Battle of Hastings, is not a tapestry, but is instead embroidery. In June 2007, the tapestry was listed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.
• The Apocalypse Tapestry is the longest tapestry in the world, and depicts scenes from the Book of Revelation. It was woven between 1373 and 1382. Originally 140 m (459 ft), the surviving 100m are displayed in the Château d'Angers, in Angers.
• The six-part piece La Dame à la Licorne (The Lady and the Unicorn), stored in l'Hôtel de Cluny, Paris.
• The Devonshire Hunting Tapestries, four Flemish tapestries dating from the mid-fifteenth century depict men and women in fashionable dress of the early fifteenth century hunting in a forest. The tapestries formerly belonged to the Duke of Devonshire and are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
• The Hunt of the Unicorn is a seven piece tapestry from 1495 to 1505, currently displayed at The Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
• The tapestries for the Sistine Chapel, designed by Raphael in 1515-16, for which the Raphael Cartoons, or painted designs, also survive.
• The Wawel Tapestries, (mid 16th century) a collection of 134 tapestries at the Wawel Castle in Kraków, Poland displaying various religious, natural, and royal themes. These famous tapestries, created in Arras, were collected by Polish Kings Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus.
• The Valois Tapestries are a cycle of 8 hangings depicting royal festivities in France in the 1560s and 1570s
• The New World Tapestry is a 267 feet long tapestry which depicts the colonisation of the Americas between 1583 and 1648, displayed at the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum; this is not (strictly speaking) a tapestry, but is instead embroidery.
• The biggest collection of Flanders tapestry is in the Spanish royal collection, there is 8000 metres of historical tapestry from Flanders, as well as Spanish tapestries designed by Goya and others. There is a special museum in the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, and others are displayed in various historic buildings.
• The Pastoral Amusements, also known as "Les Amusements Champêtres", a series of 8 Beauvais Tapestries designed by Jean Baptiste Oudry between 1720 and 1730.
• The Prestonpans Tapestry is a 104 metres long embroidery which tells the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Battle of Prestonpans.
• Christ in Glory, (1962) for Coventry Cathedral designed by Graham Sutherland. Up until the 1990s this was the world's largest vertical tapestry.
• The Quaker Tapestry ( 1981–1989) is a modern set of embroidery panels that tell the story of Quakerism from the 17th century to the present day.

References[link]

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Campbell, Thomas P. Henry VIII and the Art of Majesty: Tapestries at the Tudor Court, Yale University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-300-12234-3
• Russell, Carol K. Tapestry Handbook. The Next Generation, Schiffer Publ. Ltd., Atglen, PA. 2007, ISBN 978-0-7643-2756-8
• Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving, by Grace Christie, 1912, from Project Gutenberg. Technical handbook.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tapestry

• Jagiellonian Tapestries Polish Tapestry Museum
• Tapestry, A World History of Art
• Pictures from a contemporary mill, showing tapestries being woven on looms with Jacquard heads

v t e Tapestry Tapestries Adoration of the Magi Bayeux Tapestry Devonshire Hunting Tapestries Gunthertuch Cloth of St Gereon Hestia Tapestry Holy Grail tapestries Hunt of the Unicorn Jagiellonian tapestries Lady and the Unicorn New World Tapestry Överhogdal tapestries Pastoral Amusements Quaker Tapestry Raphael Cartoons Ros Tapestry Project Royal Tapestry Factory Sampul tapestry Scottish Royal tapestry collection Valois Tapestries Styles K'o-ssu Mille-fleur Studios Aubusson Brussels Beauvais Gobelins Moravská Gobelínová Manufaktura Mortlake Morris & Co. Portalegre William Baumgarten & Co Weavers and designers Francis Crane Givi Kandareli John Henry Dearle Lefèvre family William Morris Gunta Stölzl Judocus de Vos Related Byzantine silk Catherine de' Medici's patronage of the arts Embroidery International Gothic Kilim Navajo weaving Needlepoint Weaving Artists who have worked in Tapestry Pieter van Aelst François Boucher Marc Chagall Francis Cleyn John Coburn Éva Farkas Petronėlė Gerlikienė Francisco Goya Blind Man's Bluff (Goya) The Parasol (Goya) Raphael Cartoons Muriel Nezhnie Helfman#Impact on the tapestry medium) Else Marie Jakobsen Jacob Jordaens Nancy Kozikowski Jean Lurçat Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer Bernard van Orley François Quesnel List of Francisco Goya's tapestry cartoons

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Carole King
Background information
Birth name	Carol Klein
Born	(1942-02-09) February 9, 1942 (age 70)
Origin	New York City, United States
Genres	Folk rock, pop, soft rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Piano Vocals Guitar
Years active	1958–present
Labels	Rockingale Ode/Epic/CBS Records Priority/EMI Records
Associated acts	James Taylor The City Danny Kortchmar Neil Sedaka
Website	CaroleKing.com

Carole King (born February 9, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist.^[1] King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, her Tapestry album topped the U.S. album chart for 15 weeks in 1971, and remained on the charts for more than six years.

She was most successful as a performer in the first half of the 1970s, although she was a successful songwriter long before and long after. She had her first number 1 hit as a songwriter in 1961 at age 18, with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", which she wrote with Goffin. In 1997, she co-wrote "The Reason" for Aerosmith, but instead it was sung by Celine Dion.

In 2000, Joel Whitburn, a Billboard Magazine pop music researcher, named her the most successful female songwriter of 1955–99, because she wrote or co-wrote 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100.^[2]

King has made 25 solo albums, the most successful being Tapestry. Her most recent non-compilation album is Live at the Troubadour, a collaboration with James Taylor, which reached number 4 on the charts in its first week, and has sold over 600,000 copies.^[3][4]

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. In 2009, Carole King was inducted into the "Hit Parade" Hall of Fame. Her album Tapestry once held the record for the longest time an album by a solo female artist remained at number one until it was first broken by Whitney Houston for the album The Bodyguard, and later by Adele for the album 21.^[5]

Early life[link]

Born Carol Joan Klein^[6] (she added the "e" to her first name) in 1942 to a Jewish family in Manhattan, New York City, King grew up in Brooklyn. She learned the piano, then began singing with a vocal quartet called the Co-Sines at James Madison High School. As a teenager dreaming of having a successful entertainment career, she decided to give herself a new last name (but only for her stage name), stumbling upon "King" in a telephone directory. She attended Queens College, where she was a classmate (and girlfriend) of Neil Sedaka and inspired Sedaka's second hit, "Oh! Carol". She responded with "Oh! Neil". At Queens College, she befriended Paul Simon and Gerry Goffin.^[7] She later married Goffin and they had two daughters.

Partnership with Gerry Goffin[link]

Goffin and King formed a songwriting partnership for Aldon Music at 1650 Broadway in New York. Their first success was "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", recorded by The Shirelles. It topped the American charts in 1961, becoming the first No.1 hit by a girl group. It was later recorded by Linda Ronstadt, Ben E. King, Dusty Springfield, Laura Branigan, Little Eva, Roberta Flack, The Four Seasons, Bryan Ferry, Dave Mason, Dionne Warwick, and Melanie Safka as well as by King herself, and Amy Winehouse.

While dating Goffin in high school, King became pregnant at the age of 17. Upon coming to her parents with the news of her pregnancy, they decided it was best for King and Goffin to get married as soon as possible. On August 30, 1959, Goffin and then 17-year-old King married in a Jewish ceremony on Long Island. King gave birth to Louise Goffin shortly afterwards and would eventually go on to have another child, Sherry Goffin. Both Louise and Sherry are musicians.^[8]

In 1965, Goffin and King wrote a theme song for Sidney Sheldon's television series, I Dream of Jeannie, but an instrumental by Hugo Montenegro was used instead. Goffin and King's 1967 song, "Pleasant Valley Sunday", a No. 3 for The Monkees, was inspired by their move to suburban West Orange, New Jersey.^[9] Goffin and King also wrote "Porpoise Song (Theme from Head)" for Head, the Monkees' film. (King also co-wrote "As We Go Along" with Toni Stern for the same film soundtrack.)

Goffin and King divorced in 1968 but Carole consulted Goffin on music she was writing. King lost touch with Goffin because of his declining mental health and the effect it had on their children.^[8]

Solo career[link]

King sang backup vocals on the demo of Little Eva's "The Loco-Motion" which she also co-wrote.^[10] She had had a modest hit in 1962 singing one of her own songs, "It Might As Well Rain Until September" (22 in the US and 3 in the UK, later a hit in Canada for Gary and Dave), but after "He's a Bad Boy" made 94 in 1963, it took King nearly nine years years to reach the Hot 100 singles chart again as a performer, remaining a one-hit wonder until 1971.^[7]

As the 1960s waned, King helped start Tomorrow Records. Moving to the West Coast, Larkey, King, and Danny Kortchmar formed The City, which made one album, Now That Everything's Been Said, a commercial failure. In 1968, King was hired, with Toni Stern, to write for Strawberry Alarm Clock. The duo wrote "Lady of the Lake" and "Blues for a Young Girl Gone"—which appeared on the album The World in a Seashell.^[11]

King made her first solo album, Writer, in 1970 for Lou Adler's Ode label. It was a commercial disappointment, peaking at number 84 in the Billboard Top 200.

King followed Writer in 1971 with Tapestry, featuring new folk-flavored compositions, as well as reinterpretations of two of her songs, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman". Tapestry was an instant success. With numerous hit singles – including a Billboard No.1 with "It's Too Late" – Tapestry held the No.1 spot for 15 consecutive weeks, remained on the charts for nearly six years, sold 10 million copies in the United States, and 25 million worldwide. The album garnered four Grammy Awards including Album of the Year; Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female; Record of the Year ("It's Too Late," lyrics by Toni Stern); and Song of the Year, become the first woman to win the award ("You've Got a Friend"). The album signalled the era of platinum albums, though it was issued prior to the invention of the platinum certification by the RIAA. It would eventually be certified Diamond.^[7] Tapestry was the top-selling solo album until Michael Jackson's Thriller in 1982.^{[citation needed]} The album was later placed at 36 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.^[1] In addition, "It's Too Late" was placed at No.469 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Carole King: Music was released in December 1971, certified gold on December 9, 1971. It entered the top ten at 8, becoming the first of many weeks Tapestry and Carole King: Music simultaneously occupied the top 10. The following week, it rose to 3, and finally No.1 on January 1, 1972, staying there for three weeks. The album also spawned a top 10 hit, "Sweet Seasons" (US No.9 and AC #2). Carole King: Music stayed on the Billboard pop album charts for 44 weeks, and was eventually certified platinum.

Rhymes and Reasons (1972), and Fantasy (1973) followed, each earning gold certifications. Rhymes and Reasons produced another hit, "Been to Canaan" (US No.24 and AC No.1), and Fantasy produced two hits, "Believe in Humanity" (US #28) and "Corazon" (US No.37 and AC #5), as well as another song that charted on the Hot 100, "You Light Up My Life" (US No.68 and AC #6).

In 1973, King performed a free concert in New York City's Central Park with 100,000 attending.^[12]

In September 1974, King released her album Wrap Around Joy, which was certified gold on October 16, 1974 and entered the top ten at 7 on October 19, 1974. Two weeks later it reached 1 and stayed there one week. She toured to promote the album.^[13] Wrap Around Joy spawned two hits. "Jazzman" was a single and reached 2 on November 9 but fell out of the top ten the next week. "Nightingale", a single on December 17, went to No.9 on March 1, 1975.

In 1975, King scored songs for the animated TV production of Maurice Sendak's Really Rosie, released as an album by the same name, with lyrics by Sendak.

Thoroughbred (1976) was the last studio album she made under the Ode label.^[13] In addition to enlisting her long-time friends such as David Crosby, Graham Nash, James Taylor and Waddy Wachtel, King reunited with Gerry Goffin to write four songs for the album. Their partnership continued intermittently. King also did a promotional tour for the album in 1976.

In 1977, King collaborated with another songwriter Rick Evers on Simple Things, the first release with a new label distributed by Capitol Records. Shortly after that King and Evers were married; he died of a heroin overdose one year later. Simple Things was her first album that failed to reach the top 10 on the Billboard since Tapestry, and it was her last Gold-certified record by the RIAA, except for a compilation entitled Her Greatest Hits the following year. Neither Welcome Home (1978), her debut as a co-producer on an album, nor Touch the Sky (1979), reached the top 100.

Pearls – The Songs of Goffin and King (1980) yielded a hit single, an updated version of "One Fine Day". Pearls marked the end of King's career as a hitmaker and a performer, no subsequent single reaching the top 40.^{[citation needed]}

Later life and work[link]

Carole King performing aboard USS Harry S. Truman in the Mediterranean in 2000

King moved to Atlantic Records for One to One (1982), and Speeding Time in 1983, which was a reunion with Tapestry-era producer Lou Adler. In 1983, she played piano in "Chains and Things" on the B.B. King album Why I Sing The Blues. After a well-received concert tour in 1984, journalist Catherine Foster of the Christian Science Monitor dubbed King as "a Queen of Rock." She also called King's performing as "all spunk and exuberance."^[14]

In 1985, she wrote and performed "Care-A-Lot", theme to The Care Bears Movie. Also in 1985, she scored and performed (with David Sanborn) the soundtrack to the Martin Ritt-directed movie Murphy's Romance. The soundtrack, again produced by Adler, included the songs "Running Lonely" and "Love For The Last Time (Theme from 'Murphy's Romance')", although a soundtrack album was apparently never officially released.^[15] King made a cameo appearance in the film as Tillie, a town hall employee.^[15]

In 1989, she returned to Capitol Records and recorded City Streets, with Eric Clapton on two tracks and Branford Marsalis on one, followed by Color of Your Dreams (1993), with an appearance by Slash of Guns N' Roses. Her song, "Now and Forever", was in the opening credits to the 1992 movie A League of Their Own, and was nominated for a Grammy Award.^[7]

In 1988, she starred in the off-Broadway production A Minor Incident, and in 1994, she played Mrs Johnstone on Broadway in Blood Brothers. In 1996, she appeared in Brighton Beach Memoirs in Ireland, directed by Peter Sheridan. In 1991, she wrote with Mariah Carey the song "If It's Over", for Carey's second album Emotions. In 1996, she wrote "Wall Of Smiles / Torre De Marfil" with Soraya for her 1997 album of the same title.

In 1997, King wrote and recorded backing vocals on "The Reason" for Celine Dion on her album Let's Talk About Love. The song sold worldwide, including one million in France. It went to number 1 in France, 11 in the UK, and 13 in Ireland. The pair performed a duet on the first VH1 Divas Live benefit concert. King also performed her "You've Got A Friend" with Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan and Shania Twain as well as "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" with Aretha Franklin and others, including Mariah Carey. In 1998, King wrote "Anyone at All", and performed it in You've Got Mail, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

In 2001, King appeared in a television ad for the Gap, with her daughter, Louise Goffin.^{[citation needed]} She performed a new song, "Love Makes the World", which became a title track for her studio album in autumn 2001 on her own label, Rockingale, distributed by Koch Records. The album includes songs she wrote for other artists during the mid-1990s and features Celine Dion, Steven Tyler, Babyface and k.d. lang. Love Makes the World went to 158 in the US and No.86 in the UK. It also debuted on Billboard's Top Independent Albums chart and Top Internet Albums chart at #20.^[4][16][17] An expanded edition of the album was issued six years later called Love Makes the World Deluxe Edition. It contains a bonus disc with five additional tracks, including a remake of "Where You Lead (I Will Follow)" co-written with Toni Stern.^[18] The same year, King and Stern wrote "Sayonara Dance", recorded by Yuki, former lead vocalist of the Japanese band Judy and Mary, on her first solo album Prismic the following year. Also in 2001, King composed a song for All About Chemistry album by Semisonic, with the band's frontman Dan Wilson.

King launched her Living Room Tour in July 2004 at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. That show, along with shows at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles and the Cape Cod Melody Tent (Hyannis, Massachusetts) were recorded as The Living Room Tour in July 2005. The album sold 44,000 copies in its first week in the US, landing at 17 on the Billboard 200, her highest-charting album since 1977. The album also charted at 51 in Australia. It has sold 330,000 copies in the United States.^[19][20][21] In August 2006 the album reentered the Billboard 200 at 151.^[22] The tour stopped in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. A DVD of the tour, called Welcome to My Living Room, was released in October 2007.^{[citation needed]}

King and James Taylor performing "Up on the Roof" together during their 2010 Troubadour Reunion Tour.

In November 2007, King toured Japan with Mary J. Blige and Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas. Japanese record labels Sony and Victor reissued most of King's albums, including the works from the late 1970s previously unavailable on compact disc. King recorded a duet of the Goffin/King composition "Time Don't Run Out on Me" with Anne Murray on Murray's 2007 album Anne Murray Duets: Friends and Legends. The song had previously been recorded by Murray for her 1984 album Heart Over Mind.

In 2010, King and James Taylor staged their Troubadour Reunion Tour together, recalling the first time they played at The Troubadour in Los Angeles in 1970. The pair had reunited two and a half years earlier with the band they used in 1970 to mark the club's 50th anniversary. They enjoyed it so much that they decided to take the band on the road. The touring band featured players from that original band: Russ Kunkel, Leland Sklar, and Danny Kortchmar. Also present was King's son-in-law, Robbie Kondor. King played piano and Taylor guitar on each others' songs, and they sang together some of the numbers they were both associated with. The tour began in Australia in March, returning to the United States in May. It was a major commercial success, with King playing to some of the largest audiences of her career. Total ticket sales exceeded 700,000 and the tour grossed over 59 million dollars, making it one of the most successful tours of the year.^[23]

During their Troubadour Reunion Tour, Carole King released two albums, one with James Taylor. The first, released on April 27, 2010, The Essential Carole King, is a two-disc compilation album. The first disc features many songs Carole King has recorded, mostly her hit singles. The second disc features recordings by other artists of songs that King wrote, most of which made the top 40, and many of which reached No.1.^[24] The second album was released on May 4, 2010 and is a collaboration of King and James Taylor called Live at the Troubadour, which debuted at No.4 in the United States with sales of 78,000 copies.^[25] Live at the Troubadour has since received a gold record from the RIAA for shipments of over 500,000 copies in the US and has remained on the charts for 34 weeks, currently charting at No.170 on the Billboard 200.^[26]

On December 22, 2010, Carole King's mother, Eugenia Gingold, died in the Hospice Care unit at Delray Medical Center in Delray Beach, Florida at the age of 94. King stated that the cause of death was congestive heart failure. Gingold's passing was reported by the Miami Herald on January 1, 2011.^[27]

In the fall of 2011 she released A Holiday Carole,^[28] which includes holiday standards and new songs written by her daughter Louise Goffin who also is producer for the album.

Her autobiography "A Natural Woman: A Memoir" was published by Grand Central in the United States on April 10, 2012.^[29][30]

On Thursday, May 10, 2012, it was announced that Carole King was retiring from music and that her days in music have most likely ended. King herself also doubted she would ever write another song and said that her 2010 Troubadour Reunion Tour with James Taylor was most likely the last tour of her life, saying that it "was a good way to go out." King also stated that she will most likely not be writing or recording any new music.^[31][32] However, on May 22, King wrote on her Facebook page that she never said she was actually retiring, and insisted that she was just "taking a break."

The City[link]

In 1968 King formed The City, a music trio consisting of Charles Larkey, bass, Danny Kortchmar, guitar and vocals, and King on piano and vocals. The trio was assisted by Jim Gordon on drums.^[33] The City produced one album, Now That Everything's Been Said in 1968, but King's reluctance to perform live meant sales were slow,^[34] and after a change of distributors it got deleted early, and the group disbanded in 1969.^[35] The album was re-released in 1999 as a CD,^[35] though despite a reappraisal by Kortchmar that the album sowed the seeds for Tapestry the CD was also deleted.^[36][37]

Acting career[link]

King has appeared sporadically in acting roles, notably three appearances as guest star on the TV series Gilmore Girls as Sophie, the owner of the Stars Hollow music store. King's song "Where You Lead (I Will Follow)" was also the theme song to the series, in a version sung with her daughter Louise.^[38]

She also appeared on Broadway in the play Blood Brothers.

Political and environmental activism[link]

After relocating to Idaho in 1977, King became involved in environmental issues. Since 1990, she has been working with the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and other groups towards passage of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA). King has testified on Capitol Hill three times on behalf of NREPA: in 1994, 2007 and again in 2009.^[39][40]

King is also politically active in the United States Democratic Party. In 2003, she began campaigning for John Kerry, performing in private homes for caucus delegates during the Democratic primaries. On July 29, 2004, she made a short speech and sang at the Democratic National Convention, about two hours before Kerry made his acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination for President.^{[citation needed]} King continued her support of Kerry throughout the general election.

In 2008, King appeared on the March 18 episode of The Colbert Report, touching on her politics again. She said she was supporting Hillary Clinton, and said the choice had nothing to do with gender. She also said she would have no issues if Barack Obama won the election. Before the show's conclusion, she returned to the stage to perform "I Feel the Earth Move".^{[citation needed]}

Tributes and covers[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2011)

King during an interview at the JFK Presidential Library, Boston, Mass., April 12, 2012

An all-star roster of artists paid tribute to King on the 1995 album Tapestry Revisited: A Tribute to Carole King. From the album, Rod Stewart's version of "So Far Away" and Celine Dion's cover of "A Natural Woman" were both Adult Contemporary chart hits. Other artists who appeared on the album included Amy Grant ("It's Too Late"), Richard Marx ("Beautiful"), Aretha Franklin ("You've Got a Friend"), Faith Hill ("Where You Lead"), and the Bee Gees ("Will You Love Me Tomorrow?").

Former Monkee Micky Dolenz released King for a Day, a tribute album consisting of songs written or co-written by King, in 2010.^[41] The album includes "Sometime in the Morning", a King-penned song originally recorded by the Monkees in 1967. Dolenz had previously recorded another of King's Monkees compositions, "Porpoise Song", on his lullaby-themed CD Micky Dolenz Puts You to Sleep.^[42]

Many other cover versions of King's work have appeared over the years. Most notably, "You've Got a Friend" was a smash No.1 hit for James Taylor in 1971 and a top 40 hit for Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway that same year. Isaac Hayes recorded "It's Too Late" for his No.1 R&B live album Live at the Sahara Tahoe. Barbra Streisand had a top 40 hit in 1972 with "Where You Lead" twice – by itself and as part of a live medley with "Sweet Inspiration". Streisand also covered "No Easy Way Down" in 1971, "Beautiful" and "You've Got A Friend" in 1972, and "Being At War With Each Other" in 1974. Helen Reddy covered two Carole King penned tunes: the first was "No Sad Song" in 1971; the second was "I Can't Hear You No More" in 1976. The Carpenters recorded King's "It's Going to Take Some Time" in 1972, and reached number 12 on the Billboard charts. Richard Carpenter produced a version of "You've Got A Friend" with then teen singer/actor Scott Grimes in 1989. Martika had a number 25 hit in 1989 with her version of "I Feel the Earth Move", and "It's Too Late" reappeared on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1995 by Gloria Estefan. Linda Ronstadt recorded a new version of "Oh No Not My Baby" in 1993. Celine Dion also recorded King's song "The Reason" on her 1997 album Let's Talk About Love with Carole King singing backup and it became a million-seller and was certified Diamond in France. "Where You Lead" (lyrics by Toni Stern) became the title song of TV show Gilmore Girls. Mandy Moore covered "I Feel the Earth Move" on her 2003 album, Coverage.

In 1996, a film very loosely based on her life, Grace of My Heart, was released. In the film an aspiring singer sacrifices her own singing career to write hit songs that launch the careers of other singers. Mirroring King's life, the film follows her from her first break, through the pain of rejection from the recording industry and a bad marriage, to her final triumph in realizing her dream to record her own hit album.^{[citation needed]}

Awards and recognition[link]

• In 1987, Goffin and King were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
• In 1988, Goffin and King received the National Academy of Songwriters Lifetime Achievement Award.^[8]
• In 1990, King was inducted, along with Goffin, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the non-performer category for her songwriting achievements.
• In 2002, King was given the "Johnny Mercer Award" by the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
• In 2004, Goffin and King were awarded the Grammy Trustees Award.
• King was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2007.^[43]

Discography and certifications[link]

The years given are the years the albums and singles were released, and not necessarily the years in which they achieved their peak.

U.S. Billboard Top 10 Albums^[4]

• 1971 – Tapestry (#1)
• 1971 – Carole King: Music (#1)
• 1972 – Rhymes and Reasons (#2)
• 1973 – Fantasy (#6)
• 1974 – Wrap Around Joy (#1)
• 1976 – Thoroughbred (#3)
• 2010 – Live at the Troubadour (with James Taylor) (#4)

U.S. Billboard Top 10 'Pop' Singles^[4]

• 1971 – "I Feel the Earth Move" (#1)
• 1971 – "It's Too Late" (#1)
• 1971 – "Sweet Seasons" (#9)
• 1974 – "Jazzman" (#2)
• 1974 – "Nightingale" (#9)

Albums and singles certifications

See also[link]

• List of songwriter tandems

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Carole King

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Carole King

• Official website
• Carole King discography at Discogs
• Carole King at the Internet Movie Database
• Carole King at the Internet Broadway Database
• Carole King at the Songwriters Hall of Fame

Articles on Carole King[link]

• Carole King at the Songwriters Hall of Fame
• Rachel Louis Snyder on Carole King, Salon, June 19, 1999
• Franck Scheck on Carole King, Hollywood Reporter, July 15, 2005

Gavin Greenaway (born 15 June 1964 in England) is a music composer and conductor. He is the son of Roger Greenaway.

Educated at Strode's College and Trinity College of Music. He started working with his father before leaving school. Their compositions for BBC children's television include Jimbo and the Jet Set, The Family Ness and Penny Crayon.

He conducted the scores for the films Gladiator and Pearl Harbor, both composed by Hans Zimmer. He also conducted lots of scores for Dreamworks such as Shrek, Antz, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, The Prince of Egypt, Chicken Run and The Road to El Dorado. In addition, he was commissioned by Disney to compose the score for their fireworks show IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth and a parade called Tapestry of Nations at Epcot. The resulting pieces of music from the fireworks show and parade have been used by Disney since 1999. For Tokyo DisneySea, he composed the score for "BraviSEAmo!", the pyrotechnics and water nightly show in 2004. He also conducted in Paul McCartney's oratorio Ecce Cor Meum.

His music was heard during the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony.

External links[link]

• Gavin Greenaway at the Internet Movie Database
• http://www.hans-zimmer.com/fr/mv/rcprod.php?numid=10

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