- published: 11 Sep 2014
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Carole King (born February 9, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. 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.
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.
VENUSIAN DIAMOND
by Carole King, Rick Evers & Navarro
On the thirty-first day of
the summer moon
In the marketplace
Soembody touched my hand and said
I was a woman of taste
Then with a flutter of wings
AAmid the clutter of things
I saw the Venusian Diamond
through a see of grace
I said "Lay all of your money down
And I will be your own
Do it if you can
If you don't, you better
leave it alone"
Then there appeared a serpent hanging
Like a thunder rope
He said, "Pull me" -I did
And fell into the wrong end of a telescope
SO I began to run
I knew not to where I'd come
I could hear the Venusian Diamond
and it gave me hope
It said, "Shatter all your images
And I will be your own
Do it if you can
If you don't, you better
leave it alone"
Selves
Selfish
Selfless
Self