Carole King's Autobiography

April 10, 2012 at 11:47 PM

Carole King has written her autobiography "A Natural Woman," which was released Tuesday, April 10... And she is certainly in good company with Celine:

* Over her 30-year career, King had 116 charted hits as a singer & songwriter, making her the most successful female songwriter of the last half of the 20th Century.

* Here's something I never knew: She wrote "The Reason" for Aerosmith! In 1997, it became her last song to chart anywhere in the world.

(http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-a-natural-woman-a/)

* Of course, Celine also sang King's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" in 1995 for the "Tapestry Revisited album."

* And she performed the song with Aretha Franklin, King, Mariah Carey, Gloria Estefan and Shania Twain at the first "VH1 Divas" special in 1998.

The Divas special was the first time i ever had the opportunity to meet celine face to face when working for billboard magazine, cool cats. i had done several phoner interviews with her and at some point said to rene, "so when am i going to actually MEET the two of you?" when they came to NYC for the VH1 show, rene invited me to a rehearsal, and i sat next to rene in the second row of the beacon theater (probably more nervous than i had ever been in my life!) and watched celine rehearse with carole, who said, "how do you want me to play this," referring to their performance of "the reason." celine responded, "any way you want to, baby." i'll never forget it...

April 11, 2012 at 02:26 AM

Carole King has written her autobiography "A Natural Woman," which was released Tuesday, April 10... And she is certainly in good company with Celine:
* Over her 30-year career, King had 116 charted hits as a singer & songwriter, making her the most successful female songwriter of the last half of the 20th Century.
* Here's something I never knew: She wrote "The Reason" for Aerosmith! In 1997, it became her last song to chart anywhere in the world.
(http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-a-natural-woman-a/)
* Of course, Celine also sang King's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" in 1995 for the "Tapestry Revisited album."
* And she performed the song with Aretha Franklin, King, Mariah Carey, Gloria Estefan and Shania Twain at the first "VH1 Divas" special in 1998.

The Divas special was the first time i ever had the opportunity to meet celine face to face when working for billboard magazine, cool cats. i had done several phoner interviews with her and at some point said to rene, "so when am i going to actually MEET the two of you?" when they came to NYC for the VH1 show, rene invited me to a rehearsal, and i sat next to rene in the second row of the beacon theater (probably more nervous than i had ever been in my life!) and watched celine rehearse with carole, who said, "how do you want me to play this," referring to their performance of "the reason." celine responded, "any way you want to, baby." i'll never forget it...

Nice story! So did you get to meet Celine in person that night?

kev x

April 11, 2012 at 11:17 AM

Carole King has written her autobiography "A Natural Woman," which was released Tuesday, April 10... And she is certainly in good company with Celine:
* Over her 30-year career, King had 116 charted hits as a singer & songwriter, making her the most successful female songwriter of the last half of the 20th Century.
* Here's something I never knew: She wrote "The Reason" for Aerosmith! In 1997, it became her last song to chart anywhere in the world.
(http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-a-natural-woman-a/)
* Of course, Celine also sang King's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" in 1995 for the "Tapestry Revisited album."
* And she performed the song with Aretha Franklin, King, Mariah Carey, Gloria Estefan and Shania Twain at the first "VH1 Divas" special in 1998.

The Divas special was the first time i ever had the opportunity to meet celine face to face when working for billboard magazine, cool cats. i had done several phoner interviews with her and at some point said to rene, "so when am i going to actually MEET the two of you?" when they came to NYC for the VH1 show, rene invited me to a rehearsal, and i sat next to rene in the second row of the beacon theater (probably more nervous than i had ever been in my life!) and watched celine rehearse with carole, who said, "how do you want me to play this," referring to their performance of "the reason." celine responded, "any way you want to, baby." i'll never forget it...

Nice story indeed.

Now if Carol is the most successful female songwriter of the last half of the 20th centery. Who is the most successful female songwriter of the first half??

/fred

April 11, 2012 at 05:54 PM

Carole King is turning 70 years old!

April 11, 2012 at 09:00 PM

nystrele that was great you went tot the DIVAS 98 show. Thanks for sharing your story.

April 13, 2012 at 06:15 PM

These are two photos i took of celine and carole king rehearsing "the reason" at the '98 divas show. :-D

April 21, 2012 at 03:36 AM

Thanks for the info and photos, Chuck! I didn't know 'The Reason' was written for Aerosmith either. I guess Celine instantly jumped on it considering a few years prior she passed up on 'I Don't Want To Miss A Thing' also to Aerosmith. Too bad 'The Reason' wasn't the big hit and the album title Celine wanted it to be. She really adores that song because its written by Carole and produced by George Martin.

April 21, 2012 at 05:10 AM

Thanks for the info and photos, Chuck! I didn't know 'The Reason' was written for Aerosmith either. I guess Celine instantly jumped on it considering a few years prior she passed up on 'I Don't Want To Miss A Thing' also to Aerosmith. Too bad 'The Reason' wasn't the big hit and the album title Celine wanted it to be. She really adores that song because its written by Carole and produced by George Martin.

"I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" was actually released after the LTAL album. It was for the Armageddon soundtrack in 1998. LTAL was released in 1997 which means "The Reason" was released and recorded before "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing."