(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Kitchen Table Kibitzing 4/18/2023: Queen King [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-18 Probably everyone knows she wrote Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, recorded by The Shirelles, especially after she sang it herself on her Tapestry album. [2:46] The Everly Brothers recorded her song Crying In the Rain. Here, they sing it in their Marine uniforms on the Ed Sullivan Show. Ed asks them to “sing a number for Colonel Glenn”, because this was February 18, 1962, and John Glenn’s liftoff in “Friendship 7” would be two days later (and he’s also a Marine, I guess is Ed’s point). [2:18] Many of us know the story of Eva Boyd, Carole King’s babysitter, who was drafted to record demos by King and Goffin, and then dubbed Little Eva when Don Kirschner heard The Loco-motion and decided to release her recording. The only video of Little Eva singing the song is not great quality [it’s here], so I picked the very 1987 Kylie Minogue version. [3:23] The song Chains was originally recorded by girl group The Cookies, but Liverpool bands started covering it and it ended up on a Beatles record. (This is audio only of a 1963 live performance.) [2:16] The Drifters turn out to have a history that is eye-crossingly complicated. The first batch of Drifters backed Clyde McPhatter, and the next incarnation started with Ben E. King singing lead. There are so many Drifters versions that they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, for two different incarnations. It was a post-Ben E. King lineup, with Rudy Lewis on lead, that recorded Some Kind of Wonderful and quite a few of their other hits. [2:37] Here’s the original culprit inspiration for this diary: I'm Into Something Good by Herman's Hermits. [2:24] One Fine Day by The Chiffons — another familiar one. [2:12] Don't Bring Me Down: After The Animals had a big hit with House of the Rising Sun, their producer snagged them three pop songs, which they set about making over in their own style. Eric Burdon has a story, told in a Rolling Stone piece: Burdon claimed that for years he had no idea who was responsible for writing "Don't Bring Me Down," which cracked the Top 20 in the spring of 1966. "I didn't realize that it was a Goffin-King song until I was in a doctor's office in Beverly Hills and Ms. King came in and sat next to me," Burdon told Songfacts in 2010. "I didn't know it was her, I was just reading a magazine and she turned to me and said, 'You know, I hated what you did to my song.' I didn't know what to say, so all I said was, 'Well, sorry.' And then as she got up to go into the doctor's office, she turned around and said, 'But I got used to it.'" [3:23] It’s Going to Take Some Time is another song Carole King recorded herself, but The Carpenters also had a well-known version. [3:00] When Goffin and King made some money, they did that thing people do “for their kids” under those circumstances: they moved to the New Jersey suburbs, in their case, to West Orange. They didn’t like it, and they were tinkering with a song about that. One day, they were driving home on I-280 and they came to the sign for Exit 7, one that I’ve seen myself. It says “PLEASANT VALLEY WAY”. And that’s how The Monkees’ song Pleasant Valley Sunday got its name. [2:57] If It's Over was written collaboratively by Carole King and Mariah Carey in 1991. King had seen some of Carey’s work, and asked her if she’d like to record Natural Woman. Carey was wisely hesitant to sing something she thought Aretha Franklin had already perfected, so instead, the two wrote and produced this song together. [3:42] Goin’ Back was written in 1966 and initially recorded by Dusty Springfield, and it has since been recorded by a huge list of artists. I enjoyed this Phil Collins version. [4:15] Take a Giant Step was most widely known as a Monkees song, but Taj Mahal did a terrific version and I was going to put it here. Instead, I’m linking it, because I liked this one, by his daughter Deva Mahal, even better. [3:26] You’ve Got a Friend is sort of an odd case — Carole King wrote it for her own Tapestry album, lyrics included, but in 1971 when she was recording the album, James Taylor was working on his Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon album in the same studio, and he really loved the song, so it ended up on both albums, recorded with shared musicians. It was a #1 hit for Taylor as a single, and in 1972 made King the first woman to win the “Song of the Year” Grammy Award. This performance is for James Taylor’s 2007 live album One Man Band. The video is as long as it is because he first tells the story of the song. [9:27] There can surely not be many people who don’t know Carole King wrote Natural Woman and Aretha Franklin recorded it. But it’s (almost) closing this diary anyway, because there’s no way I’m not including the Franklin performance at the Kennedy Center Honors show for King in 2015. [4:17] It seemed to me Carole King deserved a song in here before I quit, though, so I picked this 1982 Tapestry concert video. The video following it is a clip from a PBS American Masters episode in which King, James Taylor, Lou Adler, and others speak about the making of Tapestry. [2:43] [2:24] Tuesday morning: Ol’ Mangy Fetlocks (satirist Bruce W. Nelson) has a new song about the latest shooting in Kansas City and its likely repercussions. [1:37] Got your own Carole-King-composed favorites? Or whatever else? The floor is open. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/18/2164288/-Kitchen-Table-Kibitzing-4-18-2023-Queen-King Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/