Tapestry — 1971

Background

Tapestry was released in 1971, following King's already substantial career as a songwriter for other artists throughout the 1960s, and marked her definitive establishment as a performer in her own right, drawing on the same gift for melody that had made her one of the most successful songwriters of the previous decade, now applied to her own confessional, piano-led performances.

Sound

'It's Too Late' pairs a warm, jazz-inflected arrangement with a lyric about a relationship's quiet ending, becoming one of the album's biggest hits; 'I Feel the Earth Move' opens the record with an energetic, driving piano figure that showcases a more upbeat, rhythmically forceful side of King's songwriting than her ballads. 'You've Got a Friend', later also recorded by James Taylor, offers one of the record's warmest, most reassuring moments.

Reinterpretation

The album also includes King's own version of '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman', a song she had co-written years earlier as a hit for Aretha Franklin, offering listeners a chance to hear the songwriter's own more intimate, piano-centred interpretation of a song already established as a soul classic in another artist's hands.

Legacy

Tapestry became one of the best-selling albums of its era and remains one of the most significant and enduringly popular singer-songwriter records ever made, its combination of exceptional melodic craft and unguarded emotional directness helping establish the confessional singer-songwriter album as a major commercial and artistic force through the 1970s. It remains a defining document of that entire musical movement.