Carole King sings to the crew of the USS Enterprise, December 1998. Photo: PH3 Jason D. Malcom, USN, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Just about every record collection that started in the seventies had a copy of Tapestry in it. Usually scratched. Often borrowed from someone’s older sister and never given back. On the front, a woman sitting barefoot by a window, and a cat in the foreground looking like it owns the place.
By the time she made that record Carole King had already written a pile of hits for other people, and she was raising four kids. So we’ll start with the family and get to the cat after.
Carole King’s children
Carole King was born Carol Joan Klein in Manhattan on 9 February 1942. She has four children from her first two marriages.
The two eldest are daughters with Gerry Goffin, the lyricist she married in 1959 when they were both still teenagers. Louise Goffin was born in 1960, and Sherry Goffin Kondor came along after her. Carole and Gerry divorced in 1968.
In 1970 she married bass player Charles Larkey, who you can hear on Tapestry. They had a daughter, Molly Larkey, who’s now a visual artist, and a son, Levi Larkey. That marriage ended in 1976, and two more followed, to Rick Evers and Rick Sorenson. Beyond that the family keeps to itself, which is fair enough.
Louise is the one who went into the family business. Her biography says she was performing professionally at 17, opening for Jackson Browne, and her debut album Kid blue came out in 1979 with Danny Kortchmar producing. Years later she and her mum sang the Gilmore girls theme together.
Before the fame, the Brill Building years
Carole’s old high school boyfriend was Neil Sedaka. In 1959 he had a top ten hit with ‘Oh! Carol’, named after her, and it was Sedaka who put in a word so she and Gerry could join the staff at Aldon Music. The pair wrote at 1650 Broadway in New York, one of the addresses tied to what everyone calls the Brill Building sound.
The songs from those years are the sort you know without ever checking who wrote them. ‘Will you love me tomorrow’ went to No. 1 for The Shirelles. Bobby Vee had ‘Take good care of my baby’, The Drifters had ‘Up on the roof’ and The Chiffons had ‘One fine day’. Aretha Franklin got ‘(You make me feel like) a natural woman’ in 1967, and The Monkees got ‘Pleasant Valley Sunday’. Goffin and King went into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as songwriters in 1990.
Then there’s ‘The loco-motion’. Carole and Gerry’s babysitter recorded it under the name Little Eva and it went to No. 1 in America in 1962. Twenty-five years later a young Kylie Minogue sang it with the Neighbours cast at a charity footy event for Fitzroy Football Club, and that performance got her signed to Mushroom Records. Her 1987 ‘Locomotion’ sat at No. 1 on the Kent Music Report for seven weeks. So the song that started Kylie’s recording career was a Goffin and King tune. Keep that one for trivia night.
The Tapestry cover and Telemachus the cat
Tapestry came out on Ode Records on 10 February 1971, the day after Carole turned 29. Lou Adler produced it at A&M Studios in January that year. James Taylor, who’d been encouraging her to sing her own songs, played on it, along with Danny Kortchmar and Charles Larkey.
The cover photograph was taken by A&M staff photographer Jim McCrary in the living room of her house at 8815 Appian Way in Laurel Canyon. She’s on the window seat with a tapestry she’d stitched herself. The cat is Telemachus, her own, named after the son of Odysseus in Greek mythology.
No big hair, no stage gear. It looked like a room you might actually walk into, and that suited the songs. Plenty of us first heard ‘It’s too late’ on a mate’s turntable with that cover lying on the carpet next to it.
How big was Tapestry?
Very big. A few numbers for the record:
- 15 weeks in a row at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and 318 weeks on that chart all up
- No. 3 in Australia on the Kent Music Report
- Four Grammys in 1972, including Album of the Year, plus Record of the Year for ‘It’s too late’ and Song of the Year for ‘You’ve got a friend’
- More than 30 million copies sold worldwide
‘It’s too late’ was paired with ‘I feel the earth move’ and went to the top of the US charts, and James Taylor took his own version of ‘You’ve got a friend’ to No. 1. If you only know the singles, put on ‘So far away’ some quiet Sunday afternoon.
Carole King in Australia and today
Australian fans got to see her in March 2010, when the Troubadour Reunion tour with James Taylor started here before heading back to the United States in May. Over the whole run it sold more than 700,000 tickets.
She’s still with us as of September 2026. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted her a second time in 2021, as a performer, and in 2013 she became the first woman to receive the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Beautiful, the Broadway musical about her life, ran for 2,418 performances. In February 2026 she was a presenter at the Grammy Awards.
If the seventies singer-songwriters are your thing, have a read of our piece on Stevie Nicks, or request a song for the show.
Where were you when you first heard Tapestry? Share-house lounge room, first car, first heartbreak? Tell us in the comments.
Frequently asked questions
How many children does Carole King have?
Four. Louise Goffin and Sherry Goffin Kondor are her daughters with her first husband and songwriting partner, Gerry Goffin. Molly Larkey and Levi Larkey are her children with her second husband, bass player Charles Larkey. Louise and Sherry both sang on their mother’s 1974 album.
What was the cat on the Tapestry cover called?
Telemachus. He was Carole’s own cat, named after the son of Odysseus in Greek mythology, and he sits in the foreground of the photo while she perches barefoot on the window seat behind him.
Who took the Tapestry album cover photo?
A&M staff photographer Jim McCrary. He shot it in the living room of Carole’s house at 8815 Appian Way in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles. She’s holding a tapestry she stitched herself.
Did Carole King write ‘The loco-motion’?
Yes, with Gerry Goffin. Their babysitter recorded it as Little Eva and it went to No. 1 in the US in 1962. Kylie Minogue’s 1987 version spent seven weeks at No. 1 on Australia’s Kent Music Report and launched her recording career.
Which famous songs did Carole King write for other artists?
With Gerry Goffin she wrote ‘Will you love me tomorrow’ for The Shirelles, ‘Take good care of my baby’ for Bobby Vee, ‘Up on the roof’ for The Drifters, ‘One fine day’ for The Chiffons, ‘(You make me feel like) a natural woman’ for Aretha Franklin and ‘Pleasant Valley Sunday’ for The Monkees.
Who was ‘Oh! Carol’ written about?
Carole King. Neil Sedaka, her boyfriend from high school, named the song after her, and it was a top ten hit for him in 1959. Sedaka also helped get Carole and Gerry Goffin their jobs at Aldon Music.
Has Carole King toured Australia?
Yes. Her Troubadour Reunion tour with James Taylor began in Australia in March 2010 before moving on to the United States in May. The whole tour sold more than 700,000 tickets.
Is Carole King still alive?
Yes. Carole King was born on 9 February 1942 in Manhattan and is alive as of September 2026. She presented at the Grammy Awards in February 2026 and is a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, as a songwriter in 1990 and a performer in 2021.
Discover more about your favourite artists on Jukebox Saturday Night.
Disclaimer: The information provided is for educational and entertainment purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, music history is often based on available documentation and interpretation.
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