King, Carole, 1942-

Carole King Klein[3] (born Carol Joan Klein; February 9, 1942) is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has been active since 1958. The most successful female songwriter of the latter half of the 20th century in the US, she wrote or co-wrote 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100.[4] She also wrote 61 hits that charted in the UK,[5] making her the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts between 1962 and 2005.[6] King's major success began in the 1960s when she and her first husband, Gerry Goffin, wrote more than two dozen chart hits, many of which have become standards, for numerous artists. She has continued writing for other artists since then. King's success as a performer in her own right did not come until the 1970s, when she sang her own songs, accompanying herself on the piano, in a series of albums and concerts. After experiencing commercial disappointment with her debut album Writer, King scored her breakthrough with the album Tapestry, which topped the U.S. album chart for 15 weeks in 1971 and remained on the charts for more than six years.[7] King was born Carol Joan Klein on February 9, 1942, in Manhattan, New York City, to Jewish parents Eugenia (née Cammer), a teacher, and Sidney N. Klein, a firefighter.[12][13][14][15] King's parents met in an elevator in 1936 at Brooklyn College, where her father was a chemistry major and her mother was an English and drama major.[16]: 10  King attended Queens College, where she met Gerry Goffin, who was to become her songwriting partner. When she was 17, they married in a Jewish ceremony on Long Island in August 1959 after King became pregnant with her first daughter, Louise.[24][25] They quit college and took day jobs, Goffin working as an assistant chemist and King as a secretary.[26] They wrote songs together in the evening.[27]