Product Description
As a singer, Carole King won over millions of fans with her honest portrayals of love and life. As a songwriter, she penned dozens of hits for others, many of which became American pop standards. Now for the first time, these two aspects of a long and celebrated career are combined, presenting the best of Carole King as both singer and songwriter. From her record-breaking and iconic Tapestry, to more recent works, with Celine Dion and Babyface, Disc 1 covers the best of Carole King's own performances: the Grammy®-winning songs "It's Too Late" and "You've Got A Friend;" plus collaborations with Celine Dion and Babyface. Disc 2 highlights the best of Carole's best-known and most beloved compositions, as performed by others: "Up On The Roof" (The Drifters); "Natural Woman" (Aretha Franklin); and "Chains" (The Beatles). Together, these songs tell the complete story of an extraordinarily gifted and successful artist, who is still actively performing to this day, more than four decades later.

CD 1
1. It Might As Well Rain Until September
2. Child Of Mine
3. I Feel The Earth Move
4. So Far Away
5. It's Too Late
6. You've Got A Friend
7. Sweet Seasons
8. Been To Cannan
9. Corazon
10. Jazzman
11. Nightingale
12. Only Love Is Real
13. Will You Love Me Tomorrow/Some Kind Of Wonderful/Up On The Roof
14. Really Rosie
15. Pierre
16. You Can Do Anything
17. The Reason
18. Now And Forever

CD 2
1. Will You Love Me Tomorrow - The Shirelles
2. Take Good Care Of My Baby - Bobby Vee
3. Every Breath I Take - Gene Pitney
4. Crying In The Rain - The Everly Brothers
5. The Loco-Motion - Little Eva
6. Up On The Roof - The Drifters
7. Chains - The Cookies
8. One Fine Day - The Chiffons
9. Oh No Not My Baby - Maxine Brown
10. Just Once In My Life - The Righteous Brothers
11. Pleasant Valley Sunday - The Monkees
12. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman - Aretha Franklin
13. No Easy Way Down - Dusty Springfield
14. Wasn't Born To Follow - The Byrds
15. Hey Girl - Billy Joel

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003C5FMO4/?tag=imwan-20

Musictap has reported that Disc 1 will comprise King's own recordings of her songs, and Disc 2 of other artists' interpretations of her songs...it's this disc that I'm most excited about. Can't wait for the track listing to leak...

Hmm........ This could be interesting. All I've got is the old 2 cd "box set" & the expanded Tapestry.

That makes two of us, then.

But I'm satisfied with what I've got.

I'm glad to see enthusiasm about this project! I own Carole's entire catalog, but this looks like a welcome edition...and hopefully the second disc will be a nice companion to the two volume Ace series focusing mainly on lesser-known interpretations of Goffin & King songs.

But can this be correct? Just found this posting on Mike Ragogna's March 15 Huffington Post column, which contains a Legacy press release that I am excerpting:

CAROLE KING - The Essential Carole King 2CD (Ode/Epic/Legacy)
As a singer, Carole King won over millions of fans with her honest portrayals of love and life. As a songwriter, she penned dozens of hits for others, many of which became American pop standards. Now for the first time, these two aspects of a long and celebrated career are combined, presenting the best of Carole King as both singer and songwriter. From her record-breaking and iconic Tapestry, to more recent works with Celine Dion and Babyface, Disc 1 covers the best of Carole King's own performances: the Grammy®-winning songs "It's Too Late" and "You've Got A Friend;" plus collaborations with Celine Dion and Babyface. Disc 2 highlights the best of Carole's best-known and most beloved compositions, as performed by others: "Up On The Roof" (The Drifters); "Natural Woman" (Aretha Franklin); and "Chains" (The Beatles). Together, these songs tell the complete story of an extraordinarily gifted and successful artist, who is still actively performing to this day, more than four decades later.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-rago ... 98695.html

+++

While I can believe the Drifters & Aretha tracks have been licensed by Legacy from Warner Music, have they REALLY licensed a Beatles track?!?! I guess anything's possible seeing as how Legacy's former honcho Jeff Jones now runs Apple, but still....this would be quite a big development! Fingers crossed.

Joe

Surely that can't be right...?

Prediction: the covers on disc 2 will all be really odd, non-notable versions performed by Sony artists (including some lame live tracks); and disc 1 won't have "It Might As Well Rain Until September" on it.

Nathan, you're probably right but I hope you're wrong. I don't have any solo Carole King in my collection but if they do this thing right I'll definitely put it on my shopping list. If what they do is closer to your prediction, I'm staying away.

Did The Beatles perform "Chains" at the Star Club? If so, that might be the version to be included here. Certainly won't be a studio version, I'd bet.

It's not on the only available Star Club recording (the quasi-bootleg 1962 concert). I doubt the Beatles would release a unique recording on a different artists' CD.

Since Sony controls Beatles songs, it probably would be the studio version.

(The original Cookies version of Chains is better)

Folks, we're only 3 years away from the Please Please Me album going public domain everywhere in the world except the USA (& possibly Canada). EMI & the RIAA are bound to do a push to change EU copyright laws before 2013, but will they succeed?

It certainly makes sense for EMI to start licensing early Beatles tracks left & right to maximize income while they can.

The Elvis Sun recordings & early pre 1961 RCA's have already gone pd in Europe.

CD Universe has apparently posted a tracklisting for this....WITHOUT the performers on Disc Two listed! But anyway, here it goes...

1. It Might As Well Rain Until September
2. Really Rosie
3. Pierre
4. Child of Mine
5. I Feel the Earth Move
6. So Far Away
7. It's Too Late
8. You've Got a Friend
9. Sweet Seasons
10. Been To Canaan
11. Corazon
12. Jazzman
13. Nightingale
14. Only Love is Real
15. Will You Love Me Tomorrow/Some Kind of Wonderful/Up On the Roof - (featuring James Taylor)
16. Now and Forever
17. You Can Do Anything - (featuring Babyface)
18. Reason, The - (featuring Celine Dion)

[Despite the lack of any Capitol/Atlantic/Rockingale material, Disc One isn't a bad overview of Carole's career...extra points for "It Might As Well Rain..."! I do wish there'd been one or two lesser-known gems like "It's Going to Take Some Time" or "Spaceship Races," but this is still a strong lineup. I miss "Beautiful" and "Where You Lead," too, but then again, they could put all of TAPESTRY on here...]

Essential Carole King Songs DISC 2: SONGWRITER:
1. Will You Love Me Tomorrow
2. Take Good Care of My Baby
3. Every Breath I Take
4. Crying In the Rain
5. Loco-Motion, The
6. Up On the Roof
7. Go Away Little Girl
8. Chains
9. One Fine Day
10. Oh No Not My Baby
11. Just Once In My Life
12. Pleasant Valley Sunday
13. (You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman
14. No Easy Way Down
15. Hey Girl

[Surprised they didn't find room here for the Byrds' "Goin' Back" or "Wasn't Born to Follow", but again, this could be a nice overview if the right recordings are used...]

Wow... actually looks better than I thought it would. Although I'm slightly annoyed "Hard Rock Cafe" isn't included - although I think it might have been a hit here (australia) and nowhere else, so it's not really surprising.

Sweet!... allmusic has this listed already, so can find out who sings what on disc 2 (unless they've lined them up to the wrong artist, wouldn't be the first time that's happeend...)

1. Shirelles
2. Bobby Vee
3. Gene Pitney
4. Everly Bros
5. Little Eva
6. The Drifters
7. Steve Lawrence
8. The Beatles
9. The Chiffons
10. Maxine Brown
11. Righteous Brothers
12. The Monkees
13. Aretha Franklin
14. Dusty Springfield
15. Billy Joel


Surprisingly good choices.... apart from Billy Joel singing "Hey Girl" instead of Freddie Scott (that one definitely fits with my "odd, non-notable, Sony-owned" prediction). And the Beatles doing "Chains" since AFAIK it wasn't released as a single (was it?) and probably would have cost an arm and a leg to license (unless, like Geff said; EMI are trying to license the Beatles out as much as possible because they may own the recording for only a couple more years)

Thanks, Nathan. I'm impressed -- with the exception of the Steve Lawrence and Billy Joel tracks, that second disc appears to be entirely non-Sony recordings. I still suspect the presence of a Beatles track has more to do with former Legacy head Jeff Jones now running Apple than anything else, but EMI/Apple would indeed be wise to license more in the period before the recordings go PD abroad.

This looks like a keeper, in any case, and hopefully will sell a bunch of copies at Carole's upcoming tour with James Taylor.

This one's going to be a pass for me.

It is nice to finally see a Beatles recording on a comp other then Time-Life.

I don't know if I can buy anything with Celine Dion on it.

Unfortunately, I did....the George Martin "In My Life" CD. I wanted it as it's the only place to get the (studio) Jeff Beck version of "A Day In The Life." Most of the rest of the album is lousy.....capped off with Celine Dion singing a version of "Here There & Everywhere" that almost makes me outright hate the song.

I got that one for free...and still wanted my money back.

Sorry to hear that. The woman (assuming she is human) makes my skin crawl.

Other than that, this looks like a nice collection, but there's nothing here except a few of the covers on disc 2 that I don't already have.

Anybody who only as Tapestry or Greatest Hits might be surprised at how consistently good the material on disc 1 is.

FYI, the tracklisting from Amazon shows "Chains" by the Cookies rather than by the Beatles.

That sounds right... another allmusic blunder!

Could they have chosen a less flattering Image for the cover?

"Writer," "Tapestry," "Music," "Rhymes and Reasons," "Fantasy," "Really Rosie," and "Now That Everything's Been Said" by the City (her band before Writer) is a very strong body of work that I would recommend to anybody who's just getting into Carole.