The Essential Carole King – Review

Penning hit after hit for other artists as well as finding success as a performer herself, Carole King has produced some of the most well-loved, memorable pop songs during her illustrious career. The Essential Carole King is a unique compilation because it focuses on both aspects of her career – a two CD set, the first disc is titled “The Singer” and includes some of King’s most famous performances, including “It’s Too Late”, “Sweet Seasons”, “I Feel The Earth Move”, “So Far Away”, and many more. Disc two, “The Songwriter”, highlights songs that King wrote for others, with hits like “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” (The Shirelles), “One Fine Day” (The Chiffons), “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” (Aretha Franklin) , “Chains” (Performed on here by The Cookies, this song was later by covered by The Beatles as well), “The Loco-Motion” (Performed here by Little Eva and later covered by artists like Grand Funk Railroad and Kylie Minogue), “Up On The Roof” (The Drifters), “Pleasant Valley Sunday” (The Monkees), and so many others. Including songs from both aspects of King’s career was a great idea, and makes this album a nice addition to any music collection – her music has such universal appeal, this album will be enjoyed by people of all generations.

I thought they also did a nice job of preserving the original sound of these songs – I hate it when classic music is “remastered” for CD, because it never sounds as good and often includes alternate takes that are inferior to the originals. I really enjoyed this disc and appreciated the fact that they did their best to preserve the warm sound of these classics, and I think the track selection was excellent. Although nothing can beat vinyl for me, I am aware that not everyone has a record player anymore – or maybe you do, but you want a copy to play in your car!

The Essential Carole King is available on Amazon for $12.99. Sony Music forwarded me a promotional copy of this album for review.