But the year was highlighted by one woman's conquering of the charts as a singer after she first made her impact as a songwriter. On the Top 40 from May 22, 1971 was a debut at No. 38 by a woman who teamed with her then-husband in the 1960s to write some classics, such as "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" by the Shirelles, "The Loco-Motion" for Little Eva, "Go Away Little Girl" by Steve Lawrence and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" by Aretha Franklin.
By 1971, Carole King was no longer married to Gerry Goffin and was ready to break out on her own with the album that was about to become the groundbreaker for women everywhere, "Tapestry." She debuted with what was a double-sided hit. The "B" side of the 45 was the ground-banging, beat-setting raucous "I Feel The Earth Move." But it's the "A" side that everyone remembers most as "It's Too Late" would be on radios all over America. The song clocked in over four minutes, something that was rare for pop radio back in that time period.
However, the song about the end of a relationship and how the female end of it copes with knowing it's over, hit a nerve with both men and women. It would go from No. 38 to No. 21 to No. 9 to No. 6 to No. 1, where it would sit at the top for five straight weeks and be the biggest hit of the summer of '71.
More importantly, the song helped to open eyes to the album "Tapestry," which had been released in mid-February. When it was all said and done, "Tapestry" would spend 15 weeks at No. 1, win the Grammy for Album of the Year and go on to spend over 300 weeks on the Billboard Top 200 album chart between 1971-2011.
But the double-sided hit song is not the legacy of "Tapestry." Every song is a memory maker, from "It's Too Late" to her version of "You've Got A Friend," which good pal James Taylor recorded on his own and made a No. 1 hit, going to the top two weeks after King's double-sided hit had finished its five-week run at No. 1, to "Smackwater Jack" to "So Far Away," the other memorable Top 40 hit from the "Tapestry" album and a Top 15 hit to "Where You Lead," which a year later, Barbra Streisand would have a Top 40 hit with. She also did her versions of "A Natural Woman" and "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?"
Basically, Carole King gave you a bit of everything from this amazing album and 43 years later, it is still arguably the greatest album/CD ever recorded by a female artist. It was as if she and producer Lou Adler took a thermometer to the world outside the recording studio, got a reading and made an album everyone could relate to.
"It's Too Late" got the ball rolling 43 years ago. It also got Carole King's career going in another direction -- one that still sees her on tour from time to time and showed off her singing and performing prowess.
That's how important "Tapestry" was as an album, even to this day.
"It's Too Late" was far from late. Actually, the song was right on time for its singer-songwriter.
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