Goffin and King-A Gerry Goffin and Carole King Song Collection 1961-1967

First off, this is a collection of tunes written, not performed, by the team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King should there be any question in the prospective purchaser's mind. Though Carole King became a standout performer in her own right in the '70's, the tunes here are those written by her and her husband and fed to a wide spectrum of material-hungry recording artists in the '60's. Along with such prolific pairs like Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Carole King and Gerry Goffin generated an astounding number of compositions that contributed much to the development of rock's early history.While many of their well-known works are ubiquitously available, this piece from Ace Records of the U.K. presents a wide spectrum of the hits, misses and stuff in between. The bigger and modest hits are represented by the likes of "He's In Town" by the Tokens, "Halfway To Paradise" by Tony Orlando and Aretha Franklin's "A Natural Woman". Much of the interest here however, is in the titles that never made it big on the charts. While some of these recordings seem to warrant more sales attention than they received at the time, not everything they wrote turned to gold and they had their fair share of failed efforts. Ace has done a noteworthy job here in sampling the varying music-writing fortunes of this essential team.Complementing the recordings, the accompanying 24-page booklet provides both background on the performances and a biographical sketch of Gerry and Carole. Sound quality is dependably good with many of the 26 tracks in stereo and the remainder (1,4,6,9,12,18-20, 24) in clean mono. Rather than focusing on just the hits, this new collection offers an interesting smorgasbord of output from one of the most prolific songwriting teams of the formative years of the rock and roll era and may interest both the casual and die-hard fans of the genre.

I bought this CD out of curiosity---I did not recognize most of the titles or, if I recognized the title, I did not remember hearing the artist involved performing the song.I am really glad I was curious. The songs on the CD are terrific and it has been a long time since I have had so much pleasure so unexpectedly. Like most people I know the work of Goffin/King quite well but what I didn't know was how deep the catalog is.I have a very large record collection so I am well aware that those of us who grew up in the 50's and 60's did not hear everything that was available on our radios---we just thought we did. If artist X had 2-3 hits and we never heard him again we wondered what happened to him/her but went on to the next thing presuming that was all there was. Tony Orlando, for example, big local hit on the East Coast with "Halfway to Paradise", bigger national hit with "Bless You"--and then gone.This recording reinforces how much great music was written and recorded and failed simply because we never got to hear it. I was too young to understand payola and too naive to realize how radio playlists were put together but I am always grateful when a CD such as this comes along to show me some of what I missed.If you are a fan of the 1961-1967 music scene, try this CD. You won't be sorry. You'll recognize some of the artists and some of the songs but I am sure you will like most of what you hear.

This British import is a real delight. Ace did a blockbuster job with the selection, mastering and documentation. The Tokens' "He's In Town" is a delight with that high falsetto, "No, you don't have to tell me." Skeeter Davis' rendition of "Let Me Get Close to You" is as sweet as it is dated, "Now I have finally said it, come on baby, don't make me regret it." Carole King does backup vocals on Tony Orlando's version of "Halfway to Paradise" in his pre-Dawn days. Bobby Vee recorded a number of Goffin-King tracks. "The Idol" has a strong string arrangement that sounds great in this remaster, "I read somewhere that I'm happy guy; I'm glad to hear it." The Chiffons, known for "Sweet Talkin' Guy," recorded "The First & Last" in 1963, although it's sha-la-la chorus must have seemed a blast from the past by its 1970 release. Richard "Popcorn" Wylie's "Brand New Man" is a rare King-Goffin track that has a joyful melody. The Drifters' "Another Night With the Boys" has their patented smooth soulful sway. Jackie DeShannon's stellar voice shines on "Heaven Is Being With You." "I Didn't Have Any Summer Romance" by The Satisfactions produced by Jack Nitzsche debuts on this CD. Bertell Dache recorded demos for Goffin/King & had four sides released by United Artists. His "Love Eyes" puts a smile on my face with its bubbly cheerful dreamy chorus. The Crickets' version of "Don't Ever Change" is a delight. The Beatles sang this song on BBC radio. Jill Jackson who was the Paula in Paul & Paula sang "I'll Love You For A While," "When I leave you, you'll say that I loved you well." The 1965 Lenny Welch version of a track associated with Johnny Mathis, "I Was There," boasts a smooth romantic sound, "I was there to bring you a daily bouquet, to make the world your playground if you wanted it that way." Betty Everett's version of "I Can't Hear You" sets your toe tapping and your head spinning with the glorious throbbing Carole King melody, "You walked out on me once too often; and I can't take no more of your jive & that's the truth." Ramona King's "Hey Everybody" is a great rocker spiced with some soulful sax. P.J. Proby's "I Can't Make It Alone" is a densely arranged song written for The Righteous Brothers also recorded by Bill Medley. The Righteous Brothers do a great job on the breakup song "A Man Without a Dream." The Animals burned a blazing top ten record with "Don't Bring Me Down." Dusty Springfield's version of "Wasn't Born to Follow," the song the Byrds did for the film "Easy Rider," has some delightful slide guitar in Dusty's classic soulful style. Carole King arranged and played piano on Ben E. King's "So Much Love." Dee Dee Warwick's version of "Yours Until Tomorrow" wears extremely well 40 years later, "Tomorrow the real world will come crashing down on me; I know I must lose you; That's the way it has to be." The CD concludes with a bit of ambrosia from Aretha Franklin, the classic "Natural Woman." Gerry Goffin and Carole King wrote an amazing quantity of songs with extraordinary results. This disc is a gold mine for Carole King fans. Bravo!

I was impressed by the number of songs written by Goffin and King.

As with the Something Good CD, this CD also is a nice presentation of rare songs that many people would not attribute to Goffin & King, and different cuts of songs that have all been heard before. A nice CD for the die-hard RNR fans of that time period. If you like Gerry Goffin and Carole King, you need to have both CDs in your library.

It was a surprise to get Carole's old songs.Carole is not enough, I am always expecting news from her.

Anther terrific release from ACE. A sprinkling of the iconic hits feature alongside less well known versions of tracks that were hits for other artists. This provides a fascinating retrospective- one in a series- that revisits the work of Brill Building era songwriters. An excellent CD

An Ace collection- no more needs saying.

Clairement, il n'y rien à jeter sur cette très bonne compilation dédiée au tandem King/Goffin. Au minimum bon quand l'interprète n'est pas exceptionnel en fait. Car voilà, King/Goffin, c'est de la pure pop manufacturée, pré-Beatles et donc particulièrement lisse et propre, teenage, mais décrivant finalement au plus près tous les émois et les états de la condition adolescente (et ils sont nombreux tant cette étape est délicate et difficile: demandez à tous les parents, ils confirmeront). Or donc, les compilateurs ont choisis de ne pas mettre les plus grands morceaux du tandem. C'est bien, on chope des trucs qu'on ne connaissait pas (même si on en possédait déjà quelques-uns), et on tombe sur quelques pépites. Dommage par contre qu'on tombe parfois sur, donc, quelques interprètes dispensables, comme Bobby Vee par exemple. Ceux-là tirent le morceau par le bas en roucoulant/croonant de manière par trop unilatérale par-dessus des violonades par trop grandiloquentes. C'est que cette pop-là ne peut se révéler probante que dans la demi-mesure, un certain sous-entendu, voire carrément un non-dit. Oh, cela reste sympathique et charmant, on est complice, mais ça peut être rédhibitoire chez certains tant ces popperies ont parfois mal vieillies. Car globalement, outre la composition en elle-même (paroles et musiques, les deux finalement toujours simples sans être simplistes, profondément humaines et tentant de sonner le plus vrai, le plus près possible du sujet), les arrangements sont souvent splendides, exactement ce qu'il faut pour rehausser l'ensemble. Ca sonne presque tout du long comme du Phil Spector, moins la petite touche de génie (5 % du morceau mais qui fait la différence à la fin). Une très bonne compilation de pop sixties, donc, à l'arrivée, pour qui aime le genre. Etrange tout de même vu l'optique de conclure par l'immense "Natural Woman" immortalisé par Aretha Franklin. Hormis le fait qu'on a forcément déjà ce morceau, il semble placé là pour remonter tout de même quelque peu le niveau et rassurer l'auditeur. Car la différence est de taille. On sait que Goffin et King ont pondu d'autres titres de cet acabit ("Will You Still Love Me Tommorrow" !)mais les 25 autres morceaux, plus obscurs, nous faisaient penser qu'on était là pour déterrer quelques pépites et avoir droit à une compilation pure pop de qualité. Le disque se clôt donc magistralement (ce morceau est énorme) mais de manière incongrue (on quitte franchement les rivages pop délimités par le disque pour aborder une toute autre stratosphère). Maintenant, on sait que trois (oui, trois !) autres volumes ont déjà suivi. Et ce n'est peut-être pas fini. Les compilateurs ont donc bien décidé d'étaler les friandises du tandem. Vu les pépites qu'on ramasse tout de même dans ce premier volume, on se voit quelque peu obligé, pour qui aime le genre, de se procurer les suivants.

Goffin et King était un des duos stars du Brill Building. Cette compilation exceptionnelle montre toute l'étendue de leur génie. Dès le morceau d'ouverture "He's in town" c'est un émerveillement de tous les instants qui ne s'achèvera qu'une fois les dernières notes de "Natural Woman" écoulées. On se rend compte à quel point Goffin était un superbe parolier, économe mais maîtrisant parfaitement son sujet. On passe ainsi de la joie ("Brand New Man" par exemple) à la déchirure ("I didn't have any summer romance", "Yours Until Tomorrow") d'une seconde à l'autre tant l'écriture est forte et juste. Pas besoin de s'offrir des postures intellectuelles, tout est dans l'émotion. Sur ces paroles Carole King construisait des mélodie exquises et d'une grande variété.En plus des compositeurs, il faut également saluer le génie des interprètes (Dee Dee Warwick sur "Yours Until Tomorrow m'aura par exemple hanté des semaines entières) et aussi celui des producteurs et arrangeurs (voir le travail renversant de Jack Nitzche sur "I didn't have any summer romance").Une compilation parfaite à acheter avec sa petite sœur "Honey and Wine" presque aussi exceptionnelle (une troisième compilation est sortie depuis mais je ne l'ai pas encore acheté même si cela risque de ne pas tarder). Encore une fois on peut remercier Ace Records pour le superbe travail qu'ils effectuent.

ever wonder how much they actually wrote?