A November 4, 1970 review of the album titled “Writer: Carole King” just tore into her singing ability.
“It is notable that the title of this album is not ‘Singer: Carole King.’ Carole King may be an excellent writer, but as a singer, she is barely competent. Her vocal range is very limited, she can’t sing any high notes, and at times her voice sounds flat and bored.”
The article continues, “The tunes and the instrumentation help make up for the fact that Carole King can barely sing, making this album enjoyable if somewhat vacuous.”
It concludes that the songs may appear on other artists’ albums in the future, “But this is probably the first and only album Carole King will ever make.”
You probably know the story about her next album titled Tapestry: It was the number 1 best-selling album for fifteen consecutive weeks, had the second longest run of any album on the Billboard 200 chart after Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, and to date has sold over 25 million copies.
carole king is one of the greatest songwriters ever. Her singing is a lot more unique than it is powerful but who cares.
I totally agree. That reviewer was clearly incorrect in predicting that she would never have another album.
The reviewer is totally wrong about many aspects that he/she brought to their criticism. They are just hating passiveaggressively but hating ultimately. And hate is brainless attitude.
This was one of three shorts that I put in my November 2018 podcast to show how brutal/wrong music reviewers could be. The most savage review was the one on the rock group Heart: https://uselessinformation.org/rock-group-heart-should-have-a-heart-attack/
You don’t really have to sing high notes to be a good singer though, I hope you already know that.