Carole King: Pleasant Valley Sunday (1966)

 |   |  1 min read

Carole King: Pleasant Valley Sunday (1966)

There's something to be said for getting up and going to work each day. If it is doing something you love -- and maybe even if it isn't -- you do get good at it, if nothing else.

Songwriting is no different than playing an instrument: the more you do the more you learn and the better you get.

The Beatles -- by writing and singing their own songs -- may have been the death knell for Tin Pan Alley and Brill Building songwriting factories, but those places were the great proving ground for enormous talents. Hell, even Lou Reed went to work as a jobbing songwriter before the Velvet Underground and out of such day-job writing came Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond, Phil Spector and of course Carole King.

Her co-writes with Gerry Goffin (whom she married at 17) spun such classics as Will You Love Me Tomorrow, The Locomotion, It Might As Well Rain Until September, Up On the Roof, I'm Into Something Good . . .

And they set her up for a solo career with songs like Natural Woman, I Feel the Earth Move, You've Got a Friend . . .

A few years ago the album The Legendary Demos was released (with her permission) and you could hear her classy working drawings of many of the songs she wrote, some with Goffin (they divorced in '68 and she left New York for California not long after).

Among them was this one -- a critique of middle class American life and the growing generation gap -- which became a hit for the Monkees who improved it considerably by making it more urgent and cynical.

For more one-off, oddities or songs with an interesting backstory see From the Vaults.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   From the Vaults articles index

Neil Young and the Bluenotes: This Note's For You (1988)

Neil Young and the Bluenotes: This Note's For You (1988)

An artist, sportsperson or public figure who doesn't accept, let alone solicit, corporate money these days is a rarity, possibly even considered somewhat odd -- and maybe even suspect. But back... > Read more

Jacqueline Taieb: 7 heures du matin (1967)

Jacqueline Taieb: 7 heures du matin (1967)

The attractive young Taieb (who had been born in Tunis) was one of the generation of "ye-ye" girl singers which emerged in France in the Sixties as the Beatles swept through. The... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

CRYING IN THE NIGHT: Wide awake and wondering

CRYING IN THE NIGHT: Wide awake and wondering

The sound of a baby crying in the night is a terrifying thing. The screams go on and on, no one seems to be taking care of it, you look out your window into the darkness but cannot see where... > Read more

Pete's Danish rum souffle

Pete's Danish rum souffle

Pete notes that while this is neither Danish nor a souffle it does contain rum. It's an old family favourite apparently. "The parentals picked it up when blowing through some roadside diner... > Read more