Gerry Goffin, Carole King - Goffin & King: A Gerry Goffin and Carole King Song Collection 1961-1967

Everyone who cares about popular music knows and loves the classic songs of Gerry Goffin and Carole King. Between 1959 and 1967 the couple wrote some of the most enduring hits of all time, including 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow', 'Take Good Care Of My Baby', 'Goin' Back', 'The Loco-Motion' and 'It Might As Well Rain Until September'. Those songs have been anthologised hundreds of times - maybe thousands. Now it's time to shine the spotlight on other great G & K songs that haven't always received the attention they deserve.

This collection blends hits and hard-to-find classics, focusing primarily on the latter but also including the original versions of songs that will have many listeners thinking, "I didn't realise they wrote that!"

Many of these tracks are completely new to CD, and several have never been reissued in any format in 40 years.

Exquisitely packaged, with notes by Mick Patrick and revered songwriter-musician Al Kooper - who interviewed Gerry Goffin especially for this project - and the inevitable array of pix, label shots and assorted ephemera, this will be a sure fire 'must have' for those who have invested in our "Phil's Spectre" and Jack Nitzsche series, and will appeal to anyone whose heart have ever been won by a Goffin-King song, no matter how big of a hit. Album Description

~STUNNING COLLECTION FROM LEGENDARY SONGWRITING DUO~

Music lovers around in the great musical sixties enjoyed countless chart-topping hits by legendary songwriting duo CAROLE KING & GERRY GOFFIN married during their early hit making years which is the incredibly prolific period this wondrous collection is drawn from. Starting with a mesmerizing "He's In Town" by THE TOKENS, this mini-masterpiece features a sophisicated and fascinating arrangement complete with great sax & guitar solos swirling around hypnotic vocals...each song in this stunning ACE IMPORT come from a diverse collection of stellar artist's ranging from ARETHA FRANKLIN to THE EVERLY BROTHERS then all the way back to the "White Queen Of Soul" DUSTY SPRINGFIELD who CAROLE herself named as her all-time favorite interperter of her songs! "Wasn't Born To Follow" is an engrossing DUSTY SPRINGFIELD performance and this great legendary singer should have had many more chart-topping #1 hits and Grammy Awards than she had and this haunting classic is a clear example of another lost "hit" song opportunity. Passionate & riveting winners like "Halfway To Paradise" by a soulful sounding TONY ORLANDO still sound great after all of these years and the stunning rhythmic sizzler "I Can't Hear You" by overlooked Soul Icon BETTY EVERETT along with her other classic "near top 10 hits" ("You're No Good" & "It's In His Kiss") should have all gone to #1! "Yours Until Tomorrow" by DEE DEE WARWICK show that anyone from this generation after generation legendary singing family has a great voice and this winner would easily have been TOP TWENTY with any exposure at all yet was only a R&B chart hit...great songs from this era sunk when only going to the R&B charts and the sublime "ATLANTIC SISTERS OF SOUL" is a goldmine collection of lost classic stellar performances and to date this timeless & superb collection is the finest "DIVA FEST" available and a must have for lovers of great soul singers and these great ladies really do get down!!! ERIC & THE ANIMALS burn the house down & "Don't Bring Me Down" is a rocking & soulful classic while THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS "A Man Without A Dream" is another glorious example why this classic duo went on to have an amazing career spanning decades. While all mesmerizing songs in this tremendous collection from greats such as BOBBY RYDELL, JACKIE DESHANNON, BOBBY VEE & others have that classic sixties hit sound, another engrossing collection would be to have a "TOP TEN COLLECTION" of those numerous classics from this amazing songwriting duo who both continue to this day writing volumes of great songs making them trailblazing giants who long ago went to legendary status both individually and collectively! Like all great ACE IMPORT COLLECTION'S, the "GOFFIN & KING" collection is rich in sound and the generous liner notes make for informative & fascinating reading! Bravo to CAROLE KING & GERRY GOFFIN for making music an enjoyable, memorable and wondrous listening experience throughout the great musical sixties and then beyond...definitely the greatest songwriter/composers from the past few generations and again...beyond May 13, 2008

THE Best Song-Writing Duo Of The 1960s

This Ace of London release falls within the same series honouring renowned song writers/produces (see also Bert Berns and Jerry Ragovoy as examples) and, like those two volumes, mixes the contents with bona-fide hit singles and either failed singles, those which registered only on the Billboard Pop Hot 100 "Bubbling Under" charts, or which are considered among classic album cuts. The fact is, they could just as easily have concentrated only on their hit singles as a song-writing team (Carole King, born Carol Klein on February 9, 1942 in Brooklyn, did the melodies, while Gerry Goffin, born February 11, 1939, also in Brooklyn, did the lyrics), and come up with enough to fill out two volumes, especially if they included collaborations with others such as Barry Mann and Phil Spector, as well as songs composed individually or with others after their marriage broke up in 1968.

As a team, however, they wrote and composed mainly songs which centred around themes of teenage love, rejection, and jealousy and, in that regard, there were none better..Indeed, they were so good at what they did for the Aldon Publishing component of Don Kirshner's famous Brill Building (which they had joined as newlyweds in 1960) that he established Dimension as a separate record label almost exclusively for their songs, at which point they also moved into production and arranging.

Of the 26 tracks included here, a full 18 were not hit singles (tracks 4 to 12, 16 to 20 and 23). Four of these were, however, the uncharted flipsides of hits: Yours Until Tomorrow, which was the B-side to Dee Dee Warwick's I'm Gonna Make You Love Me (# 13 R&B/# 88 Hot 100 in December 1961/January 1962 on Mercury); the Drifters' Another Night With The Boys backed their mega-hit, Up On The Roof (# 4 R&B/# 5 Hot 100 in late 1962/early 1963 on Atlantic) - which they also wrote but for whatever reason was excluded from this album; I Was There by Lenny Welch which was released on the reverse of Two Different Worlds (# 66 Hot 100 in September 1965 on Kapp); and A Man Without A Dream by The Righteous Brothers b/o On This Side Of Goodbye (# 47 Hot 100 in November 1966 on Verve).

Nor do they include what turned out to be their first major hit, Will You Love Me Tomorrow? After initially being released on Scepter as simply Tomorrow, the subsequent pressings with the title change rose to # 1 Hot 100/# 2 R&B in late 1960/early 1961. Later it would be covered by such divergent artists as The 4 Seasons,. Roberta Flack, Melanie, Donnie Elbert, Dana Valery, and Dave Mason. In fact, hardly any of their earliest hits are provided here and one that is. Tony Orlando's Halfway To Paradise, is the LP version as opposed to the Epic single which reached # 39 Hot 100 in May 1961.

It then jumps to 1964 to include these hits from that memorable year which kicked off the British Invasion: I Can't Hear You by Betty Everett (# 66 Hot 100 in July on Vee-Jay); He's In Town by The Tokens (# 43 Hot 100 in August on B.T. Puppy); Let Me Get Close To You by Skeeter Davis (# 45 Country and # 106 Hot 100 :Bubble Under" in October on RCA Victor); and I Just Can't Say Goodbye by Bobby Rydell (# 94 Hot 100 in December on Capitol). Skipping over 1965, they then include, from 1966, Ben E. King's So Much Love (# 96 Hot 100 in May on Atco) and Don't Bring Me Down by The Animals (# 12 Hot 100 in June on MGM). The last hit included here is the now-classic (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman by the great Aretha Franklin (# 2 R&B/# 6 Hot 100 in November 1967 on Atlantic).

Of course, since this isn't presented as a collection of their "greatest hits" I can't be my usual critical self in that regard. It is, in fact, a superb compilation of their various styles from 1961 to 1967, replete with informative liner notes as only Ace can do them, and excellent sound quality.

However, in the event you are not all that familiar with the Goffin-King library, here are just some of the other hits they wrote as a team: Some Kind Of Wonderful and When My Little Girl Is Smiling - The Drifters; Pleasant Valley Sunday and The Porpoise Song - The Monkees; Chains and Don't Say Nothin' Bad (About My Baby) - The Cookies; I'm Into Something Good - Herman's Hermits and Ethel "Earl-Jean" McRae, lead for The Cookies; Goin' Back - The Byrds; Don't Forget About Me - Dusty Springfield; Every Breath I Take - Gene Pitney; Take Good Care Of My Baby - Bobby Vee; One Fine Day - The Chiffons; The Loco-Motion - Little Eva (discovered by the duo as she was babysitting their daughter Louise); Point Of No Return - Gene McDaniels; Go Away Little Girl - Steve Lawrence; Hey Girl - Freddie Scott; I Can't Hear You - Betty Everett, and later covered by Helen Reddy as I Can't Hear You No More; Oh No, Not My Baby - Maxine Brown; Hi-De-Ho (That Old Sweet Roll) - Blood, Sweat And Tears; and Smackwater Jack - Carole King (she would also have 17 other hits as a solo artist).

Small wonder they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1990. May 5, 2008

I expected great music

I was completely disappointed with this CD. I listened to it all the way through one time and did not want to hear one song over again. I loved Carole King's albums of the '70s. I liked her earlier hit songs I heard on the radio throughout the '60s, and that's what I expected from this album, but it's not what I got. February 8, 2008

SUPERB COLLECTION OF HITS & RARITIES

ACE have done a superb job in sourcing the original tracks for this reverential compilation, going more for the lesser-known and harder-to-find than the already available smash hits. This CD is clearly aimed at the converted; all others will prefer the instantaneous thrills of Goffin and King's stratospheric successes (of which there'd be more than a CD's worth and with few exceptions are readily available elsewhere).

A 24-page booklet, packed with photos of artists, old vinyl 45s, record sleeves and lots of background information, accompanies the CD. The booklet is well-written, meticulously detailed and attractively organized. In outlining Goffin and King's 1960s song-writing successes, the booklet treads a path familiar to their fans, but also fills in enough gaps along the way to make the booklet possibly the most informative overview of Goffin and Kings 1960s output. In addition to song-writing credits, Goffin and King were often involved with other aspects of many of these tracks, with, for example, Goffin producing and King on backing vocals.

Succinct commentaries accompany each track. A very recent interview by Al Kooper of Gerry Goffin supplements the track-by-track commentary, suggesting that Goffin knew of the track selection. His quotes, although helpful, occasionally have a gossipy quality such as his identifying by sexual orientation one of the male session singers and his disclosure about his own and others' extramarital affairs. I suppose the latter helps us better understand the more adult themes that emerged in Goffin and King's later songs. By contrast, the most recent quotes by Carole King are sourced from 1980s radio broadcasts. Was she also approached to provide her own commentary?

Parallel to the track commentary is a jam-packed listing of the Goffin-King songs that made the American and British charts, plus the ones that never charted at all. If it cracked Billboard's Top 100, it'll be listed here. I have long thought that it would be wonderful to have a complete listing of every song Goffin and King ever published. Does such a list exist?

A compilation that favours rarities and lesser hits over the bigger sellers may risk mistaking hard-to-find for worth finding. The verdict: The overwhelming majority of 26 tracks are gems, with just one I could take or leave (Bobby Vee's The Idol; it's not hard to guess why this tired, cliche-ridden lament about the price of fame was not released until decades after it was first recorded). Here, in no set order, are some of those gems:

"HALFWAY TO PARADISE"
This remains Goffin and King's grandest-sounding song of all, from its inspired imagery (i.e., paradise just out of reach), through to the theme of a teasing would-lover intent on remaining unavailable, this song is a gift to the Drama Queen lurking in most singers, wanna-be and professional alike. With lyrics carried by a perfectly simple yet sad melody, the song relentlessly builds and builds to an ear-tingling crescendo. The song reminds us about the expressive forces unleashed when love is thwarted by the love object herself. Even without orchestral backing, this song packs a punch. It is all the more powerful sounding when the full orchestral treatment swarms in as the so-near-but-so-far yearning momentum builds to a climax. Surprisingly, never a big hit in the States, it has effortlessly attracted numerous versions over the decades, of which Tony Orlando's is the first.

"ANOTHER NIGHT WITH THE BOYS"
Some years ago I heard that this song was first composed by Goffin and King with the Everly Brothers in mind. This seemed unimaginable, given that the best known version was by the Drifters - until, that is, I heard Carole King's demo tape where the vocals ached with those inimitably sweet Everly Brothers-inspired harmonies. This is not to detract from the Drifters' more subdued and soulful reading, but it underscores how a truly great song as this can be interpreted with conviction in more than one way. Goffin tells us this was never a big hit for the Drifters. True; but I suppose it never stood a chance, backed as it was by the exquisite Goffin-King gem, Up On The Roof.

"I DIDN'T HAVE ANY SUMMER ROMANCE"
This sweetly sad little song has a long history of being over-looked: Firstly, as the B side to the flop follow up to Carole's 1962 hit, It Might As Well Rain Until September and a few years later this more polished version by the Satisfactions - a version which has remained unissued for more than forty years until now. Both versions are worth seeking out. The Satisfaction's has an undeniably lusher sound than Carole's whose own version nicely hints at the pared-back simplicity of her best work of the 70s.

"I'LL LOVE YOU FOR A WHILE"
Echoing the sentiments of Gale Garnett's earlier smash "We'll Sing In the Sunshine", the lyrics unapologetically declaim that the love on offer will be "for a while and then I'll be on my way". A most unusual theme for either a man or a woman to so explicitly announce to a lover, this Goffin-King number does not sink under the melancholic weight that eerily threatened to torpedo "We'll Sing in the Sunshine". The beat is cleverly supple and insistent with the singer delivering this seemingly callous message with an air of immovable detachment. Perhaps because of the lanquid defiance of the message, it sounds more disturbing delivered by a woman. One asks, What elicited the message in the first place? A too clingy lover or one who took too much for granted? What is the lover to do when she or he hears the all-too-clear message? Jill Jackson convincingly and boldly tackles this song, but for the heart-stoppingly best version seek out Dusty Springfield's.

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU"
Betty Everett's reading of this Goffin/King classic grows in stature yearly. Never a big hit for anyone, it has justly remained a frequently covered song. Long after many Number One songs fade, this lesser chart hit will still be around. Everett's scintillating delivery has not quite been stolen by Dusty Springfield's own stunning version, but some days they are neck and neck, as when the two versions are played one after the other. Wow!

"YOURS UNTIL TOMORROW"
Regardless of quality, almost every compilation disc has at least one track that easily rises above the pack. When a compilation has as many gems as this one does, it becomes harder to pick the very, very, very best one. While it might otherwise be a futile endeavour, not so with this great compilation. One gem stands out, lyrically, musically and vocally: Dee Dee Warwick's "Yours Until Tomorrow". Dee Dee's yearning reading wipes from memory Gene Pitney's stridently anguished version (a Top 40 UK hit for him in 1968). Never has getting the last few drops out of a dead relationship sounded less like an act of desperation and more like an act of in-the-moment self-sacrifice.

While Goffin and King fans will instantly savour this compilation, others may take longer to warm to it; but they'll be rewarded by the wait. A simply stunning collection.
February 2, 2008

Snapshot of this songwriting powerhouse

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. January 17, 2008

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