How Carole King Transformed Pop With 'It's Too Late'

Everything is there other songwriters, and then there's Carole King. No one ever had an epic career like the Brooklyn girl who spent the '60s writing classic hits for other artists – then spent the '70s writing her own. With her 1971 solo classic Tapestry, set the standards that all young singer-songwriters still aspire to reach. She has always followed her own path as a performer, composer, environmental activist. When Taylor Swift inducted King into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023, she simply called her “the greatest songwriter of all time.”

On Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs, King has three tracks, showing three different sides of her music. The Shirelles' 1960 girl classic 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow' enters at #151, Aretha Franklin's soulful ballad 'You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman' at #92 and her own 'It's Too Late' at #345.

King was still a teenager when she began writing hits with her lyricist and husband Gerry Goffin. They ruled the radio with a string of pop gems like “Up on the Roof” (The Drifters), “One Fine Day” (The Chiffons), “What a Sweet Thing That Was” (The Shirelles), “The Locomotion” ( for their babysitter Little Eva), 'Porpoise Song' (The Monkees), so many more. But “It's Too Late” was King in her own right after the marriage fell apart. It was a hard-hitting divorce song, co-written with Toni Stern, a number one hit in 1971. After so many teenage romances, it was shocking to hear Carole King singing in her own voice, talking about her generation of women . they came of age and built their lives.

In this week's special episode The Rolling Stones The 500 best songshosts Brittany Spanos and Rob Sheffield discuss the legend of King, why they love her and how she changed all the rules of pop with Tapestry and “It's too late.” Joining them is the queen herself: Carole King. She tells the story of how she started writing songs, how she fell in love with music and how her art has changed over the years as has her life.

King talks to Brittany and Rob about her early days in New York, writing hits like “Will You Love Me Tomorrow.” The Goffin-King team defined the Brill Building style of pop hitcraft, working in a busy office full of other songwriting teams, creating pop hits around the clock. They worked side by side with other legendary twins like Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry or Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill. The Beatles learned songwriting from her, always stopping by Liverpool record shops looking for the 'Goffin-King' label credit. As John Lennon told Rolling Stone in his famous 1970 “Lennon Remembers” interview, “First of all, Paul and I wanted to be Goffin and the King of England.”

But that was only the beginning for Carole King. He went on to define the Laurel Canyon singer-songwriter scene in the 1970s, with classics such as “You've Got a Friend,” “Sweet Seasons,” “So Far Away” and “I Feel The Earth Move.” As she tells Brittany and Rob, she never planned to be a performer – she was too shy of the limelight, preferring to write behind the scenes. But he attracted her. One night, playing piano for her friend James Taylor, he surprised her by telling the crowd she was the woman who wrote the classic “Up on the Roof” — and goaded her into singing it on the spot. Bring down the house. As he now recalls, “For me, there was a barrier between me and an audience…[but] I learned from James that there is no obstacle.”

Tapestry it became a whole new kind of pop blockbuster, a confessional statement that struck a chord with fans, staying on the charts year after year. “It's Too Late” was incredibly blunt and unsentimental about divorce, by the standards of 1971. “Toni Stern wrote the lyrics to 'It's Too Late'—she gave it to me,” says King. “The music just came out of me. 'I stayed in bed all morning just to pass the time/Something's wrong here, there can be no denying it.' You can almost hear the music, or I could definitely, just by saying it. As I was playing the piano, the music just came and this song was written.”

These songs still play because their raw honesty never wears off. At the Rock Hall last year, Swift said: “Her persona Tapestry it feels like listening to a close friend share the truths of her life so you can discover your own.”

King has always lived up to that independent spirit, but not just in her music. Since moving to Idaho in 1977, he has devoted himself to environmental activism, works to protect wildlife and ecological diversity near her home. It's been years advocating for the Northern Rocky Mountain Ecosystem Protection Act. The cruelty you hear in her voice carries over into everything she does.

in 2004, Rolling rock released his list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. Drawn from a massive vote involving artists, industry figures and critics, the list has been a source of discussion, inspiration and controversy for two decades. It is one of the most popular, influential and controversial features the magazine has ever done.

So we set out to make it even bigger, better and fresher. In 2021, we completely overhauled our 500 song listwith a whole new batch of voters from across the musical map. Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs takes a closer look at the entries on our list. Produced in partnership with iHeart, Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs finds Brittany and Rob discussing a new song each week, delving into its history and impact with the help of a special guest — including fellow RS colleagues, producers and the artists themselves. It's our celebration of the best songs we've ever made — and a breakdown of what makes them so great.

Watch the latest episode above, at iHeartor wherever else you get your podcasts and look for new episodes every Wednesday.