Advertisement
Dublin: 9 °C Friday 29 March, 2024
carole king

Any excuse to dig out the ESB 'Going Back' ad

And I can play the game of life to win…

US PRESIDENT BARACK Obama has honoured singer-songwriter Carole King at a tribute concert at the White House, calling her a “living legend”.

Obama presented King with this year’s Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, an award given by the Library of Congress. She is the first woman so honoured and joins a list of recipients that includes Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon.

Carole King wrote hits like (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman and You’ve Got a Friend, and is also responsible for every Irish person’s Achilles hell… Going Back:

Video:YouTube/Mikoskyo

(Dusty Springfield performs the version we’re most familiar with by the way)

Several friends from King’s decades in the music business came to the White House to perform in her honor, including Gloria Estefan, Billy Joel, Jesse McCartney, Emeli Sande, James Taylor and Trisha Yearwood.

King opened the show on the piano before taking a front-row seat between Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Estefan, Yearwood and Sande followed with King’s Will You Love Me Tomorrow. She and Taylor put their voices together on “You’ve Got a Friend” to close the concert.

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

King got her start in music growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and wrote her first No. 1 hit at age 17— Will You Love Me Tomorrow for the Shirelles — with then-husband Gerry Goffin.

Her breakout 1971 album “Tapestry” remains one of the best-selling records of all time.

It is the first female solo album to reach Diamond status, surpassing 10 million copies sold. The album included No. 1s It’s Too Late and I Feel the Earth Move, as well as You’ve Got a Friend recorded by Taylor.

It was the first album by a female artist to win all the top Grammy awards — for record, song and album of the year, along with the Grammy for best pop vocal performance.

Obama said yesterday:

As one of the best-selling albums of all-time, it cemented Carole’s status as one of the most influential singer-songwriters that America has ever seen.

More than 1,000 artists have recorded hundreds of King’s songs, including The Beatles, Mary J. Blige, Cher, Phil Collins, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand and many others.

The Dredge: Which Kardashian is Kurt Cobain’s daughter calling a ‘f**king idiot’?

Never forget: the time Colin Farrell was into line dancing>