Tapestry

Alongside Joni Mitchell's Blue and James Taylor's Sweet Baby James, Tapestry defines the early '70s singer-songwriter scene. (Not coincidentally, Taylor and Mitchell make cameos here; Laurel Canyon was an incestuous little place back then.) It's also one of the great reinventions of rock and roll history: a tough veteran of New York's cutthroat Brill Building scene and one of the most successful songwriters-for-hire of the 1960s, King moved to southern California at the cusp of the new decade and transformed herself into a confessional singer-songwriter and an icon for all barefoot, frizzy-haired, cat-owning women of the era. But unlike many similar albums of its time and place, Tapestry still sounds great decades later, and that's entirely down to King's songwriting gifts. Even aside from the monster hits "It's Too Late," "So Far Away" and "I Feel the Earth Move," Tapestry includes the soft rock classics "You've Got A Friend," "Where You Lead" and "Smackwater Jack," as well as delicate reinterpretations of two of King's best-known hits for others, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." Lou Adler's understated, piano-forward production sounds timeless, and King's plain, girl-next-door vocals never sounded better. No wonder it sold a gazillion copies.