Brooklyn · Broadway · La Brea · 57th Street · Hyde Park1650 Broadway · New York 19, N.Y.
Words by Gerry Goffin
Music by Carole King
As recorded by
For ten years her name was the small print on other people’s hits. Every song left 1650 Broadway as a copy with a blank line for the singer. Here are the places, from a Brooklyn street to the night the line read Carole King.
Contents · Brooklyn and Queens, 1942 to 1959
She skipped from kindergarten straight to second grade, and started seventh grade at Shell Bank in 1952, aged ten. In middle school she rode the subway from Sheepshead Bay to Atlantic Avenue for Alan Freed’s Easter Jubilee here; in her memoir it is the show that opened her ears to a new kind of music.
011942
She lived on East 24th Street in Sheepshead Bay from her birth in 1942 until she married Gerry Goffin in 1959.
Their first home together was a one-room basement flat on Bedford Avenue, a block from her childhood home; their daughter Louise was born in March 1960.
Her childhood home is a private house: the street is named here, the house is not mapped. Pictured: houses on nearby Avenue X.
021952
She went to Shell Bank Junior High and James Madison High School, both close to home; both are still public schools.
She acted in several school shows.
A working public high school: see it from Bedford Avenue and do not go in.
031950s
The theatre opened on 24 November 1928 and ran rock ’n’ roll revues from 1955 to 1960.
It closed in 1962 and spent decades as Long Island University’s basketball arena, then reopened for concerts in spring 2024.
A concert venue again since spring 2024: buy a ticket to any show to see the hall.
041959
Her family moved to Rosedale, Queens, so she went to Queens College instead of Brooklyn College.
There she met Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, and met Gerry Goffin in the student union.
She and Goffin married at her parents’ house in 1959.
A working college campus: walk the paths, but the buildings are for students and staff.
1650 Broadway at 51st Street · Aldon Music
She remembered the writing rooms as cubicles barely big enough for an upright piano, a bench, a chair for the lyricist and a small table.
In her memoir: while she played, they heard only their own song; the moment she stopped, they could hear the team in the next cubicle.
Five cubicles, five uprights. Yours is in the middle. Play it.
1650 Broadway · where she wrote
Al Nevins and Don Kirshner’s Aldon Music was here, across Broadway from the Brill Building. Their first big hit here was “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” for the Shirelles, which went to No. 1: Goffin wrote the words, King the tune. Aldon was sold to Columbia Records in 1963.
The office floors are private; Ellen’s Stardust Diner, with its singing waiters, is at street level and open to all.
1619 Broadway · across the street
It took its name from a menswear shop on the ground floor; by the early 1960s more than 160 music businesses were tenants. When it became a city landmark in 2010, The New York Times called it an “Art Deco sweatshop of smash hits”.
She did business in the building, but says in her memoir that she never wrote there.
A working office building and a city landmark: see the Art Deco front from Broadway.
New York
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Compare toursThe credit line
Every song went out as a copy with a blank under the title. Send each one out and see who filled it. Their babysitter Eva Boyd sings the demo; Kirshner releases it as it is, and Little Eva is No. 1.
Words by Gerry Goffin · Music by Carole King
As recorded by
Not yet sent.
Words by Gerry Goffin · Music by Carole King
As recorded by
Not yet sent.
Words by Gerry Goffin · Music by Carole King
As recorded by
Not yet sent.
Words by Gerry Goffin · Music by Carole King
As recorded by
Not yet sent.
Words by Gerry Goffin · Music by Carole King
As recorded by
Not yet sent.
Words by Gerry Goffin · Music by Carole King
As recorded by
Not yet sent.
6 copies on the desk at 1650 Broadway, every one with a blank line. Send one out.
Their babysitter Eva Boyd sings the demo; Kirshner releases it as it is, and Little Eva is No. 1.
Inside · Los Angeles, from the late 1960s
After she and Goffin divorced she moved to Laurel Canyon with her two young daughters, and fell in with James Taylor and the poet Toni Stern.
Her 1924 Steinway model M stood in the living room of her house on Appian Way; James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Lou Adler, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and Peter and Betsy Asher were often there. That piano is on the covers of two of her 1970s albums, Music and Sweet Seasons.
Her old home is a private house on a narrow hill street: the street is named here, the house is not mapped. Pictured: Laurel Canyon Boulevard below it.
January 1971
The Recording Academy puts it in Studio B, kept dim with candles: three weeks and a $22,000 budget, with Lou Adler producing and Hank Cicalo engineering.
Tapestry was made at A&M, in a studio that had been Charlie Chaplin’s. James Taylor played acoustic guitar on “So Far Away”; he and Joni Mitchell sang backing vocals on “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” Today it is Chaplin Recording Studios, with Studios A, B, D and M.
A working recording studio, not open to the public: see the Tudor-style front from La Brea Avenue.
Los Angeles
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November 1970
In November 1970 she and James Taylor first performed together here. When Tapestry came out, a friend found her early show here packed, mostly with young women, many with their mothers; she played alone.
Thirty-six years on they came back for three nights and six shows for the club’s 50th birthday; the recording, Live at the Troubadour, went gold. The run led to their 2010 Troubadour Reunion world tour.
A working club, open since 1957: buy a ticket for any night; the box office opens at door time on show days.
1200 Alta Loma Road, West Hollywood · Book direct · suites and villas
A West Hollywood hotel in nearly three acres of gardens, with its own Nightbird Recording Studio, a short drive from the Troubadour. Pictured: the Troubadour.
Check roomsSeventh Avenue at 57th Street · 18 June 1971
On 18 June 1971, with Tapestry still climbing the charts, she headlined Carnegie Hall for the first time.
Her first concerts in front of an audience had been on a 1970 tour with James Taylor. The musical Beautiful opens with the young Carole and her mother outside Carnegie Hall, dreaming she will play there one day.
A working concert hall: see a concert, or check carnegiehall.org for tours.
870 Seventh Avenue, New York · Book direct · offers on longer stays
On Seventh Avenue a block below Carnegie Hall, a short walk from 1650 Broadway and the Brill Building. Rooms from 270 square feet. Pictured: Carnegie Hall.
Check roomsThe back page
1973
On tour for Fantasy in 1973 she gave a free concert on the Great Lawn, her first time back on the East Coast in two years.
The Parks Department estimated more than 70,000 people; her memoir puts it at over 100,000. The oval lawn is 12 acres; the Conservancy finished restoring it in 1997.
Open to all, except in winter, when the lawn closes to rest.
New York
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2014 to 2019
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical opened on Broadway on 12 January 2014. It played the Stephen Sondheim Theatre until 27 October 2019: 60 previews and 2,418 performances. It won Tonys for Jessie Mueller as Carole and for sound design, and a Grammy; the London production won two Oliviers.
A working Broadway house: buy a ticket for whatever is playing to see the room.
3 July 2016
On 3 July 2016, at BST Hyde Park, she sang Tapestry from beginning to end for the first time.
The show sold out: more than 65,000 people. She had come back to headline London after nearly three decades.
A royal park, open daily and free; the summer concert stage goes up only for the festival.
The small print
11 places you can visit, from Brooklyn to Hyde Park. Her family homes on East 24th Street and Appian Way are private and are not mapped; James Madison High School, Queens College and the La Brea studio are working buildings, best seen from outside.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working public high school: see it from Bedford Avenue and do not go in.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A concert venue again since spring 2024: buy a ticket to any show to see the hall.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working college campus: walk the paths, but the buildings are for students and staff.
3787 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn
She went to Shell Bank Junior High and James Madison High School, both close to home; both are still public schools.
A working public high school: see it from Bedford Avenue and do not go in.
385 Flatbush Avenue Extension, Downtown Brooklyn
In middle school she rode the subway from Sheepshead Bay to Atlantic Avenue for Alan Freed’s Easter Jubilee here; in her memoir it is the show that opened her ears to a new kind of music.
A concert venue again since spring 2024: buy a ticket to any show to see the hall.
65-30 Kissena Boulevard, Flushing, Queens
Her family moved to Rosedale, Queens, so she went to Queens College instead of Brooklyn College.
A working college campus: walk the paths, but the buildings are for students and staff.
Stay
A hotel a block from Carnegie Hall, and one a short drive from the Troubadour.
870 Seventh Avenue, New York · Book direct · offers on longer stays
On Seventh Avenue a block below Carnegie Hall, a short walk from 1650 Broadway and the Brill Building. Rooms from 270 square feet. Pictured: Carnegie Hall.
Check rooms1200 Alta Loma Road, West Hollywood · Book direct · suites and villas
A West Hollywood hotel in nearly three acres of gardens, with its own Nightbird Recording Studio, a short drive from the Troubadour. Pictured: the Troubadour.
Check roomsGo there
Broadway between 49th and 51st, Central Park, and Hollywood’s music streets.
New York
Live marketplace results for guided walks round Times Square and the Theater District, where the Brill Building and 1650 Broadway face each other. Check each itinerary for its stops.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursNew York
Live marketplace results for walking and bike tours of Central Park. Check each itinerary for whether it reaches the Great Lawn.
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Compare toursLos Angeles
Live marketplace results for tours of Hollywood’s studios and Sunset Strip clubs. None goes inside the La Brea studio, which is private; check each itinerary.
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Compare toursWhat’s on
A new production of the musical in Ridgefield, Connecticut, to 22 November.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
Her memoir, the Brill Building years and the records made in these places.
Carole King
Her memoir, from Sheepshead Bay to the cubicles and Tapestry.
Find the bookKen Emerson
The Brill Building years, Goffin and King among them.
Find the bookCarole King · LP, Ode, 1971
Made in three weeks at A&M on La Brea; released 10 February 1971.
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Find a copyCarole King · LP, Ode, 1970
Her 1970 album on Ode, the year before Tapestry.
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Find a copyCarole King · CD, Epic, 1996
Her first headline night at Carnegie Hall, first issued in 1996.
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Find a copyJames Taylor & Carole King · CD + DVD, Hear Music, 2010
The Troubadour’s 50th-birthday run; it went gold.
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Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
13 of 13 places · 22 of 22 Moments
East 24th Street, Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn
She is born and grows up on East 24th Street, Sheepshead Bay.
3787 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn
Having skipped a year, she starts seventh grade at Shell Bank; James Madison High comes next.
385 Flatbush Avenue Extension, Downtown Brooklyn
A middle-schooler rides the subway to Alan Freed’s Easter Jubilee at the Brooklyn Paramount.
65-30 Kissena Boulevard, Flushing, Queens
At Queens College she meets Gerry Goffin; they marry in 1959.
1650 Broadway at West 51st Street, Manhattan
Her first single as a singer, “Baby Sittin’”.
Written at 17 with Goffin for the Shirelles: her first No. 1.
Bobby Vee takes their song into the charts.
Their babysitter Eva Boyd sings the demo; Kirshner releases it as it is, and Little Eva is No. 1.
The Drifters record their song.
The Cookies record it; the Beatles cover it a year later.
Aldon Music is sold to Columbia Records.
Aretha Franklin records “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”.
1619 Broadway at West 49th Street, Manhattan
Seventh Avenue at West 57th Street, Manhattan
Her first headline night at Carnegie Hall, with Tapestry still climbing.
Central Park, between 79th and 85th Streets
A free concert in Central Park; the Parks Department counts more than 70,000.
124 West 43rd Street, Manhattan
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical opens on Broadway.
Appian Way, Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles
After the divorce she moves west with her daughters, to a house on Appian Way.
1416 North La Brea Avenue, Hollywood
Three weeks in a candlelit studio at A&M; the album is released on 10 February 1971.
On Tapestry she sings “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” and “Natural Woman” herself.
Tapestry wins Record, Song and Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female.
9081 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood
She and James Taylor first perform together at the Troubadour.
Thirty-six years on, three nights and six shows with James Taylor for the club’s 50th birthday.
Hyde Park, London (the BST stage is near Park Lane)
She sings the whole of Tapestry for the first time, to a sold-out Hyde Park.
