I Feel the Earth Move

King wrote it early in 1971, inspired in part by Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, in which two lovers feel the earth move. The San Fernando earthquake struck on her birthday, 9 February. Ode chose it as the A-side of the first single, and it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 dated 19 June 1971, staying there five weeks. In Britain it reached number 6. Radio and listeners then came to prefer the slower flip side, It's Too Late, which spent four weeks at number one on the Cash Box chart while this side did not chart there. The RIAA ranked the pair 213th of its 365 Songs of the Century.

Carole King played keyboards, with Danny Kootch on electric guitar, Charles Larkey on bass and Joel O'Brien on drums. Jon Landau praised how her voice moves from raunchy to bluesy to harsh to soothing, and the author James Perone credited Lou Adler's decision to put her piano forward in the mix. Martika's 1989 cover reached 25 in the United States and 7 in Britain, though radio pulled it after the Loma Prieta earthquake. At Hyde Park in 2016 it opened the complete Tapestry, and the Guardian called it a raspy joy.