timelinesign in to comment

(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman

Written for Aretha Franklin in 1967 and sung by King four years later on Tapestry.
Carole King, from Tapestry (1971)

Written by
Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Jerry Wexler
Released
1971
Album
Tapestry

Aretha Franklin's single, from Lady Soul in 1967, reached number 8 on the Hot 100. Goffin wrote the lyric and King the music, from an idea by the Atlantic producer Jerry Wexler, who called out that he wanted a song titled Natural Woman. They wrote it that night and gave Wexler a co-writing credit. Pitchfork added that they drove home to New Jersey and listened to R&B and gospel on WNJR before writing it.

King's Tapestry version is slower and more spare, built on her piano and Larkey's bass, and conversational rather than matching Franklin's intensity. Landau called it an entirely fresh and original interpretation. Pitchfork's Jenn Pelly wrote that in Franklin's voice the song is glory and in King's it is an act of pure conviction. On tour King would ask audiences to imagine it as the demo she had made for Aretha.

On 14 April 1998 King, Franklin, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Shania Twain and Gloria Estefan sang it together at VH1 Divas at the Beacon Theatre in New York. Franklin performed it in tribute to King at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors. Mary J. Blige's 1995 cover reached 23 in Britain.

Covers and versions

More songs by Carole King

It's Too Late, I Feel the Earth Move, You've Got a Friend, So Far Away, Will You Love Me Tomorrow?

Sources

  1. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, Wikipedia
  2. Carole King: Tapestry, Pitchfork (2019-12-22)
  3. Tapestry, Rolling Stone (1971)