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Artwork for For The Record episode on Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way'

Lady Gaga

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For The Record: The Liberating Joy Of Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' At 10

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Released in May 2011, 'Born This Way' is remarkable for its unrelenting reinvention of the woman we know as Lady Gaga. Nominated for three GRAMMYs, Mother Monster's third album gave the world an eternal gay pride anthem in "Born This Way."
Zel McCarthy
GRAMMYs
May 23, 2021 - 10:07 am

It's hard to imagine a more theatrical arrival to any event than Lady Gaga at the 53rd GRAMMY Awards on Feb. 13, 2011. Encased in a translucent ellipsoid, carried like a palanquin down the red carpet by a quartet of latex-clad models, Gaga herself was barely visible, but her presence was undeniable. Later that night, when she emerged from the egg-like container onto the GRAMMY stage, she wasn't simply performing her new single-she was introducing the world to a new era of her artistry.

Released on May 23, 2011, Born This Way was one of the most highly anticipated albums of the year; upon release, it sold more than 1 million copies in its first week, making Lady Gaga only the fifth female artist to reach that milestone. While eye-catching couture was de rigueur on her pre-release tour between February and May, the topic of her red carpet "vessel," as she called it, was still hot when she appeared on the "Late Show with David Letterman" on release night.

It was a symbol of her rebirth, she explained, deliberately facing the studio audience. "I believe that you can be reborn over and over again until you find that part of you that is the best you that you can be. I encourage everyone to do that."

She then cheekily turned to Letterman. "I wonder what would happen if I put you in an egg."

In some ways, the ease with which Gaga can flow from sincere expressions of depth to ribald humor is the essence of the artist. At once, she is both serious and facetious. It's how she can simultaneously convey absurdity and ferocity on the cover of Born This Way, which pictures her as an anthropomorphized motorcycle, or how she can take liberties with the German language on the song "Scheiße" without undermining a pining love song like "You and I."

If the biker babe aesthetic of the cover wasn't enough of a clue that Born This Way was here to rock, the album opens with the full-throttled aggression of the guitar-heavy "Marry The Night." In what would become one of her signature songs, Gaga declares herself a free spirit while simultaneously committing to a figurative union with darkness, in a vocal produced with radiant clarity by Fernando Garibay.

The sonic motif continues on the penultimate track, "You And I," the most surprising collaboration on the album. Known for producing albums by AC/DC and Def Leppard as well as Shania Twain, co-producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange delivers his pop-by-way-of-metal pedigree, which is uniquely suited for the moment, if only to remind listeners that the guitars on Born This Way aren't a fluke and neither are the hooks.

Read: For The Record: Inside The Robotic-Pop Reinvention Of Daft Punk's Discovery At 20

Even though Garibay, along with producer RedOne, had worked with Lady Gaga before, neither rehash their former glories here. Born This Way is remarkable for its unrelenting reinvention of the woman we know as Lady Gaga. A classic house and experimental techno enthusiast, Garibay is perhaps most audible in the album's decided turn away from Gaga's polished electro past toward a more raw, EDM-influenced future. Tracks like "Government Hooker" and "Heavy Metal Lover" play with Gaga's vocal as if she's inhabiting different skins, each reflecting various parts of herself and all creating soundtracks for stomping across strobe-lit dance floors.

On album closer "The Edge Of Glory," Garibay and Gaga deliver a benediction. "There ain't no reason you and me should be alone tonight," the song starts, implying the impending end of the LP isn't the end of our time with the singer. Before performing the song for Oprah in the final weeks of the host's daytime talk show, Gaga described how she wrote it at her piano as a tribute to her grandmother shortly before her passing. The rawness of her emotion is palpable as the song is both a celebration of life and a full-throated embrace of vulnerability. Even though E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons underscores Gaga's rock and roll daydreams with a record-defining run on the bridge, this ain't Gaga's "Thunder Road."

Instead, Born This Way is Lady Gaga's Ulysses. From her rebirth to her acceptance of mortality, the album is an epic journey of an artist as a young woman. At times, it comes across like a casual stream of consciousness by a pop star who knows how to conquer a dance floor and is laying claim to more. Elsewhere, she subtly reveals that she's actually always in total control. Just as James Joyce's novel once courted controversy, so, too, did Born This Way.

It's easy to forget how the overtly political title track was culturally polarizing only a decade ago. The song's message of self-empowerment through self-acceptance wasn't necessarily new on its own, not even when set to a high-energy dance beat. In fact, for decades, the combination of dance floor bangers with universally relatable lyrics had been embraced as unofficial gay anthems, signaling an unspoken but loudly sung message of validation and equality to LGBTQ+ audiences while carefully never disrupting the sensibilities of listeners intolerant of what was often described as a "lifestyle choice."

On "Born This Way," Lady Gaga, who is bisexual, is unequivocal: Not only are all people worthwhile, "no matter gay, straight, or bi," she sings on the track, but their sexuality is a birthright to be proud of. It's a succinct statement of love and visibility that's hard to dispute. As Oprah put it, "you encourage people to be comfortable being born the way they are, being born that way."

Just as it's hard to imagine a time before Lady Gaga was a household name, it's hard to remember that before 2011, LGBTQ+ rights weren't widely accepted or even openly discussed. For decades, artists had been discouraged by their managers and labels from taking similar stances, either in their music or in the press. Paralyzed by fears of alienating parts of their audiences or becoming targets of morality campaigns, pop artists were quiet at best when it came to issues of LGBTQ+ equality. With the forces of change moving quickly toward progress, thanks to a string of legal and legislative victories, "Born This Way"—as a credo and the first bona fide gay anthem that explicitly advocates for gay rights—arrived at the exact moment when Americans needed it.

In the hands of an artist without Lady Gaga's credibility, a song like "Born This Way" could have been dismissed as pandering or propaganda. In the three years between releasing her 2008 debut album, The Fame, and Born This Way, Gaga had already established herself as an ally to the LGBTQ+ community. For all her theatricality, as an artist who existed beyond the confines of concert stages, music videos and even music itself, Gaga routinely shattered the illusion of a fourth wall to connect with her audience. Her 24/7 commitment to being Lady Gaga created often-unfiltered content for emerging social media platforms, notably Twitter, where fans were eager to like, retweet and devour her every move. Whether she was walking the 10 feet from her hotel to a car or staying up all night with a bottle of wine to respond to tweets about her album on the eve of its release, Gaga made herself accessible, reachable and knowable. She also knew her fans.

As much as she expressed herself through her art, Lady Gaga was unapologetic about who that art was for. While the story of most fan bases speaks to the positioning of an artist in the market and the reception of their work by customers, the relationship between "Mother Monster" and her legion of "Little Monsters" became uniquely vital to her craft on Born This Way. Lady Gaga showed the world that her fans weren't simply there to respond to her work—they were actively inspiring it.

For The Record: Adele's Icon-Making 21 At 10

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Artwork for For The Record episode with Backstreet Boys

Backstreet Boys in 1996

Photo: Mike Prior/Getty Images

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For The Record: How 'Backstreet Boys' Ignited The '90s Boy Band Craze

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Released in Europe in 1996, Backstreet Boys' self-titled debut album solidified the iconic pop group as global stars and pivoted pop music into its prime. An international chart-topper, the album created the formula for boy bands as we know them today
Ilana Kaplan
GRAMMYs
May 7, 2021 - 4:43 pm

There are a few specific motifs that come to mind when reminiscing about the '90s: grunge, Spice Girls and, of course, boy bands. While the inception of boy bands had come long before the era, bringing along electric fandoms decades before, the '90s were really the first time when the boy band craze peaked. The first ones to lead the charge? Backstreet Boys.

At a time when there was a gap in mass-market bands catering to teens, the music of Backstreet Boys, referred to as simply BSB by loving fans, was somewhat of an experiment. Just as the grunge scene was phasing out, the group ushered in a new era of radio-friendly pop that would span from Hanson to Britney Spears—except Backstreet Boys initially did it from overseas.

Formed in Orlando by the late record producer Lou Pearlman, Backstreet Boys emerged in 1993 and began working on their self-titled debut album in Stockholm two years later. Helmed by then-rising producer Max Martin, Backstreet Boys helped turn the fresh-faced newcomers, who were just between the ages of 15 and 24 at the time, into megastars nearly overnight. It wasn't long until fans felt like they knew BSB's Nick Carter, Brian Littrell, AJ McLean, Howie Dorough and Kevin Richardson.

In 1996, the group released Backstreet Boys in Europe, where it became an international chart-topper across the continent as well as in Asia.

U.S. audiences, though, primarily recognize Backstreet Boys' second eponymous album, released in 1997, as their true debut. Still, it was the internationally released Backstreet Boys, which shared a handful of tracks with the U.S.-only version of the album, that made them global stars before they even shared their music stateside.

How The Backstreet Boys Ignited The Boy Band Craze

"As little kids growing up, you always hope to have success in your home country," Dorough told Billboard in 2017. "That's where your pride is, you know? It was so crazy how it happened everywhere else first. I think it was meant to be that way, looking back on it. It really seasoned us to come back home, to really be ready for America." The U.S., a market the group once referred to as "No Fan Land," would eventually catch BSB fever.

Read: Taylor Swift, '1989': For The Record

In retrospect, Backstreet Boys' 1996 release was truly for diehard fans. Known as "The Red Album" due to its cover backdrop, Backstreet Boys marked the beginning of a new era in pop, one which channeled the R&B guy group success of Boyz II Men with the heartthrob sensationalism of New Kids on the Block. The album cover, now a pop culture relic, is representative of the '90s boy band aesthetic: an intense glare paired with attitude, a monochromatic wardrobe, a mushroom cut and the look of five boys who are about to break a million hearts. (The flashy counterpart of the 1997 U.S. album featured a brooding quintet in oversized button-downs against a grey wall on its cover art.)

It's fair to say that Backstreet Boys' self-titled album became a blueprint for the cohort of boy bands to come. The group's debut single, "We've Got It Goin' On," was responsible for the initial allure of what a modern boy band should be. The confident, Euro-pop-driven track solidified their infectious harmonizing skills and proved they had an edge that channeled NKOTB. It wasn't long until it skyrocketed into the Top 10 in Europe.

The R&B-tinged, Boyz II Men-esque ballad, "I'll Never Break Your Heart," followed, showcasing BSB's versatility as crooners. While it was their fourth single in Europe, the uptempo ballad "Quit Playing Games (with My Heart)," framed by its slick production and teen-dream aesthetic, hit No.1 on the European Hot 100. Its overwhelming praise would help it become the second single from the group's stateside debut.

Read: Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough On How Crippling Anxiety & Shyness Inspired His Family Album, 'Which One Am I?'

According to the band, though, the single was "an afterthought." "It was like the last one we had done and they were like, 'Okay guys, we think this may be a good song, let's try it,'" Richardson told Billboard.

Originally, Richardson and Littrell had recorded "Quit Playing Games (with My Heart)" themselves, he recalls. "Then the label heard it and wanted it on the record," he added. "Nick wasn't even on the song at all until they wanted it to be a single." To this day, it remains one of the songs that solidified BSB as not only a boy band, but as hitmakers.

The overwhelming success of Backstreet Boys initially seemed revolutionary—to both the group and to music fans—and pivoted pop music into its prime. Still, BSB weren't exactly warmed up to the "boy band" label initially. "We always wanted just to be considered a vocal harmony group," Dorough told Billboard.

The album's breakout would also go on to spark one of the music industry's most notorious rivalries. BSB initially believed they were a singular force. Little did they know that Pearlman, the group's founder and label CEO, also signed the band that would become their biggest competition: *NSYNC. While fans fueled the rivalry, it didn't help that Pearlman had effectively cloned the band.

In the Backstreet Boys' 2015 documentary, Show 'Em What You're Made Of, Richardson recalls Pearlman showing him a recording of *NSYNC's talents; he called it a "betrayal." "When we started out, we were like, 'Yeah, we're a team. We're gonna take over the world. There's nobody like us,'" Richardson said in the film. "Then you find out, 'Well, actually, there is somebody like you.'"

In 1998, Johnny Wright, who managed *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys, told Rolling Stone his plan was "to turn Orlando into the next Motown, but we were going to call it Snowtown – because we weren't doing it with R&B acts, we were doing it with pop acts." While the five-piece was less than thrilled, the creation of both BSB and *NSYNC would forever alter pop music.

Read: Backstreet Boys Talk GRAMMY Museum "Experience," 'Millennium' Legacy & Touring

Soon enough, more boy bands emerged, namely 98 Degrees and O-Town. While BSB and *NSYNC undoubtedly paved the way for more recent boy bands like One Direction, 5 Seconds of Summer and PRETTYMUCH, there's been no boy band rivalry to match since.

Although its release was initially limited, Backstreet Boys laid the foundation and created the formula for boy bands as we know them today, from sound and style to the dedicated fandoms that have flourished in the years since. Without the success of the band's self-titled album, it's possible the boy band craze could have been an ephemeral phase or even nonexistent. Pop fans, whether they were team Nick Carter or Justin Timberlake, owe it all to Backstreet Boys.

For The Record: The Transformational Public Heartache Of Janet Jackson's 'All For You' At 20

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Janet Jackson

Photo: L. Cohen/WireImage

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For The Record: The Transformational Public Heartache Of Janet Jackson's 'All For You' At 20

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Janet Jackson's GRAMMY-winning seventh album, 'All For You,' released two decades ago this year, was a healing session that solidified her as an unshakeable icon
Bianca Gracie
GRAMMYs
May 2, 2021 - 3:37 pm

After years of turmoil, Janet Jackson entered the Y2K era as a free woman. The artwork of her 2001 album, All For You, says it all: Lounging on a bed, a white blanket covering her nude curves, she flashes her famous, million-watt smile. It's a stark contrast to the cover of her 1997 album, The Velvet Rope, in which her face is lowered and nearly covered by ginger curls.

The introspective The Velvet Rope digs into Jackson's depression caused by an emotional breakdown. Long regarded as her magnum opus, the album embraces the LBGTQ+ community, addresses domestic violence and serves as a raw therapy session where Jackson lets the curtain of the "Strong Black Woman" trope fall.

In her 2017 essay, "The Mule of the World: The Strong Black Woman and the Woes of Being 'Independent,'" Cailyn Petrona Stewartee discusses how Black women have historically been forced to mask their true selves behind armor.

"The Black woman is represented to be either too mad or too strong, her presence is constructed as one that is always hyper-visible leaving no room for acknowledgment of her organic human complexity and nuance," Stewart writes. "And if survival is attained, pieces of the Black woman's sanity and humanity have been lost along the journey."

Of course, Jackson had taken breaks in between albums before. But the four-year-long journey that led to All For You, her seventh album, found her picking up those shattered pieces and relearning herself again. What was behind that beaming smile on the cover? Her glow-up after finalizing her divorce from René Elizondo Jr.

For The Record: Janet Jackson's 'All For You' @ 20

Elizondo Jr. was a backup dancer for Jackson's older sister, LaToya. He later became Janet's creative partner—he directed some of her music videos, including "That's the Way Love Goes" and "Together Again"—and one of the main songwriters on The Velvet Rope.

Theirs was a nine-year secret marriage—Jackson even lied about it during a 1997 "Oprah" interview—that was only revealed following the divorce announcement. Things soon turned messy, as Elizondo Jr., who initiated the breakup in 2000, later sued Jackson for $10 million over property rights.

Once the ink dried on the divorce papers, Jackson lifted her head up high and doubled down on her newfound singledom on All For You.

"I'm no longer married. I hope it doesn't sound bad to say that was the inspiration. But because I'm in a different space, it's like I'm being introduced to a whole new world that I've never experienced before," she explained in an album promo video. "I feel really good, and the album was a lot of fun to make. My life has changed a great deal, and that's why there's a new, freer me."

Compared to Velvet Rope, All For You trades dark vulnerability for a delicate intimacy as she takes back her power as a woman and uses happiness as her revenge. Jackson goes the opposite route of pop's post-Y2K futurism that artists like Britney Spears, *NSYNC, Madonna and Jennifer Lopez were exploring at the time. Instead, she and her longtime producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, traveled back to the '70s and '80s to revive funk, disco, dance and rock.

That joyride is near-tangible on All For You's title track, which is pure sunshine captured in a song. Sampling Italian-American ensemble Change's 1980 single, "The Glow of Love," the song's vibrant production and signature Janet winks—"Got a nice package alright/Guess I'm gonna have to ride it tonight"—were a winning combination: Her fifth No. 1 hit, "All For You" won a GRAMMY for Best Dance Recording at the 44th GRAMMY Awards, held in 2002.

Jackson's free spirit continued with "Come On Get Up," an extension of her early-'80s dance-pop eras. Rockwilder, best known for his work with Method Man and Redman in the '90s, co-produced the song, along with four other tracks, marking the first time Jackson sought out new collaborators since 1986's Control. "Someone To Call My Lover," which also received a GRAMMY nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and "Doesn't Really Matter" also exude happiness. The former samples America's 1972 song, "Ventura Highway," as Jackson sweetly dreams about her next beau; the latter, a single off the 2000 soundtrack to the Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, in which Jackson also starred, is a sparkling ode to unconditional love.

Read: The Bodyguard Soundtrack: 25 Years After Whitney Houston's Masterpiece

But this wouldn't be a Janet Jackson album without a hefty dose of sex. While "When We Oooo" continues the feminine sensuality from 1993's janet., it's the one-two punch of "Love Scene (Ooh Baby)" and "Would You Mind" that really augments the erotica. "Would You Mind" finds the singer yearning to "Kiss you, suck you, taste you, ride you" as the rain comes down and she literally moans into the listener's ear. (Jackson later reignited the freaky adventure on 2004's Damita Jo via "Warmth" and "Moist," two songs even more explicit than their predecessors, in which Jackson further details the pleasures of giving and receiving oral sex.)

On the flipside of pleasure is pain, and Jackson's $10 million lawsuit is still top of mind. "Trust A Try" finds the singer raging about feeling betrayed atop a headbanging fusion of opera, rap and hard rock. On the Five Stairsteps-interpolating "Truth," she makes note of her sold-out tours and radio hits while feeling a bit bitter: "How much is enough to pay for this mistake?" she sings. She calls on Carly Simon for "Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song Is About You)," which interpolates Simon's 1972 classic, "You're So Vain." Jackson has every right to be angry, and she fearlessly taunts her ex-husband on the refrain: "Thought you'd get the money, too/Greedy motherf*****s try to have their cake and eat it, too."

"There are times when it feels like it just happened yesterday, and there's a bit of a sting. But I have to move on. I have to keep going. I can't let it stress me out, stop me from reaching my goals. I'm just glad that I'm in the state of mind that I'm in," Jackson told VIBE of the divorce in 2001. On the album's closer, "Better Days," she makes it a priority to live for herself without restraints: "Leavin' old s*** behind/And move on with my life/The blindfold's off my eyes/And now all I see for me is better days."

Jackson stuck to that promise to "leavin' old s*** behind" following All For You. The double-platinum album continued her No. 1 hot streak, debuting atop the Billboard 200 in May 2001, and earned a GRAMMY nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album. That same year, at age 35, MTV crowned her their first MTV Icon. The moment broke more ageist stereotypes, as seen with Tina Turner's 1984 Private Dancer comeback in her mid-'40s followed by Beyoncé, who most recently scored the most GRAMMY wins as a female artist at age 39.

Since All For You, Jackson has released four albums, survived a misogynistic Super Bowl catastrophe, became a mom in 2017, scored more acting roles, and received the Billboard Icon Award and the MTV EMA Global Icon Award, both in 2018. The singer could've let the divorce circus derail her, but All For You proved she couldn't be confined by a man nor her music. Along with celebrating the beauty of Black women's multifaceted nature, the album showed they could maneuver through pop and R&B with ease.

It's a feat that has continued with Black millennial artists like Rihanna, whose Rated R and Loud mimics Jackson's Velvet Rope and All For You transition, Ciara, Dawn Richard, Solange, Doja Cat, Tinashe and Kelela. Since All For You, women have shattered genre boundaries, dominated the charts and revealed their most vulnerable selves. We have Janet Jackson to thank for first inviting us into her world.

Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814: For The Record

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For The Record: Carole King's 'Tapestry'

Carole King

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For The Record: Inside The Historic Legacy Of Carole King's 'Tapestry' At 50

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Revered as one of the greatest albums of all time, Carole King's 1971 chart-topping, multiplatinum classic 'Tapestry' solidified the singer/songwriter genre and forever cemented her as an iconic artist and songwriter
Rob LeDonne
GRAMMYs
Feb 7, 2021 - 2:10 pm

Fifty years ago, A&M Recording Studios in Los Angeles was buzzing. In Studio A, the popular group the Carpenters were recording their self-titled third album. Over in Studio C, the singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell was also laying down tracks. But it was in Studio B, with the lights down low and candles flickering, where a songwriter was crafting an iconic work that would indisputably change the course of music history.

"I have two words," Carole King would later say of the astounding success of her classic 1971 album, Tapestry, which critics would later regard as one of the greatest of all time. "Who knew?"

The success of Tapestry seems like a given today, a ubiquitous part of the pop culture landscape. Even King's monumental career seems obvious, with a reputation and pedigree as the consummate singer/songwriter. At the 14th GRAMMY Awards, in 1972, King earned the distinction of becoming the first woman to win multiple GRAMMYs in the General Field, with Tapestry winning Album Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female as well as Song Of The Year ("You've Got A Friend") and Record Of The Year ("It's Too Late"); all three releases were later inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame, while King received the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.

In addition to its critical acclaim, Tapestry was also a commercial behemoth, topping the Billboard albums chart in the U.S. and reaching diamond status in 1995; this week, the album was certified 13 times multiplatinum.

Carole King's 'Tapestry' At 50 | For The Record

"Tapestry struck a chord with a whole new legion of fans, including me," former President Barack Obama remarked in 2013 when King received the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, becoming the first woman to win that honor. "It cemented Carole's status as one of the most influential singer/songwriters that America has ever seen."

To understand Tapestry's impact and King's triumph, you'd have to rewind the narrative. King's talents were on full display from an early age. The Brooklyn-born daughter of a piano-teacher mother, she was a music prodigy by 15, and by 17, she became a Brill Building powerhouse, penning the Shirelles' standard "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," the first No. 1 song by a Black girl group. 

Alongside writing partner and former husband Gerry Goffin, King poured out songs. The Goffin-King discography eventually became the soundtrack of the '60s: the upbeat "Up on the Roof" for the Drifters, Little Eva's dance anthem "The Loco-Motion," the peppy "One Fine Day" for the Chiffons and Aretha Franklin's sparkling "(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman." It was a run so impressive, the Beatles, who once recorded the Goffin-King track "Chains," remarked at the time that they aimed to be the Goffin and King of the U.K. 

"It's hard to describe," King once said, musing about the flow of creative inspiration. "If you ever worked on a story—typed it into a computer and watched the story come out of you—it's a similar thing. People who are creative in any way, sometimes that happens."

Read More: For The Record: Joni Mitchell's Emotive 1971 Masterpiece, 'Blue'

Young King's stunning list of achievements would have been more than enough for an already-astounding career. Besides, songwriters at the time—faceless names behind the scenes—rarely, if ever, made the transition to the stage as they were neither accepted nor welcome; the idea of a singer/songwriter was a foreign concept. However, once Goffin's and King's marriage dissolved, Carole packed her bags and moved from the East Coast to the Los Angeles enclave of Laurel Canyon, with two kids in tow. As fate would have it, she'd soon fall in with the likes of James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and a scene that was about to explode. 

Still, King had both a disinterest and aversion to being in front of the mic. "There's always the concern they won't like you," she said in a 2006 interview of her original hesitancy. "You can write the song, but (at least) you're always at a safe distance from the artist." However, it was Taylor, then a new star, who King credits with her success as a performing artist. "I have James Taylor to thank for sort of nudging me out in front and teaching me by example that all you have to do is go out there to be yourself, sing the songs and everything will be fine," King once explained. 

As a member of Taylor's backing band, she has a distinct memory of the night she performed a lone song at one of his shows when her view on performing was forever altered. 

Carole King: Success Of Tapestry

Around the same time of her change of heart, she was also suffering from the commercial failure of her first artist project as part of a band called the City, no doubt stymied in 1968 by King's reluctance to perform live. And while some may confuse Tapestry for her debut album, she officially debuted as a solo artist in 1970 with the aptly titled Writer, which featured covers of previously recorded Goffin-King tracks and boasted an otherwise muted cover with the sole dash of color from a rainbow. 

The album, which peaked at No. 84 on the Billboard charts, came and went without much fanfare. Perhaps that's why when King set out to work on her follow-up, she felt free of pressure. She already stepped in front of a mic and survived. At worst, listeners were indifferent. What more was there to fear?

Inspired by the success of Taylor's much more successful 1970 album, Sweet Baby James, King began work on Tapestry, enlisting Lou Adler, a songwriter (Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World"), producer (the Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'") and founder of King's record label, Ode Records, to produce the album.

"The first thing I envisioned with Carole is that she was a solo artist," Adler once said during an episode of the PBS series "American Masters" devoted to King. "You always felt she was sitting at the piano and singing to you." As a result, in the aforementioned dim of Studio B at A&M on La Brea just off Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, the atmosphere was meant to mimic the inviting aura of a living room.

The album's subsequent production was purposely sparse, which suited King, who was previously accustomed to recording demos anyway. "Records like Tapestry can be overproduced in a minute," Hank Cicalo, the album's engineer, explained. "'Oh, let's add more guitar,' or this and that. Lou and Carole wanted that simplicity. They wanted it to be nice and warm, and a very comfortable record for people to enjoy." 

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With that in mind, it's not hard to envision King in your living room, a piano in front of her, tapping away at the opening piano hook—not chords, but the single keys—of "I Feel the Earth Move," which appropriately heralded not only the beginning of a powerhouse album, but announced a new era. (It was inspired by a line in Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls that likened lovemaking to the Earth moving). The album's second track, "So Far Away," introduces itself similarly: a piano riff consisting of lone keys, only to be accented by an acoustic guitar, played by Taylor, and a bass. Later, drums and a fittingly distant flute appear. 

By the time the album's third track kicks in, the aching, GRAMMY-winning "It's Too Late," which she wrote with Toni Stern, the listener is gifted with three astounding original songs in a row. It's a feat fitting for a greatest hits collection. 

But therein lies the magic, and gravity, of Tapestry. "Home Again" and "Beautiful" both fit into that warm feeling Adler tried to concoct in the studio, the former an obvious allusion to that living room feel and the latter the namesake of the Tony-winning Broadway musical in which King's pop hits were transposed to wild success on the Great White Way.

"You've Got a Friend," the first track on the album's B-side, which Carole wrote in response to Taylor's "Fire and Rain" in which he sang, "I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend," is an emotional epicenter for King. She initially employs the might of those single piano notes she favors with melancholy vocals when she mournfully sings, "When you're down," later crescendoing into the resounding proclamation of "I'll be there." King later said writing the song was so easy, it was one of the most incredible songwriting experiences of her life.

As for the rest of Tapestry, King takes a page from Writer and returns to her favorite songs written for other artists: Her first hit, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?," now infused with sweet emotion, featured backing vocals from Mitchell and Taylor, while her version of "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," remade all her own, serves as an understated companion piece to Aretha Franklin's beloved rendition.  

"Tapestry changed my life," King said of its personal impact upon its release on Feb. 10, 1971, after taking three weeks to record the album with a $22,000 production budget. "In an immediate way, it gave me financial independence, which was really wonderful. Less immediate and in an ongoing way, it opened doors." She also separated its success from her life at the time: caring for two kids and expecting a third. "I buried myself in (motherhood) and kept fame and the whole thing around success at bay. And I think I did that successfully." 

On a larger scale, Tapestry solidified the singer/songwriter genre and was a brick in the road to a decade, and soon generations, of artists both writing and performing personal songs, sounding like they were made by hand with lyrics so freshly handwritten you could still smell the pencil. A disparate list of cultural icons and works could have King and Tapestry to thank for paving the way, among them the career of the songwriter-turned-artist Barry Manilow to Taylor Swift albums like Folklore and Evermore.

Did Carole King know she had lightning in a bottle? Does she even know when she's writing a good song? "You like to think we do know, but you don't always," she explained in a 2012 interview. "We never know. It's a big, old, crazy thing."

Joni Mitchell's 'Mingus' At 40: A Look Back At A Seminal Jazz Collab

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Artwork for For The Record episode on LeAnn Rimes' 'Blue'

LeAnn Rimes

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How 'Blue' Made LeAnn Rimes A Global Pop Star leann-rimes-blue-25th-anniversary-record

For The Record: How 'Blue' Made LeAnn Rimes A Global Pop Star

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Released in 1996, LeAnn Rimes' GRAMMY-winning breakthrough album 'Blue' introduced the artist as country music's next rising star and propelled her into global pop stardom
Jim Beaugez
GRAMMYs
Jul 9, 2021 - 6:55 pm

The biggest thing in country music in the spring of 1996 wasn't very "country" at all. Aside from a token fiddle flair here and a steel guitar slide there, the genre's most successful artists, including then-newcomers Shania Twain and Faith Hill, were essentially singing countrified pop songs.

Still, this wasn't the first time Nashville went all-in on pop: Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton both successfully crossed over from country to pop, and their 1983 soft rock duet "Islands in the Stream," which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, is an enduring example of crossover potential. But after Garth Brooks set the template for massive crossover success with No Fences, his smash 1990 album that supplemented his Okie twang with rock and pop arrangements, Nashville retooled its machine to pump out singers who could appeal to mainstream audiences.

All of which makes the summer 1996 breakout success of "Blue," a throwback to 1950s country and western sung by a then-13-year-old LeAnn Rimes, either a calculated move to stand out from the pack or a complete fluke. Twenty-five years later, history has proven neither perspective entirely true nor false.

How 'Blue' Made LeAnn Rimes A Global Pop Star

A Texan, by way of Mississippi, with a commanding voice, Rimes began performing at talent shows and in musical theater productions in Dallas at age 6 in the late '80s. She got her first taste of the big time in 1990 when she competed on the pre-"American Idol" national talent showcase, "Star Search," a move that elevated her profile on the Texas country music circuit. While Rimes caught the ears of many influential locals, Bill Mack, a Dallas radio disc jockey known as the "Midnight Cowboy" on WBAP-AM, heard something extra special in her voice.

Mack, a songwriter himself, still believed in an ill-fated song called "Blue," which he wrote way back in 1958. He recorded a version of the song that year in Wichita Falls, Texas, for the Starday label; Billboard described it as "a slow-tempo, relaxed item, with Mack's vocal backed by instrumentation featuring a honky tonk type piano" and called it "a flavorsome side."

Read: Carrie Underwood On Creating Her First Gospel Album, My Savior, Working With CeCe Winans, & Making "Legacy Music"

"Blue" earned local radio airplay, but it failed to find a wider audience. In an effort to amplify the song's reach, Mack hired a female singer to record a new version he could shop around. Then he hit on the notion that Patsy Cline might be the right singer for it and arranged to meet her backstage in San Antonio to pitch the song. He grabbed Roger Miller's guitar and played the song for her, Mack recalls in a GRAMMY Foundation Living History interview. "She said, 'Send that thing to me, I like it.'" Before she could record it, though, Cline died in a plane crash in 1963.

A few other singers took their shots with "Blue" over the years, but Mack knew he had a winner in Rimes. She subsequently recorded a version of the song at age 11 in 1993 for her 1994 independent release All That, which sold 15,000 copies locally and brought interest from Nashville's Curb Records. The label signed Rimes and released "Blue" as her first national single in May 1996, a little more than a month ahead of her album of the same name in July.

"Blue" was a breakout success, driven by Rimes' ability "to convey pain without betraying her tender age or inexperience," as critic Mike Joyce wrote in The Washington Post as the song was gaining popularity in August 1996.

Although "Blue" could have fallen into the novelty music trap, where songs that recall earlier musical styles often go, the song's classic country vibe wasn't a put-on; it was genuinely of the era, a forgotten tune rendered timeless by Rimes' soaring performance. But even Rimes herself, at 13, wasn't sure "Blue" was the right song to release from her 11-track debut album.

"I was very skeptical when 'Blue' was released as a single because it was very traditional, and I knew radio was gonna be hesitant to play it," Rimes told Texas Monthly in 1996. "They call it retro, but it's true country music and it's totally different from contemporary country, which has the pop feel."

In a way, Rimes' instincts were correct: "Blue" peaked at No. 10 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, a remarkable feat but not exactly a smash hit. That honor went to the follow-up single, the more contemporary "One Way Ticket (Because I Can)," which remains her only No. 1 hit on that chart. Still, "Blue" did kick open the doors for Rimes, who would chart five total singles from Blue, including the Top 10 hit "The Light in Your Eyes" and "Hurt Me," a ballad that marries classic and contemporary touches. (Blue ultimately peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart in August 1996.)

Blue, both the six-times platinum album and its breakthrough title track, marked Rimes' official arrival to the global pop stage. At the 39th GRAMMY Awards, held in 1997, Rimes, then 14, became the youngest person to win a GRAMMY, a title she still holds today; that night, she won two GRAMMYs: Best New Artist and Best Female Country Vocal Performance for "Blue," the song that started it all.

Rimes then swept the 1997 Academy of Country Music Awards, winning Top New Female Vocalist, Song of the Year and Single Record of the Year. She also became the youngest person to ever be nominated and win the Country Music Association Awards' Horizon Award, the best New Artist equivalent.

Curb capitalized on their new star: As songs from Blue still worked their way up the charts, the label issued the compilation Unchained Melody: The Early Years, in February 1997, which comprised her pre-fame independent recordings; the album topped the Billboard 200 chart the following month. Her cover of the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody" hit No. 3 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart in March 1997, while the Blue standout, "The Light in Your Eyes," peaked at No. 5 three months later.

LeAnn Rimes Wins Best New Artist

In the wake of Blue, Rimes cashed in on her country music credibility for crossover success on the level of Twain and Hill, who both landed mega pop hits in 1998—Twain's "You're Still the One" and Hill's "This Kiss" were both Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart—after flirting with the mainstream chart the previous year.

Rimes' big crossover came with the Diane-Warren-penned single "How Do I Live," a straightforward pop ballad that peaked at No. 2 during its 69 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, at the time the longest run in the chart's history, and placed at No. 1 on the Top 20 Billboard Hot 100 Hits of the 1990s.

To date, Rimes has sold more than 37 million records worldwide, with many of her albums and songs charting higher and crossing over more definitively into pop music. Still, "Blue" remains her signature song. And Rimes proved she still has the pipes to deliver the goods: On a 2011 rerecording of the song for the album of standards, Lady & Gentlemen, she croons with the depth of a thousand broken hearts.

2021
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