“It’s Too Late” (Carole King)

We continue our look at the year 1971 with one of the biggest hits from one of the year’s biggest albums, “It’s Too Late” by Carole King, from her landmark Tapestry album. Released as a single in April, “It’s Too Late” hit #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts. Billboard ranked “It’s Too Late” and the flip side of the single, “I Feel the Earth Move,” as the number-three song for all of 1971.

That’s right, “It’s Too Late” was the B-side of a two-sided single. It was the first single released from Tapestry, an album that spent a then-unprecedented 313 consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 album chart, fifteen of them at the #1 position.

Not surprisingly, Tapestry ranks as the #10 best-selling album of all time. Back then, everybody and their brother had a copy; I think it was a law that you had to not only own Tapestry but play it at least once a day. It really set the groundwork for the whole singer-songwriter thing of the early-to-mid ’70s.

“It’s Too Late” was written by Carole King (music) and Toni Stern (words). Ms. Stern wrote it about her breakup with fellow singer-songwriter James Taylor; James came off okay, however, eventually ending up with yet another singer-songwriter, Carly Simon. (Everybody was dating everybody else back then.) I find it interesting that so many people point out how much Carole King’s music moved them when, in fact, she wrote few if any lyrics for her songs. Her early stuff featured words by her then-husband Gerry Goffin and a large number of Tapestry tunes had lyrics by her friend Toni Stern. So if “It’s Too Late” still touches you, thank Toni Stern.

Here’s now Ms. Stern remembers it:

“I wrote ‘It’s Too Late’ in 20 minutes [and presented the notepad to Carole]. She would take that pad, put it on the piano stand, and within an hour, hour and a half at the most, she would have the melody.”

Ms. King’s music played a big part in the success of the song; she’s one of the foremost composers of the pop music era, with whomever she’s collaborating with at the time. “It’s Too Late” won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and it’s regarded by many as one of the most memorable songs in history.

The musicians on “It’s Too Late” were legendary in their own right. The instrumentalists included Curtis Amy on soprano sax, Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar on electric guitar and conga, Ralph Schuckett on eletric piano, Charles Larkey on bass, and Joel O’Brien on drums. Ms. King herself played acoustic piano.

I could say a lot more about “It’s Too Late” and how well-crafted it is, but it’s best to let this one speak for itself. If you were of a certain age at a certain time, you know how great it is and you can sing every world. Thank Toni Stern and Carole King for that.

And, for good measure, here’s Carole King performing “It’s Too Late” live on the BBC (accompanied by Danny Kortchmar) on February 10, 1971. Man, that’s something!