Carole King - A Natural Woman: The Ode Collection 1968-1976 [2CD Remastered Set] (1994)

36 tracks including the complete Tapestry album, two unreleased songs, two live recordings and a 36-page booklet with notes and rare pix! This set contains every one of her Epic/Ode recordings to reach the Top 40: It's Too Late; I Feel the Earth Move; So Far Away; Sweet Seasons; Been to Canaan; Corazon; Jazzman; Nightingale , and more.

It's astonishing how quickly Carole King slipped into relative obscurity. Tapestry has sold in excess of 22 million copies and was the biggest selling album of all time until Frampton Comes Alive surpassed it in 1977, yet while the latter remains at the very least an archetypal cultural kitsch, Tapestry has become a troublesome trivial question: "What's the bestselling album by a woman?" Part of the problem is that the singer-songwriter era she (and James Taylor and Carly Simon) came to represent hasn't aroused a whole lot of critical favor. Still, the restrained soul of King's best stuff (for instance, Tapestry, which is included here in its entirety) has it's own appeal, as do a few of the preblockbuster inclusions. --Steve Stolder