"Where You Lead" | |
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Song by Carole King | |
from the album Tapestry | |
Released | 1971 |
Recorded | January 1971 |
Studio | A&M Studios |
Genre | Folk-pop |
Length | 3:20 |
Label | Ode/A&M |
Songwriter(s) | Carole King, Toni Stern |
Producer(s) | Lou Adler |
"Where You Lead" is a song written in 1970 by Carole King with lyricist Toni Stern, introduced on King's iconic 1971 album Tapestry . A Top 40 hit for Barbra Streisand in both a studio version from her 1971 album Barbra Joan Streisand and a live version featured on her 1972 album Live Concert at the Forum —the latter in a medley titled "Sweet Inspiration/Where You Lead"—the song has also served as the main theme song for the 2000-2007 The WB dramedy series Gilmore Girls in a lyrically revised version recorded by King and Louise Goffin and was featured on the 2002 soundtrack album Our Little Corner of the World: Music from Gilmore Girls .
"Where You Lead" is one of two Carole King/Toni Stern collaborations featured on the 1971 album Tapestry , the other being the #1 single "It's Too Late". King had written the music and the majority of the lyric for "Where You Lead" when she solicited the assistance of Stern, saying: "I can't write the bridge to this: if you can figure out the bridge you can get [co-writing] credit for the song." Disliking the arguably servile stance of the song as written by King so far, Stern swiftly conceived lyrics for its bridge which she felt expressed a more empowered narrative voice. The lyrics Stern submitted to King included the lines: "...if you want to live in fucking New York City / Honey you know I will": King herself deleted "fucking", then sought Tapestry producer Lou Adler's approval of the "New York City" reference; Adler's approval was forthcoming and the lyrics for "Where You Lead" were thus complete. [1]
Inspired by the Book of Ruth, where it says: "Where you go, I will go", [2] [ citation needed ] "Where You Lead" was described by Rolling Stone critic Jon Landau as an "ingratiatingly witty song that seems to parody the romantic extremes of some of Carole's earlier work." [3] Landau also praises the power of Russ Kunkel's drumming on the song. [3] Author James Perone states that a superficial reading of the lyrics could suggest that the song reinforces stereotypes that a woman should not put her desire for a career ahead of pleasing her husband. [4] But he goes on to say that the singer has actually made "an informed and empowered decision" to follow her man "because of the life changing impact" the relationship has had on her. [4]
The 2008 "Legacy Edition" release of Tapestry coupled a remastered version of the Tapestry album with a second disc which featured live performances by King - from concerts in 1973 and 1976 - of all of the songs from Tapestry except for "Where You Lead", reflecting the fact that soon after the release of Tapestry, King came to the realization that "Where You Lead" was somewhat politically incorrect and as a result stopped performing it live, [5] only reinstating the song in her concert setlists following its 2000 lyrical revision.
"Where You Lead" | ||||
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Single by Barbra Streisand | ||||
from the album Barbra Joan Streisand | ||||
B-side | "Since I Fell for You" | |||
Released | June 1971 | |||
Genre | Easy listening | |||
Length | album3:00single 2:51 | |||
Label | Columbia Records | |||
Songwriter(s) | Carole King, Toni Stern | |||
Producer(s) | Richard Perry | |||
Barbra Streisand singles chronology | ||||
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Barbra Streisand recorded "Where You Lead" in a 21 April 1971 session which would yield seven tracks featured on the August 1971 album release Barbra Joan Streisand , which album would include a total of three covers of Tapestry tracks: "Where You Lead", "Beautiful", and "You've Got a Friend".
On "Where You Lead" Streisand had the backing of the all-female band Fanny augmented by Billy Preston on organ and disc producer Richard Perry on tambourine: Fanny - who arranged the track - also served as chorale, augmented by Clydie King, Venetta Fields, and Oma Drake. Issued as advance single in June 1971, "Where You Lead" just reached Top 40 hit status, #40 being its peak on the Billboard Hot 100. [6]
"Sweet Inspiration / Where You Lead" | ||||
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Single by Barbra Streisand | ||||
from the album Live Concert at the Forum | ||||
B-side | "Didn't We?" | |||
Released | 25 May 1972 | |||
Genre | Easy listening | |||
Length | album7:45single 6:02 | |||
Label | Columbia Records | |||
Songwriter(s) | Carole King, Toni Stern | |||
Producer(s) | Richard Perry | |||
Barbra Streisand singles chronology | ||||
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The 1972 concert album release Live Concert at the Forum - a recording of Streisand's 15 April 1972 Four for McGovern concert at The Forum (Inglewood CA) - featured "Where You Lead" in a medley entitled "Sweet Inspiration/Where You Lead", Streisand's Forum concert having featured her performance of "Where You Lead" in tandem with "Sweet Inspiration", the latter being a Dan Penn/Spooner Oldham composition written for and first recorded in 1967 by the Sweet Inspirations for whom it had afforded a Top 20 hit reaching #18 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1968.
Streisand had premiered the "Sweet Inspiration/Where You Lead" medley during her 24 December 1971 — 14 January 1972 Las Vegas engagement at the International Hotel, the number having been designed by the hotel's musical director Joe Guercio: Guercio had an especial awareness of the song "Sweet Inspiration" as he had begun his seven year tenure as bandleader for Elvis Presley in January 1970, and as Presley's bandleader Guercio worked closely with the Sweet Inspirations who served as Presley's concert chorale and also his opening act. [7] [8] [9]
"Sweet Inspiration/Where You Lead" was released 25 May 1972 as the first advance single from the Live Concert at the Forum (the album would be released October 1972): a left-field choice for single release due to its six minute playing time - also in that Streisand's studio take on "Where You Lead" had been her last-but-two single release with neither interim single proving high-profile - , "Sweet Inspiration/Where You Lead" would approximate the chart impact of the "Where You Lead" single off Barbra Joan Streisand, as the "Sweet Inspiration/ Where You Lead" single peaked at #37 on the Top 40.
Streisand would perform "Sweet Inspiration/Where You Lead" on her Barbra Streisand...and Other Musical Instruments television special which was taped at Elstree Studios in the summer of 1973 and broadcast that 2 November: with Ray Charles on piano and the Raelettes as chorale, Streisand performed an abbreviated version of the medley which ran roughly half the time of the single edit of the Live Concert at the Forum version.
The 1979 compilation Barbra Streisand's Greatest Hits Vol. 2 included "Sweet Inspiration/Where You Lead", while Streisand's studio version of "Where You Lead" was the singer's only Top 40 hit of the relevant time period to be excluded.
Year | US Hot 100 | US AC | Canada Top 100 | Canada AC | Album | Notes |
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1971 | 40 | 3 | 47 | 23 | Barbra Joan Streisand | |
1972 | 37 | 15 | 37 | did not chart | Live Concert at the Forum | With "Sweet Inspiration" |
In 2000, Carole King recorded "Where You Lead" as a duet with her daughter Louise Goffin to serve as theme song for the WB television series Gilmore Girls . |
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Asked by series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino for permission to use the original Tapestry track as the Gilmore Girls theme, King had responded that she'd rather re-record the song for Sherman-Palladino's purpose, with lyrics abridged to reflect the series' theme of a mother-daughter relationship and with King's own daughter Louise Goffin dueting with King. King contacted Toni Stern, co-writer of the song's original version, and Stern tweaked the song's original romantic lyrics so as to be applicable to a mother-daughter relationship, and King and Goffin recorded this new version of "Where You Lead" at the home studio in the Laurel Canyon residence of Goffin and Goffin's then-husband Greg Wells with Wells producing the track. [11] [12]
The full version of the King/Goffin duet of "Where You Lead" had its debut release on the 2002 album Our Little Corner of the World: Music from Gilmore Girls and would be a bonus track on the 2007 deluxe edition release of King's album Love Makes the World , while King and Goffin could be heard singing the song live on King's 2005 concert album The Living Room Tour : in its album appearances the track's title shows as "Where You Lead I Will Follow" although the Gilmore Girls credits identified the song as "Where You Lead". During the 2010 Troubadour Reunion Tour King performed the revised version of "Where You Lead" at some tour venues, singing lead while the tour's co-headliner James Taylor played guitar and sang background vocals.
King and Goffin also duetted on the revised version of "Where You Lead" at King's 3 July 2016 Hyde Park concert which marked the first time King had performed all the songs from Tapestry in a single concert. King addressed her choice to sing the latter day version of "Where You Lead" at Hyde Park with the introductory comments: "The next song I don’t perform very much. It came out just before women’s lib, and it’s got kind of a 'Stand by Your Man' lyric so I [soon] didn't exactly feel comfortable performing it", with King then explaining how the song came to be the Gilmore Girls theme. [5]
In 2022, that version was sung by the title character Joe Kimbreau (James Wolk) in "Snow Globe", the tenth episode of the NBC series Ordinary Joe , accompanied by his son (John Gluck), a children's choir, and his mother Gwen Kimbreau (Anne Ramsay).
"Where You Lead" was also recorded by Kate Taylor being featured on her 1971 album Sister Kate. [13] The track featured Carole King on piano (King's husband Charles Larkey also played bass) while the chorale included King and Oma Drake, who was a chorale member on the Barbra Joan Streisand version. Despite these shared elements, AllMusic critic Joe Viglione credited Taylor's version with a "totally different flavor" from those of both King and Streisand. [13] The Sonny and Cher concert album Live in Las Vegas Vol. 2 (1973) featured "Where You Lead" in a medley with "I Can See Clearly Now" and "You've Got a Friend". Versions of "Where You Lead" have also been recorded by Liz Damon's Orient Express (album Try a Little Tenderness, 1971), Iris Williams (album The Many Moods of Iris Williams, 1976), Faith Hill (multi-artist album Tapestry Revisited: A Tribute to Carole King, 1995), Barbara Higbie (album Barbara Higbie's Interpretation of Carole King, 1999), and Marcia Hines (album Marcia Sings Tapestry and the Songs of Carole King, 2010).
Carole King Klein is an American singer-songwriter and musician. One of the most successful songwriters in American history, she wrote or co-wrote 118 pop hits appearing on the Billboard Hot 100 over the latter half of the 20th century. King also wrote 61 hits that charted in the UK, making her the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts between 1962 and 2005.
Tapestry is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Carole King. Produced by Lou Adler, it was released on February 10, 1971, by Ode Records. The album's lead singles, "It's Too Late" and "I Feel the Earth Move", spent five weeks at number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts.
"You've Got a Friend" is a 1971 song by American singer-songwriter Carole King. It was first recorded by King and included on her second studio album, Tapestry (1971). Another well-known version by James Taylor appears on his album Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon. His was released as a single in 1971, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and number four on the UK Singles Chart. The two versions were recorded simultaneously in 1971 with shared musicians.
Writer is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Carole King, released in May 1970. King already had a successful career as a songwriter, and been a part of The City, a short-lived group she formed after moving to Los Angeles in 1968. Tracks on the album include "Up on the Roof" which was a number 4 hit for the Drifters in 1962, and "Child of Mine", which has been recorded by Billy Joe Royal, among others. The album did not receive much attention upon its release, though it entered the chart following the success of King's next album, Tapestry, in 1971. It was produced by John Fischbach, the co-founder of Crystal Sound studio, in Hollywood, California, where the album was recorded.
The Living Room Tour is a live album by Carole King released in 2005. It consists of live recordings of most of the songs from Tapestry. Her daughters Louise and Sherry and background singer and guitarist Gary Burr joined her on several songs. This album debuted at #17 in the US, becoming King's highest-charting album since 1977. That was largely due to television advertisements and that it was available in Starbucks retailers.
The Carnegie Hall Concert: June 18, 1971 was American musician Carole King's first concert performance in front of an audience.
"(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" is a 1967 song by American soul singer Aretha Franklin released as a single by the Atlantic label from her album Lady Soul. The lyrics were written by Gerry Goffin from an idea by Atlantic producer Jerry Wexler, and the music was composed by Carole King. Written for Franklin, the record reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, and became one of her signature songs. It made history on the UK Singles Chart a week after her death, finally becoming a hit almost 51 years after it was first released, entering at No. 79. Franklin also included a live recording on the album Aretha in Paris in 1968.
"People" is a song composed by Jule Styne with lyrics by Bob Merrill for the 1964 Broadway musical Funny Girl starring Barbra Streisand, who introduced the song. The song was released as a single in 1964 with "I Am Woman", a solo version of "You Are Woman, I Am Man", also from Funny Girl.
"Happy Days Are Here Again" is a 1929 song with music by Milton Ager and lyrics by Jack Yellen. It was originally published by Ager, Yellen, and Bornstein. The song is a standard that has been interpreted by various artists. It appeared in the 1930 film Chasing Rainbows and was the campaign song for Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1932 presidential campaign. It is the unofficial anthem of Roosevelt's Democratic Party. Its copyright was renewed in 1956, so it entered the American public domain on January 1, 2025. Sound recordings from 1929 will follow on January 1, 2030, under the provisions of the Music Modernization Act.
"Will You Love Me Tomorrow", sometimes known as "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow", is a song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. It was first recorded in 1960 by the Shirelles for their album Tonight's the Night; released as a single that November, it became the first song by an African-American girl group to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It has since been recorded by many other artists, including King on her 1971 album Tapestry.
Barbra Joan Streisand is the thirteenth studio album by American singer Barbra Streisand, released in August 1971 on Columbia Records. It was her second consecutive album produced by Richard Perry and features backing work by members of the female band Fanny. Like the two previous studio albums, the singer continued to opt for a more contemporary repertoire, this time choosing three songs by Carole King, two by John Lennon, two by Burt Bacharach and Hal David in medley form, one each by Laura Nyro and the trio Michel LeGrand, Marilyn Bergman and Alan Bergman, and one by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, who would go on to form Steely Dan.
"Lover, Come Back to Me" is a popular song composed by Sigmund Romberg with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II for the Broadway show The New Moon, where the song was introduced by Evelyn Herbert and Robert Halliday. The song was published in 1928.
Henry "Hank" Cicalo was an American recording engineer whose career spanned over fifty years. Among the artists recorded by Cicalo were The Monkees, Carole King, Barbra Streisand, and George Harrison.
Stoney End is the twelfth studio album by American singer Barbra Streisand. Released in 1971 and produced by Richard Perry, it was a conscious change in direction for Streisand, having a more upbeat, contemporary pop/rock sound. It included cover versions of several songs by contemporary singer-songwriters, including Laura Nyro, Randy Newman and Joni Mitchell.
Live Concert at the Forum is the second live album by American singer Barbra Streisand, released physically on October 1, 1972, by Columbia Records. Produced by long-time collaborator Richard Perry, it was recorded at The Forum in Inglewood, part of Greater Los Angeles, on April 15, 1972, during Four for McGovern, a concert held in benefit for George McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign. A CD version of Live Concert at the Forum was released on September 6, 1989.
Barbra Streisand...and Other Musical Instruments is the fourteenth studio album by American singer Barbra Streisand. It was released on November 2, 1973, by Columbia Records. The album was made available following a 1973 live television special promoted to improve Streisand's image and sound. With world music as the primary genre, the album's instrumentation varies greatly; even items such as kitchen utensils were used to create melodies and beats. With a majority of the songs on the album being cover songs, Streisand also re-recorded various tracks that originated earlier in her career. Her manager, Martin Erlichman, was credited as the album's sole and executive producer.
"Beautiful" is a song written by Carole King that was first released on her 1971 award-winning album Tapestry. It has also been covered by other artists, such as Barbra Streisand and Richard Marx, and included on several of King's live albums. It was also used as the title song of the 2014 Broadway musical Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.
Marcia Sings Tapestry is a studio album released by Australian musician Marcia Hines, released physically and digitally in October 2010. It debuted at No. 16 in Australia, which is Hines' 11th top 20 album there.
Sweet Inspiration is the title of a Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham composition written for, and first recorded in 1967 by, the Sweet Inspirations. It became a Top 20 hit reaching #18 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1968, and a live version by Barbra Streisand, in medley with "Where You Lead", would also become a Top 40 hit.
Four for McGovern, also known as 3
4McGovern, was a benefit concert held on April 15, 1972, produced by actor Warren Beatty to assist the 1972 presidential campaign of George McGovern, running as the anti-war candidate. The concert, held at The Forum in Greater Los Angeles, featured performances by Carole King, James Taylor, Quincy Jones and his Orchestra, and Barbra Streisand. Streisand's performance was audio-taped to create the album Live Concert at the Forum, released on October 1.