{"id":51908,"date":"2025-08-01T06:33:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T06:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/51908\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T06:33:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T06:33:15","slug":"on-this-day-in-1971-james-taylor-scored-his-first-and-only-no-1-with-a-grammy-winning-song-penned-by-good-friend-carole-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/51908\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in 1971, James Taylor Scored His First and Only No. 1 with a Grammy-Winning Song Penned by Good Friend, Carole King"},"content":{"rendered":"

On this day (July 31) in 1971, James Taylor<\/a> topped the Billboard Hot 100 with his rendition of \u201cYou\u2019ve Got a Friend.\u201d It was his first and only song to top the Hot 100 chart. Carole King wrote the song for her 1971 album, Tapestry, on which Taylor played acoustic guitar. The song earned both artists a Grammy Award.<\/p>\n

Taylor\u2019s folk-leaning singer\/songwriter material didn\u2019t do well on the Hot 100. Throughout his career, only 21 of his singles have made it to the chart. Five of those were top 10 hits, and only one, \u201cYou\u2019ve Got a Friend,\u201d made it to the chart\u2019s summit. The \u201cFire and Rain\u201d singer saw much more success on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, where he notched 5 No. 1 singles and 24 top 10 hits out of 40 total charted singles.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: What Are the 5 Biggest U.S. Hits by James Taylor?]<\/a><\/p>\n

The Success of \u201cYou\u2019ve Got a Friend\u201d and Tapestry<\/p>\n

While King didn\u2019t write \u201cYou\u2019ve Got a Friend\u201d for Taylor, it was reportedly a response to one of the lines from his 1970 hit, \u201cFire and Rain.\u201d The song is about how friends can be as important as family, and was a response to the line I\u2019ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend.<\/p>\n

King didn\u2019t release the song as a single. However, Tapestry, the album on which \u201cYou\u2019ve Got a Friend\u201d is featured, was a smash hit for her. The album spent 15 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for nearly six years, making it the longest-charting album by a female artist. When Taylor\u2019s version of King\u2019s song topped the Hot 100, Tapestry had already been at No. 1 for six weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve Got a Friend\u201d brought Taylor the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 1972. The song also brought King the Song of the Year award. She also won Record of the Year for \u201cIt\u2019s Too Late\u201d and Album of the Year for Tapestry. The album\u2019s title track also brought her the award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, making her the first female artist to get the Grammy \u201cGrand Slam.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Taylor Knew He Had to Record the Song the First Time He Heard Carole King Play It<\/p>\n

Carole King was recording Tapestry while James Taylor was working on Mudslide Slim and the Blue Horizon. Taylor played acoustic guitar on several songs on King\u2019s album, including \u201cYou\u2019ve Got a Friend.\u201d He immediately fell in love with the song.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t write it with James or anybody really specifically in mind. But when James heard it, he really liked it and wanted to record it,\u201d King recalled<\/a>. \u201cI actually saw James hear it. I watched James hear the song, and his reaction to it. It then became special to me because of him and the relationship to him,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Featured Image by Koh Hasebe\/Shinko Music\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On this day (July 31) in 1971, James Taylor topped the Billboard Hot 100 with his rendition of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[2616,39914,88,39915,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-51908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-1970s","9":"tag-carole-king","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-james-taylor","12":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}