Variant chronology
1971 - US Ode 70 tan/white label, '1416 N. La Brea, Hollywood, California 90028' rim text, gatefold with lyrics on back cover <- this copy
c. 1972-73 - US Ode label, 'P.O. Box 782, Beverly Hills, Calif. 90213' rim text
mid-1970s - US brown Ode label / later A&M-distributed reissue
1980s - Ode/Epic reissue after Adler moved distribution to CBS
1999 - Classic Records 180g, Bernie Grundman recut
2008 - Epic/Legacy 180g reissue
2013 - Mobile Fidelity remaster (Krieg Wunderlich); UD1S One-Step 45rpm box
The Album
Carole King spent the 1960s as half of the legendary Brill Building-era Goffin-King songwriting team, penning hits like 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow' and 'A Natural Woman' for others before stepping out as a performer. Recorded in January 1971 at A&M's Studio B in Hollywood - concurrently with James Taylor's 'Mud Slide Slim,' using essentially the same band and even the same piano - 'Tapestry' was produced by her manager Lou Adler and captured with a deliberate live-in-the-room intimacy. Released February 10, 1971, it topped the Billboard chart for 15 consecutive weeks, remained on the charts for over six years, and became one of the best-selling albums in history (14x platinum in the US). It swept the 1972 Grammys, winning Album of the Year, Record of the Year ('It's Too Late'), Song of the Year ('You've Got a Friend'), and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance - King was the first woman to take all the top categories. Blending new material with reclaimed versions of her 60s classics ('Will You Love Me Tomorrow,' 'A Natural Woman'), the album defined the 1970s singer-songwriter movement and established the template for the confessional female singer-pianist. Its influence runs through generations of artists from Carly Simon to Adele, and it remains a permanent fixture on all-time greatest-album lists, preserved in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.
The Label
This copy carries the original Ode 70 label: off-white/tan stock with the silver-grey stylized '70' logo, 'SP-77009' catalog with matrix numbers (SP-77017)/(SP-77018) printed beneath, and the rim text 'DISTRIBUTED BY A&M RECORDS - 1416 N. LA BREA, HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA 90028.' Lou Adler founded Ode in 1967 after selling Dunhill; A&M took over distribution in 1970, the label was briefly renamed 'Ode 70' in late 1970, and reverted to plain 'Ode' around November 1972. A&M's 1416 N. La Brea headquarters address appears in the rim text only until roughly 1972-73, when it was replaced by the P.O. Box 782, Beverly Hills address. The combination of the Ode 70 logo plus the La Brea rim text therefore brackets this copy in the 1971-72 first-issue window, at the top of the pressing hierarchy for this title.
Fidelity
The original lacquers for Tapestry are generally credited to Bernie Grundman, then chief mastering engineer at A&M, cut from Hank Cicalo's warm, dry, live-in-the-room analog tapes. Original US Ode pressings are the collector benchmark but are notorious for copy-to-copy variance - Better Records/Hot Stamper and forum consensus hold that most copies are dull, murky, or edgy, and a genuinely open, full-bodied early pressing is prized; the Positive Feedback comparison found the original somewhat mid-forward and rolled-off at the extremes. In the wider hierarchy, the 2013 Mobile Fidelity remaster (Krieg Wunderlich/Rob LoVerde) is widely considered a clear sonic improvement over the average original, with Grundman's 1999 Classic Records recut and the 2012 ORG 45rpm (Grundman/Bellman) as the other key audiophile alternatives; a clean, hot-stamper original Ode still competes with all of them and beats the mediocre majority.
Notes
1971 US first-issue Ode SP-77009 stereo gatefold, released February 10, 1971. Decisive evidence: the Ode 70 logo plus 'A&M Records - 1416 N. La Brea, Hollywood, California 90028' rim text - A&M switched to the Beverly Hills P.O. Box address c. 1972-73, so La Brea rim text marks the original issue; the gatefold with lyrics printed on the back cover and inner tapestry photo matches the original packaging. The transcribed runout 'ODE 177017 PM' corresponds to the SP-77017 side-1 matrix; the 'PM' suffix is associated in Discogs data with Columbia's Pitman, NJ plant, which pressed Ode/A&M product, though no dead-wax photo exists to confirm. This is not a rare record - it sold tens of millions - but it is the correct first-issue configuration.
