Her birth name is Carol Klein. She started playing piano when she was 4 years old and showed an early talent for songwriting. Her first hit as a songwriter was "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" by The Shirelles, which hit #1 in January 1961 when King was just 18.
While she was a student at Brooklyn high school, she dated Neil Sedaka, who was in a band called The Tokens. Soon after, she formed her own group called the Co-sines and took the professional name Carole King.
King met her first husband, Gerry Goffin, at Queens College in New York. She and Goffin became songwriting partners, writing in the Brill Building for Aldon Music. They wrote hits for some of the biggest names of the day: The Animals, the Shirelles, Herman's Hermits, and the Byrds. They even wrote a hit sung by their babysitter: "The Loco-Motion" by Little Eva. King and Goffin divorced in 1967.
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