Carol Klein, with schoolbooks under one arm and a sheet of music under the other, got off the express train from Brooklyn to Manhattan. The year was 1957 and the 15-year- old was determined to be a singing sensation. Wearing bobby socks, white sneakers, and a black skirt with a pink poodle embroidered on it, she opened the New York City telephone book. Starting with the “As” in the directory, she visited every music industry executive until she found one who would record her songs.
After being turned away by several recording studios, ABC-Paramount invited her to record four songs. Five decades later we know her as Carol King who has over twenty solo albums. At the age of 71, King was the first woman, on May 22, 2013, to receive Library of Congress’s Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. The a…