Carole King – Will You Love Me Tomorrow?

“Will You Love Me Tomorrow”, sometimes known as “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”, is a song with words by Gerry Goffin and music composed by Carole King.

Carole King included this on her 1971 album Tapestry. Lou Adler, who produced the album and owned King’s record company, explained: “The only thing we reached back for, which was calculated in a way, which of the old Goffin and King songs that was hit should we put on this album? And, that’s how we came up with ‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.’ I thought that song fit what the other songs were saying in Tapestry. A very personal lyric.”

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Carole King - Will You Love Me Tomorrow?

Carole King - Will You Love Me Tomorrow? (BBC In Concert, February 10, 1971)03:15

This was the first hit written by Goffin and King, who became one of the top writing teams in music history. They were signed to Don Kirshner’s Aldon music, which along with the Brill building, was the center of the songwriting universe in the early ’60s. Kirshner assigned them to write a song for the Shirelles as a follow-up to “Tonight’s The Night,” which reached #39 in October 1960, the biggest hit for the group to that point.

King came up with the music, and Goffin, excited about writing for The Shirelles, quickly came up with the lyrics. Kirshner loved the song, and recognizing that he had something new and different, decided to use it to get in the door at Columbia Records, so he offered it to Columbia for Johnny Mathis, but their label head Mitch Miller politely declined, which Kirshner later said was “the best thing he ever did for me.”

Back at Aldon Music, Tony Orlando wanted to record the song, but Kirshner, taking a cue from what he learned when he offered it to Mathis, explained that it was a girl’s lyric, and that no teenage boy would say these words. So finally, the song went to The Shirelles, where it was intended all along. It went to #1 in January 1961.

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