IN 1974, nobody expected Carole King and a former Steely Dan singer would create one of the biggest radio hits in music, but the unlikely pairing resulted in a No. 2 smash that was blocked from the top spot by one of the decade’s biggest rock anthems.
King teamed up with lyricist David Palmer of ‘Dirty Work’ fame to write a soaring track called ‘Jazzman’. The single took over radio airwaves in the fall of 1974, putting King right on the doorstep of another historic chart-topper by November.
However, she never ranked higher than No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
‘Jazzman’ ran straight into Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s hard-rocking powerhouse ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’ and despite the tandem of Dan and King, the Canadian rockers held tight to the top spot.
This denied the Manhattan-born King what would have been her second solo No. 1 hit-after ‘It’s Too Late’.
Scott’s blazing saxophone solos, paired with Palmer’s vivid lyrics and King’s melodies. It gave the track its unmistakable spark, and the New Yorker songbird was able to step outside her signature piano ballad style and move into a whole new corner of 1970s pop radio.
In an Instagram post dated December 2024, Scott performed the song’s iconic sax solo in a reel. He said of his participation in the song, “Talk about a career highlight. Thank you, Carole!”
‘Jazzman’ is best known for its lengthy saxophone solos, performed by Tom Scott, while King sings an ode to ‘the Jazzman’ and the effect he has on her.
In a 2015 interview, King shared how collaborating with other songwriters keeps her creative juices flowing. Although she has written many of her hits alone and penned other huge hits with her ex-husband Gerry Goffin, she revealed that there is a spark that comes from working with another person to create music.
“I’ve written a lot of my songs alone. I’ve never weighed or measured which is more or less, but I think they’re an equal measure of collaboration and solo writing, and I love both,” she enthused.
“What joy there is to be in a room with somebody and say, ‘What if we did this? What if we did that?’ There’s a sense of creating something and rolling toward an inevitable destination that you both know what it is, but you don’t know it until you get to it. To create something where nothing existed before. No song existed before. Suddenly it exists. It’s an amazing process,” she added lengthily.
‘Jazzman’ was nominated for a 1975 Grammy Award in the category Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. King lost to Olivia Newton-John’s ‘I Honestly Love You’.
Despite this, Carole King was first inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 as a songwriter with Gerry Goffin. She was later nominated and inducted as a solo performer in 2021.
ia/xf
