[3] The album's lead singles, "It's Too Late" and "I Feel the Earth Move", spent five weeks at number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts.

[4][5] Tapestry is certified 14× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA),[6] making it one of the best-selling albums of all time.

King's ex-husband Gerry Goffin co-wrote the lyrics for three of the songs, two of which had already been hits for other artists: Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" (in 1967), and The Shirelles' "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" (in 1960).

James Taylor, who encouraged King to sing her own songs and who also played on Tapestry, had a number one hit with "You've Got a Friend" later in 1971.

Several of the musicians worked simultaneously on Taylor's album Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon.

[10][11][12] It shows her sitting barefoot on a cushion on a bench beside a window, holding a tapestry that she hand-stitched herself, with her cat, named after Telemachus, near her foot.

[13][14] The album was met with widespread critical acclaim; Village Voice critic Robert Christgau felt that her voice, free of "technical decorum", would liberate female singers;[16] Jon Landau of Rolling Stone wrote that King was one of the most creative pop music figures and had created an album of "surpassing personal-intimacy and musical accomplishment".

In less than two years it has sold well over five million copies, putting it in a class with the best-selling albums of all time, and it is still on the charts … Such statistics are so overwhelming that they seem to transform a mere record into some sort of ineluctable cultural presence, and in a sense they do.

[35] Several songs from the album were recorded by other artists and became hits while the album was still on the charts: James Taylor's 1971 recording of "You've Got a Friend" from Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon hit number one in the U.S.[36] and number four in the U.K.,[37] and Barbra Streisand's 1971 studio recording of "Where You Lead" from her album Barbra Joan Streisand reached number 40,[38] while a live recording of a medley in which Streisand paired the song with the Sweet Inspirations hit "Sweet Inspiration" from her album Live Concert at the Forum reached number 37 the following year.

The first, released in 1995 and titled Tapestry Revisited: A Tribute to Carole King, was certified gold.

One disc is the original album remastered; the second is live performances of 11 of the 12 songs, recorded in 1973 in Boston; Columbia, Maryland; and Central Park, New York; and in 1976 at the San Francisco Opera House.