How Carole King and Gerry Goffin Wrote "A Natural Woman" for Aretha Franklin episode artwork

EPISODE · Aug 14, 2026 · 7 MIN

How Carole King and Gerry Goffin Wrote "A Natural Woman" for Aretha Franklin

from Our American Stories · host iHeartPodcasts

On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1967, Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler approached the songwriting team of Carole King and Gerry Goffin with an idea. He needed a hit for Aretha Franklin and even had a title in mind: "A Natural Woman."After putting their children to bed, King and Goffin went to work. By the next day, they had written a song specifically for a singer they had never met. Lee Habeeb shares the story of the unlikely collaboration that gave Aretha Franklin one of the defining songs of her career. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)Support the show: https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Aug 14, 2026

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How Carole King and Gerry Goffin Wrote "A Natural Woman" for Aretha Franklin

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