Will You Love Me Tomorrow

In 1960, the American girl group the Shirelles released the first version of the song as Scepter single 1211, with "Boys" on the B-side. The single's first pressing was labeled simply "Tomorrow", then lengthened later. When first presented with the song, lead singer Shirley Owens (later known as Shirley Alston-Reeves) did not want to record it, because she thought it was "too country". She relented after a string arrangement was added. However, Owens recalled on Jim Parsons's syndicated oldies radio program, Shake Rattle Showtime, that some radio stations had banned the record because they had felt the lyrics were too sexually charged. The song is in AABA form.[3]

In addition to reaching No. 1 in the United States, the song also reached No. 2 on the R&B chart and No. 4 in the UK.[4] It reached No. 3 in New Zealand.[5] This version of the song, with session musicians Paul Griffin on piano and Gary Chester on drums, as of 2009 was ranked as the 162nd greatest song of all time, as well as the best song of 1960, by Acclaimed Music.[6] It was ranked at No. 126 among Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Billboard named the song No. 3 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time.[7]

The song later appeared on the soundtracks of Michael Apted's Stardust, Emile Ardolino's Dirty Dancing, and Tony Scott's True Romance.[8]

Bertell Dache, a black demo singer for the Brill Building lyricists, recorded an answer song entitled "Not just Tomorrow, But Always".[15] It has been claimed by some historians that Dache was a pseudonym for Epic recording artist Tony Orlando, whose recording of the original song had not been released as Don Kirshner thought the lyric was convincing only as sung by a woman. However, an ad for United Artists Records that appeared in Billboard during 1961 featured a photo of the singer, which indicated that Dache was not Tony Orlando.

The Satintones, an early Motown group, also recorded an answer song called "Tomorrow and Always," which used the same melody as the original but initially neglected to credit King and Goffin. Following a threat of litigation, later pressings of the record included proper credit. Eventually, it was withdrawn and replaced with a different song. The Satintones' versions are included in the box set The Complete Motown Singles, Volume 1: 1959–1961.

In 1971, Carole King, who composed the music of the song, recorded a version of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" for her second studio album Tapestry, with Joni Mitchell and James Taylor performing background vocals on separate audio channels.[16] King's version of the song was taken at a considerably slower tempo. David Hepworth analyzed it as "less like the pleas for gentleness on the part of a trembling virgin and more like a mature woman requiring parity in a relationship."[16] It gained considerable album-oriented rock airplay due to the large-scale commercial success of the album.

The song became a feature of King's live shows. Taylor recreated his part during their joint arena-based Troubadour Reunion Tour of 2010.

In the 2013 Broadway Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, the song is featured in part four times: once during its writing, once during King recording a demo of it, then with the Shirelles performing it, and then King singing and playing it later during an especially bad time in her marriage with Goffin. No other song is featured as frequently in the musical.

• Carole King – piano, vocals

Additional musicians

• Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar – acoustic guitar
• Russ Kunkel – drums
• Charles "Charlie" Larkey – bass guitar
• Joni Mitchell – background vocals
• James Taylor – acoustic guitar, backing vocals