While in Laurel Canyon, King met James Taylor and Joni Mitchell as well as Toni Stern, with whom she collaborated on songs. King made her first solo album, Writer, in 1970 for Lou Adler's Ode label, with Taylor playing acoustic guitar and providing backing vocals. It peaked at number 84 in the Billboard Top 200. The same year, King played keyboards on B.B. King's album Indianola Mississippi Seeds.
King followed Writer in 1971 with Tapestry, which featured new compositions as well as reinterpretations of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman". The album was recorded concurrently with Taylor's Mud Slide Slim, with an overlapping set of musicians including King, Danny Kortchmar and Joni Mitchell. Both albums included "You've Got a Friend", which was a number 1 hit for Taylor; King said in a 1972 interview that she "didn't write it with James or anybody really specifically in mind. But when James heard it he really liked it and wanted to record it".
Tapestry was an instant success. With numerous hit singles – including a Billboard No.1 with "It's Too Late" – Tapestry held the No.1 spot for 15 consecutive weeks, remained on the charts for nearly six years, and has sold over 30 million copies worldwide.[48][49] The album garnered four Grammy Awards including Album of the Year; Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female; Record of the Year ("It's Too Late", lyrics by Toni Stern); and Song of the Year, with King becoming the first woman to win the award ("You've Got a Friend"). The album appeared on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list at number 36. In addition, "It's Too Late" was number 469 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.