“Up on the Roof” by Laura Nyro

Laura Nyro's "Up on the Roof" is a cover of the Gerry Goffin and Carole King song, and it turned up on Christmas and the Beads of Sweat, the album Columbia released in November 1970. Here's the twist: Nyro had built her reputation on her own songwriting, yet this borrowed tune became her one and only chart single, climbing no higher than No. 92 on the Hot 100.

She made the album in the early summer with Felix Cavaliere and Arif Mardin in the producers' chairs, though she stayed firmly in charge. It closes the trilogy begun by Eli and the Thirteenth Confession and New York Tendaberry, landing between the first record's lighter joys and the second's dark, piano-heavy brooding, and it calls in the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, Duane Allman and Alice Coltrane on harp.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.