Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording)

Jessie Mueller is an enormously credible Carole King in this tuneful bio-musical about the generation-defining musician’s evolution from Brill Building hit machine (with husband Gerry Goffin) to a mature solo artist who embodied the singer/songwriter movement. While the cast glossily interprets early Goffin/King teen-pop hits like "The Locomotion" and "Chains," Mueller's humbly exquisite renditions from Tapestry—the rollickingly sexy "I Feel the Earth Move," the heartbreakingly intimate "So Far Away," and the (here, climactic) "Beautiful"—make King's creations sound as momentous as ever.