Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (album)

Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording) is the cast album for the 2014 Broadway musical Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Released digitally on April 1, 2014 and physically on May 13, through Ghostlight Records, it featured the cast members performing the songs of Carole King in the Broadway show. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in 2015.

Background
Beautiful: The Carol King Musical is based on the songs performed by Carole King and produced for Sony/ATV Music Publishing. The album was announced by Ghostlight Records on February 13, which served as its publisher, and the songs were recorded at the MSR Studios in New York during period between February 27 and March 3, 2014. The cast album featured 25 songs—"Oh Carol", "Be-Bop-A-Lula", "Who Put the Bomp" and the reprised version of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", were excluded from the track list. Five songs from the album—Some Kind of Wonderful", "Walking in the Rain", "You’ve Got a Friend", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" and "Beautiful"—were released exclusively through Entertainment Weekly on March 27, 2014. The album was digitally released through ITunes and other digital formats on April 1, 2014 and in CDs on May 13, 2014.

Commercial performance
Upon its digital release, the album debuted as the number 1 cast recording on iTunes and ranked at 41st position overall. At the Billboard 200 charts, the album debuted at number 60 and topped the Cast Albums chart, post the release of its physical versions.

Time Out ranked this recording at 22nd place on the "The best original Broadway cast recordings of the 21st century" list. Further, Chief Drama Critic and Theater Editor David Cote wrote, "The arrangements are lush and soaring, the sound is crisp, and superstar Jessie Mueller, as King, will break your heart."