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NEW YORK (AP) — Gerry Goffin, a prolific and multi-dimensional lyricist who with his then-wife and songwriting partner Carole King wrote such hits as "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," "Up on the Roof" and "The Loco-Motion," died early Thursday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 75.

His wife, Michelle Goffin, confirmed his death.

Goffin, who married King in 1959 while they were in their teens, penned more than 50 top 40 hits, including "Pleasant Valley Sunday" for the Monkees, "Crying in the Rain" by the Everly Brothers, "Some Kind of Wonderful" and "On Broadway" for the Drifters and "Take Good Care of My Baby" by Bobby Vee. Goffin was able to pen jokey lyrics or achingly sad ones, and he did it for solo artists and multiple voices.

King and Goffin divorced in 1968, but Goffin kept writing hits, including "Savin' All My Love for You" for Whitney Houston. Goffin and King were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three years later.

King said in a statement that Goffin was her "first love" and had a "profound impact" on her life.

"Gerry was a good man with a dynamic force, whose words and creative influence will resonate for generations to come," King said. "His words expressed what so many people were feeling but didn't know how to say."

The Goffin-King love affair is the subject of the Tony Award-nominated musical "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical" on Broadway. King, while backing the project and with one of their daughters acting as a producer, had avoided seeing it for months because it dredged up sad memories. She finally sat through it in April.

The musical shows the two composing their songs at Aldon Music, the Brill Building publishing company in Manhattan that also employed Neil Sedaka, Howard Greenfield and Carole Bayer Sager. The show ends just as King is enjoying fame for her groundbreaking solo album "Tapestry." Though it also alleges Goffin's womanizing and mental instability were causes of the breakup, he happily attended the opening of the musical. A spokeswoman for the show said the cast would dedicate Thursday night's performance to Goffin.

After his divorce from King, Goffin garnered an Academy Award nomination with Michael Masser for the theme to the 1975 film "Mahogany" for Diana Ross. He also earned a Golden Globe nomination for "So Sad the Song" in 1977 from the film "Pipe Dreams."

Goffin was born in Brooklyn in 1939 and was working as an assistant chemist when he met King at Queens College.

"She was interested in writing rock 'n' roll, and I was interested in writing this Broadway play," Goffin told Vanity Fair in 2001. "So we had an agreement where she would write (music) to the play if I would write (lyrics) to some of her rock 'n' roll melodies. And eventually it came to be a boy-and-girl relationship. Eventually I began to lose heart in my play, and we stuck to writing rock 'n' roll."

A whirlwind romance led to a marriage and their first hit, when she was only 17 and he was 20, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" for the Shirelles, which a pregnant King helped write while suffering morning sickness.

Both quit their day jobs to focus on music, and other songs followed, including "Up on the Roof" for the Drifters, "One Fine Day" for the Chiffons and "Chains," which was later covered by the Beatles. Goffin also collaborated with another Aldon composer, Barry Mann, on the hit "Who Put the Bomp (In the Bomp Bomp Bomp Bomp)." King and Goffin wrote "The Loco-Motion," which eventually was sung by their one-time baby sitter Little Eva.

Goffin continued co-writing songs, including "I've Got to Use My Imagination" recorded by Gladys Knight and the Pips, and "It's Not the Spotlight," recorded by Rod Stewart. In the 1980s and '90s, he co-wrote "Tonight I Celebrate My Love," a duet recorded by Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack, "Miss You Like Crazy" sung by Natalie Cole" and the Whitney Houston mega-hit "Savin' All My Love for You."

He is survived by his five children and his wife.

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Follow Mark Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge Thursday rejected an urgent request by Shelly Sterling's attorney asking that husband Donald Sterling and his lawyers be ordered to stop harassing her legal team and doctors in their dispute over the planned sale of the Los Angeles Clippers.

A petition filed by Shelly Sterling's attorneys quoted allegedly threatening remarks made by Donald Sterling in phone calls and a letter sent by his lawyer to two doctors who declared him mentally incapacitated.

Superior Court Judge Michael Levanas said the matter may involve "high emotions and some litigation posturing" and urged both parties to tone down their communications.

"The court does not feel that the statements set forth in the ... petition rise to the level of great and irreparable injury to a party as called for in the Code of Civil Procedure," Levanas said in a written decision.

Outside court Donald Sterling's attorney Bobby Samini said, "Clearly from the court's ruling it's apparent Mr. Sterling is not a danger to anybody."

A trial next month will look into assertions that Donald Sterling is mentally incapacitated and determine whether he was properly removed as an administrator under the terms of the family trust, which owns the Clippers, leaving Shelly Sterling alone as trustee with authority to sell the team. A $2 billion sale to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is pending.

The physicians who determined he was mentally incapacitated in May examinations with Donald Sterling could be key witnesses in the trial.

A filing by Shelly Sterling's attorney stated that on June 9 Donald Sterling called Shelly Sterling's attorney, Pierce O'Donnell, threatening lawsuits and said: "I am going to take you out, O'Donnell." O'Donnell understood that to be a death threat.

The document also alleged Donald Sterling called one of the physicians, Dr. Meril Platzer, told her she's "nothing but a fraud and a liar and a cheat" and menacingly warned, "I'm going to see that you lose your license."

He also is said to have threatened to sue Platzer and made similar threats in a profanity-laden message left for a second doctor, James E. Spar.

"I'm gonna get you fired from UCLA because you're nothing but a tramp. How dare you let someone use you that way?" Sterling tells Spar's voicemail. "You know, you rely on doctors. You think that they'll be above it all. But obviously you're not. You'll sell yourself for nothing. How dare you? How dare you give my records to a lawyer for the purposes of using it against me?"

The filing states that Sterling's lawyer Samini, followed up with a letter to each doctor accusing them of being a part of a conspiracy. The document called it a clear attempt to intimidate key witnesses in the case.

Samini said his office had been bombarded with calls from representatives of Shelly Sterling urging them to settle the case.

He contended that the call cited in O'Donnell's papers was made by O'Donnell to his office and he turned the phone over to Donald Sterling.

"They wanted to have a conversation," he said of Sterling and O'Donnell, but he listened from a distance.

"It was quite entertaining," Samini said. "I didn't hear any threats."

Samini said he wrote letters to the doctors because he felt Donald Sterling's medical records were disseminated to the media inappropriately. He also said he believed that the doctors had been hired to give specific evaluations of Donald Sterling, which were suggested to them by Shelly Sterling's team. Samini said he has engaged other doctors to examine Donald Sterling and "the results are different and there are more to come."

He said those would be released in court during the trial now scheduled for July 7.

The terms of the trust state that two licensed physicians can determine a trustee "incapacitated" and both parties must cooperate in any such examination. Both Sterlings signed the terms, which also waive doctor-patient privilege and privacy rights for any "incapacitation" finding.

Outside court, O'Donnell said about the statement by Donald Sterling, "I took that as a threat on my life and I still do." He said Sterling used numerous expletives.

"We think this is evidence of his lack of control, his impulsivity." He pointed out that the comments came the same day that Sterling went on a rant about the NBA, calling its board members "despicable monsters."

He also said the doctors threatened by the 80-year-old Donald Sterling were shaken and one of them, Platzer, said she had misgivings about whether she should have gotten involved in the case at all.

In her declaration she wrote that she believed Donald Sterling and his attorneys are "attempting to bully me into changing my opinion regarding Mr. Sterling's incapacity. I also do not want to be intimidated if I testify in this matter."

O'Donnell said he would ask for an injunction prohibiting Donald Sterling from intimidating witnesses.

"This is not normal behavior in civil litigation," O'Donnell said. "This shows how erratic and volatile he is."

Attached to the motion were letters from Samini to the doctors instructing them to not communicate further with anyone on Donald Sterling's medical condition or treatments without his prior consent.

"Your conduct has already constituted interference with prospective economic advantage as part of a conspiracy," a letter dated June 10 said.

Shelly Sterling's potentially record-breaking deal with Ballmer was struck after Donald Sterling's racist remarks to a girlfriend were recorded and publicized. The NBA moved to oust him as team owner, fined him $2.5 million and banned him for life.

Donald Sterling has filed suit against the NBA for $1 billion in federal court alleging that the league violated his constitutional rights, committed breach of contract and violated antitrust laws. Sterling has also hired four private investigation firms to dig up potential dirt on the NBA's former and current commissioner and its owners for the case.

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AP writers Tami Abdollah and Christopher Weber contributed to this report.

William Brawner has been HIV-positive for most of his life. He kept his status a secret for years, even from friends and sexual partners. His life is the subject of a new documentary, "25 to Life."

MIAMI (AP) — Pat Riley walked into the room to begin his end-of-season availability annoyed, and armed with history.

There have been franchises that have enjoyed prolonged runs of greatness during his 45 years as a player, coach and executive in the NBA — the Lakers, Celtics, Bulls, Spurs and his Miami Heat among them — and Thursday Riley pointed out each shares a trait.

They all lost sometime.

"I think everybody," the Heat president said moments after smacking the table to begin the news conference, "needs to get a grip."

With that, Riley was off and running on a message-sending session that lasted nearly an hour. No players were there, but they surely heard his themes: He saw his team's mental fatigue during the year, but doesn't accept it; he isn't willing to let Miami fall from the ranks of the NBA elite, and the organization will do what it can to keep LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade together.

"We have a tremendous opportunity here for long-term success," Riley said. "Don't think we're not going to get beat again, so just get a grip, everybody. That's my message. It's my message to the players, also."

It was one of his many messages.

Riley, who gets a reported $75,000 when hired to deliver motivational speeches, worked in anecdotes on everything from sipping Johnnie Walker Blue to playing James Ingram records to how even at 69 years old he still finds himself dreaming big.

He was speaking with reporters, but clearly talking to players through the cameras.

"You've got to stay together, if you've got the guts," Riley said. "You don't find the first door and run out of it if you have an opportunity. This is four years now into this era, this team. Four finals — it's only been done three other times before — and two championships. From day one to the end, it was like a Broadway show. It sort of ran out of steam. And we need to retool. We don't need to rebuild."

How to retool is the question, but the answer isn't up to Riley yet.

James, Bosh and Wade all need to decide if they're going to opt out of their contracts, a choice that was probably going to be complicated even if the Heat hadn't lost the NBA Finals to San Antonio, ending Miami's two-year reign as league champions. From those decisions, Heat free-agents-to-be — Ray Allen, Mario Chalmers, Chris Andersen and others — may start charting their futures. Players from other teams will listen as well.

Then Riley and the Heat spring into action on July 1, just as they did four years ago when they netted James, Bosh and Wade. Other than Norris Cole, no Heat player currently is locked into a fully guaranteed deal for next season. But Riley doesn't feel the Heat need to recruit current players again.

"We're prepared," Riley said. "We've got the main-themed book all written up and it's dependent on whatever the scenario we're presented with on July 1. We've got a lot of room for flexibility. There's a tremendous amount of flexibility depending on what happens. So we're ready."

He offered plenty of perspective on Thursday, about how he still feels like he choked away what should have been a title for the Lakers team he coached in 1984, but how they roared back with three titles in the next four seasons. He even referenced how San Antonio got much better this season after seeing a title in 2013 get taken away by Miami in dramatic fashion.

"What happened last year with San Antonio? Did they run? They faced it," Riley said. "They faced it and they came back, and we saw the result. We'll find out what we're made of here. It's not about options. It's not about free agency. It's not about anything. It's about what we have built over four years here."

Among Riley's more impassioned defenses was the one of Wade, who was widely criticized for both missing 28 games in the regular season — mainly part of a maintenance program laid out by the team — and for struggling in Games 4 and 5 of the NBA Finals.

"For the last 10 years, this has been a Dwyane Wade-driven thing," Riley said. "Now does he have to reinvent himself a little bit? Absolutely."

Riley can only hope that reinvention is in Miami, and that James and Bosh are there as well.

"I'm an Irish guy who believes in big dreams," Riley said. "I'm optimistic. Until that's proven different, I just have a level of optimism that there isn't a better place for players to be than Miami."