I t happened at 888 Eighth Avenue at 8 p.m. — the kind of coincidence you can’t make up. It was late 1967, and Charlie Calello had just walked into a tiny New York studio apartment with a bed, a kitchenette, and an upright piano packed into one room. Candles were lit everywhere, casting a cozy glow over it all. The 29-year-old producer and arranger was greeted by a young David Geffen, who ushered him inside. Geffen then turned to the apartment’s resident, a songwriter from the Bronx. “He says, ‘Laura, play him the record,’” Calello recalls. “No smiles, just all business.” Sitting on the piano bench was a 20-year-old woman with dark hair and dark eyes that glistened in the candlelight. She began to play the songs she’d written for her next album, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, which she had yet to record. She didn’t stop until she had performed all 13 tracks. “I had tears in my eyes,” Calello says.…