James Taylor
Encyclopedia
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter
and guitarist
. A five-time Grammy Award
winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
Taylor achieved his major breakthrough in 1970 with the #3 single "Fire and Rain
" and had his first #1 hit the following year with "You've Got a Friend
", a recording of Carole King
's classic song. His 1976 Greatest Hits
album was certified Diamond
and has sold 12 million US copies. Following his 1977 album, JT
, he has retained a large audience over the decades. His commercial achievements declined slightly until a big resurgence during the late 1990s and 2000s, when some of his best-selling and most-awarded albums (including Hourglass, October Road and Covers
) were released.
in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 12, 1948, where his father, Isaac M. Taylor
, was a resident physician. His father was from a well-off family of Southern Scottish
ancestry. His mother, the former Gertrude Woodard, had studied singing with Marie Sundelius
at the New England Conservatory of Music
and was an aspiring opera singer before the couple's marriage in 1946. James was the second of five children, the others being Alex
(born 1947), Kate
(born 1949), Livingston
(born 1950), and Hugh (born 1952).
In 1951, when James was three years old, the family moved to what was then the countryside of Chapel Hill, North Carolina
, when Isaac took a job as Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine
. They built a house in the Morgan Creek area off of what is now Morgan Creek Road, which was sparsely populated. James would later say, "Chapel Hill, the Piedmont, the outlying hills, were tranquil, rural, beautiful, but quiet. Thinking of the red soil, the seasons, the way things smelled down there, I feel as though my experience of coming of age there was more a matter of landscape and climate than people." James attended public
primary school
in Chapel Hill. Isaac's career prospered, but he was frequently away from home, either on military service at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland
or as part of Operation Deep Freeze
in Antarctica during 1955–1956. Isaac Taylor later rose to become Dean
of the UNC School of Medicine from 1964 to 1971. The family spent summers on Martha's Vineyard
beginning in 1953.
Taylor first learned to play the cello
as a child in North Carolina, and switched to the guitar
in 1960. His style on that instrument evolved from listening to hymn
s, carols
, and Woody Guthrie
, while his technique derived from his bass clef-oriented cello training and from experimenting on his sister Kate's keyboards: "My style was a finger-picking style that was meant to be like a piano, as if my thumb were my left hand, and my first, second, and third fingers were my right hand." He began attending Milton Academy
, a prep
boarding school
in Massachusetts in Fall 1961; summering before then with his family on Martha's Vineyard
, he met Danny Kortchmar
, an aspiring teenage guitarist from Larchmont, New York
. The two began listening to and playing blues
and folk music
together, and Kortchmar quickly realized that Taylor's singing had a "natural sense of phrasing, every syllable beautifully in time. I knew James had that thing." Taylor wrote his first song on guitar at age 14, and continued to learn the instrument effortlessly. By the summer of 1963, he and Kortchmar were playing coffeehouses around the Vineyard, billed as "Jamie & Kootch".
Taylor faltered during his junior year at Milton, not feeling at ease in the high-pressured college prep environment despite having good scholastic performance. The Milton principal would later say, "James was more sensitive and less goal oriented than most students of his day." He returned home to North Carolina to finish out the semester at Chapel Hill High School. There he joined a band his brother Alex had formed called The Corsayers (later The Fabulous Corsairs), playing electric guitar
; in 1964 they cut a single in Raleigh
that featured James's song "Cha Cha Blues" on the B-side. Having lost touch with his former school friends in North Carolina, Taylor returned to Milton for his senior year.
There, Taylor started applying to colleges, but soon descended into depression
; his grades collapsed, he slept twenty hours a day, and he felt part of a "life that I [was] unable to lead." In late 1965 he committed himself to the renowned McLean Hospital
in Belmont, Massachusetts
, where he was treated with Thorazine and where the organized days began to give him a sense of time and structure. As the Vietnam War
built up, Taylor received a psychological rejection from Selective Service System
when he appeared before them with two white-suited McLean assistants and was uncommunicative. Taylor earned a high school diploma in 1966 from the hospital's associated Arlington School. He would later view his nine-month stay at McLean as "a lifesaver ... like a pardon or like a reprieve," and both his brother Livingston and sister Kate would later be patients and students there as well. As for his mental health struggles, Taylor would think of them as innate, and say: "It's an inseparable part of my personality that I have these feelings."
to form a band. They recruited Joel O'Brien, formerly of Kortchmar's old band The King Bees, to play drums, and Taylor's childhood friend Zachary Wiesner (son of noted academic Jerome Wiesner
) to play bass, and – after Taylor rejected the notion of naming the group after him – called themselves The Flying Machine. They played songs that Taylor had written at and about McLean, such as "Knocking 'Round the Zoo", "Don't Talk Now", and "The Blues Is Just a Bad Dream". In some other songs, Taylor romanticized his life, although he was plagued by self-doubt. By summer 1966 they were performing regularly at the high-visibility Night Owl Cafe in Greenwich Village
alongside acts such as The Turtles
and Lothar and the Hand People
.
Taylor associated with a motley collection of people and began using heroin, to Kortchmar's dismay, and wrote the "Paint It, Black
"-influenced "Rainy Day Man" to depict his drug experience. In a hasty recording session in late 1966, the group cut a single, Taylor's "Brighten Your Night with My Day" backed with his "Night Owl". Released on Jay Gee Records, a subsidiary of Jubilee Records
, it received some radio airplay in the Northeast, but only charted to #102 nationally. Other songs had been recorded during the same session, but Jubilee declined to go forward with an album. After a series of poorly-chosen appearances outside New York, culminating with a three-week stay at a failing nightspot in Freeport, Bahamas
for which they were never paid, The Flying Machine broke up. (A UK band with the same name emerged in 1969 with the hit song "Smile a Little Smile for Me". The New York band's recordings were later released in 1971 as James Taylor and the Original Flying Machine
.)
Taylor would later say of this New York period, "I learned a lot about music and too much about drugs." Indeed, his drug use had developed into full-blown heroin addiction during the final Flying Machine period: "I just fell into it, since it was as easy to get high in the Village as get a drink." He hung out in Washington Square Park, playing guitar to ward off depression and then passing out, letting runaways and criminals stay at his apartment. Finally out of money and abandoned by his manager, he made a desperate call one night to his father. Isaac Taylor flew to New York and staged a rescue, renting a car and driving all night back to North Carolina with James and his possessions. Taylor spent six months getting treatment and making a tentative recovery; he also required a throat operation to fix vocal cords damaged from singing too harshly.
Taylor decided to try being a solo act and a change of scenery. In late 1967, funded by a small family inheritance, he moved to London
, living variously in Notting Hill
, Belgravia
, and Chelsea
. He recorded some demos in Soho
and, capitalizing on Kortchmar's connection to The King Bees (who once once opened for Peter and Gordon), brought the demos to Peter Asher
, who was A&R
head for The Beatles
' newly-formed label Apple Records
. Asher showed the demos to Paul McCartney
, who later said, "I just heard his voice and his guitar and I thought he was great ... and he came and played live, so it was just like, 'Wow, he's great." Taylor became the first non-British act signed to Apple. Living chaotically in various places with various women, Taylor wrote additional material, including "Carolina in My Mind
", and rehearsed with a new backing band. Taylor recorded the album from July to October 1968 at Trident Studios
, at the same time The Beatles were recording The White Album
. McCartney and an uncredited George Harrison
guested on "Carolina in My Mind
", whose lyric holy host of others standing around me made reference to the Beatles, while the title phrase of Taylor's "Something in the Way She Moves" provided the lyrical starting point for Harrison's classic "Something
". McCartney and Asher brought in arranger
Richard Hewson
to add orchestrations to several of the songs and unusual "link" passages in between them; these would receive a mixed reception at best.
During the recording sessions, Taylor fell back into his drug habit, using heroin and methedrine. He underwent physeptone treatment in a British program, returned to New York and was hospitalized there, and then finally committed himself to the Austen Riggs Center
in Stockbridge, Massachusetts
, which emphasized cultural and historical factors in trying to treat difficult psychiatric disorders. Meanwhile, Apple released his debut album, James Taylor
, in December 1968 in the UK and February 1969 in the U.S. Critical reaction was generally good, including a very positive Jon Landau
review in Rolling Stone
which said "this album is the coolest breath of fresh air I've inhaled in a good long while. It knocks me out." The record's commercial potential suffered from Taylor's inability to promote it due to his hospitalization and it sold poorly; "Carolina in My Mind
" was released as a single, but failed to chart in the UK and only made #118 in the U.S.
Apple Corps
itself had fallen into chaos, with anarchic business planning and freeloaders taking advantage of it in every direction. In early 1969, to clean up the situation, three of the Beatles brought in Allen Klein
, who began purging Apple personnel. Asher did not like Klein; he resigned of his own accord and offered to manage Taylor, to which Taylor agreed. Klein wanted to hit Taylor with a $5 million lawsuit for leaving, but McCartney (a Klein antagonist) and then the other Beatles, overruled him on the grounds that artists should not be holding each other to contracts.
In July 1969 Taylor headlined a six-night stand at The Troubadour in Los Angeles
. On July 20 he performed at the Newport Folk Festival
as the last act, and was cheered by thousands of fans who stayed in the rain to hear him. Shortly thereafter, he broke both hands and both feet in a motorcycle accident on Martha's Vineyard and was forced to stop playing for several months. But while recovering, he continued to write songs and in October 1969, signed a new deal with Warner Bros. Records
.
, keeping Asher as his manager and record producer. In December 1969, he held the recording sessions for his second album there. Entitled Sweet Baby James
, and with the participation of Carole King
, the album was released in February 1970 and was Taylor's critical and popular triumph, buoyed by the single "Fire and Rain
", a song about Taylor's experience in psychiatric institutions and the suicide of his friend, Suzanne Schnerr. Both the album and the single reached #3 in the Billboard charts, with Sweet Baby James selling more than 1½ million copies in its first year and eventually more than 3 million in the United States alone. Sweet Baby James was received at its time as a folk-rock masterpiece, an album that effectively showcased Taylor's talents to the mainstream public, marked the direction he would take in following years, and made Taylor one of the main forces of the nascent movement. It earned several Grammy Award
nominations including one for Album of the Year
. (It would be listed at #103 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003, with "Fire and Rain" listed as #227 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time the year after.)
During the time Sweet Baby James was released, Taylor appeared with Dennis Wilson
of The Beach Boys
in a Monte Hellman
film, Two-Lane Blacktop
. In October 1970, he performed with Joni Mitchell
, Phil Ochs
, and the Canadian band Chilliwack
at a Vancouver
benefit concert that funded Greenpeace
's protests of 1971 nuclear weapons tests by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission at Amchitka
, Alaska
. (This performance would be released in 2009 on the album Amchitka, The 1970 Concert That Launched Greenpeace.) In January 1971, sessions for Taylor's next album began.
His career success so far, and appeal to female fans of various ages, piqued tremendous interest in Taylor, prompting a March 1, 1971, Time magazine cover story. It compared his strong-but-brooding persona to that of Wuthering Heights
s Heathcliff
and to The Sorrows of Young Werther
, and said that, "Taylor's use of elemental imagery—darkness and sunlight, references to roads traveled and untraveled. to fears spoken and left unsaid—reaches a level both of intimacy and controlled emotion rarely achieved in purely pop music." Released in April, Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon
also gained massive critical acclaim and contained Taylor's biggest hit single in the U.S., a version of the Carole King
standard "You've Got a Friend
" (featuring backing vocals by Joni Mitchell
), which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late July. The album itself reached #2 in the album charts, which would be Taylor's highest position ever on this list. In early 1972, Taylor received his first Grammy Award, for (Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male
) for "You've Got a Friend" (King also won Song of the Year
for the same song in that ceremony). The album went on to sell 2½ million copies in the United States alone.
November 1972 saw the release of Taylor's fourth album, One Man Dog
. A concept album
primarily recorded in his home recording studio, it featured cameos by Linda Ronstadt
and consisted of eighteen short pieces of music put together. It was received with generally lukewarm reviews and, despite making the Top 10 of the Billboard Album Charts, overall sales were disappointing. The lead single "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" peaked at #18 on the Hot 100, and the follow-up, "One Man Parade", barely reached the Top 75. Almost simultaneously, Taylor married fellow singer-songwriter Carly Simon
on November 3, in a small ceremony at her Murray Hill, Manhattan
apartment. A post-concert party following a Taylor performance at Radio City Music Hall
turned into a large-scale wedding party, and the Simon-Taylor marriage would find much public attention over the following years. They had two children, Sarah Maria "Sally" Taylor, born January 7, 1974, and Benjamin Simon "Ben" Taylor, born January 22, 1977.
was released in June and featured appearances of Paul
and Linda McCartney
and guitarist David Spinozza
. The album was a critical and commercial disaster, being his first album to miss the Top 5 since his contract with Warner. It received poor reviews and sold a mere 300,000 copies in the United States. The title track was a huge disappointment, and failed to even appear on the Top 100 – nevertheless, it stands today as an often reprised fan favorite in concerts.
However, James Taylor's artistic fortunes spiked again in 1975 when the Gold album Gorilla reached #6 and provided one of his biggest hit singles, a cover version
of Marvin Gaye
's "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)
", which featured wife Carly in backing vocals and reached #5 in America and #1 in Canada. On the Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart, the track also reached the top, and the follow-up single, the feel-good "Mexico" also reached the Top 5 of that list. A critically very-well received album, Gorilla showcased Taylor's electric, lighter side that was evident on Walking Man. However, it was arguably a more consistent and fresher-sounding Taylor, with classics such as "Wandering" and "Angry Blues." It also featured a song about his daughter Sally, "Sarah Maria".
Gorilla was followed in 1976 by In the Pocket, Taylor's last studio album to be released under Warner Bros. Records
. The album found him with many colleagues and friends, including Art Garfunkel
, David Crosby
, Bonnie Raitt
and Stevie Wonder
(who co-wrote a song with Taylor and contributed a harmonica
solo). A very melodic album, it was highlighted with the single "Shower the People
", an enduring classic that hit #1 Adult Contemporary and almost hit the Top 20 of the Pop Charts. But the album was not very well-received, reaching only #16 and being highly criticized, particularly by Rolling Stone. Nevertheless 1976 was a huge boom year in the recording business — the year of inception of the "Platinum" disc — and In The Pocket was certified Gold.
With the close of Taylor's contract with Warner, in November the label released Greatest Hits
, the album that comprised most of his best work between 1970 and 1976. It became with time his best-selling album, ever. It was certified eleven times Platinum in the US, earning a Diamond certification by the RIAA and eventually selling close to twenty million copies worldwide. It still stands as the best-selling folk album by any artist.
. Between March and April, he quickly recorded his first album for the label. JT
, released that June, gave Taylor his best reviews since Sweet Baby James, earning a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year in 1978. Rolling Stone was particularly favorable to the album – "JT is the least stiff and by far the most various album Taylor has done. That's not meant to criticize Taylor's earlier efforts [...]. But it's nice to hear him sounding so healthy." JT reached #4 in the Billboard charts, selling more than 3 million copies in the United States alone. The album's Triple Platinum status ties it with Sweet Baby James as Taylor's all-time biggest selling studio album. It was propelled by the highly successful cover of Jimmy Jones
and Otis Blackwell
's "Handy Man
", which hit #1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart and reached #4 on the Hot 100, earning Taylor another Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
for his cover version
. The song also topped the Canadian charts. The success of the album propelled the release of two further singles – the up-tempo pop "Your Smiling Face" (an enduring live favorite) reached the American Top 20; however, "Honey Don't Leave L.A.," penned by Danny Kortchmar
did not enjoy much success, barely reaching the Top 75.
Back in the forefront of popular music, Taylor collaborated with Paul Simon
and Art Garfunkel in the recording of a cover of Sam Cooke
's "Wonderful World", which reached the Top 20 in the U.S. and topped the AC charts in early 1978. After briefly working on Broadway
, he took a one-year break, reappearing in the summer of 1979 with the cover-studded Platinum album Flag
, featuring a Top 30 version of Gerry Goffin
and Carole King
's "Up on the Roof
". (Two selections from Flag, "Millworker" and "Brother Trucker," were featured on the PBS production of the Broadway musical
based on Studs Terkel
's non-fiction book Working, and James himself appeared in that production as a trucker; he performed "Brother Trucker" in character.) Taylor also appeared on the No Nukes
concert in Madison Square Garden
, where he made a memorable live performance of "Mockingbird" with his wife Carly. The concert appeared on both the No Nukes album
and film
.
On December 7, 1980 Taylor had an encounter with Mark David Chapman
who would assassinate John Lennon. Taylor told the BBC in 2010 "The guy had sort of pinned me to the wall and was glistening with maniacal sweat and talking some freak speak about what he was going to do and his stuff with how John was interested, and he was going to get in touch with John Lennon. And it was surreal to actually have contact with the guy 24 hours before he shot John." The next night Taylor, who lived in the next building from Lennon, heard the assassination occur. Taylor commented "I heard him shot — five, just as quick as you could pull the trigger, about five explosions".
In March 1981, James Taylor released the album Dad Loves His Work
, whose themes concerned his relationship with his father, the course his ancestors had taken, and the effect he and Simon had had on each other. The album was another Platinum success, reaching #10 and providing Taylor's final real hit single in a duet with J. D. Souther
, "Her Town Too," which reached #5 Adult Contemporary and #11 on the Hot 100 in Billboard. The album's title was, in part, drawn from the reasons for Taylor's divorce
from Carly Simon
. She gave him an ultimatum: cut back on his music and touring, and spend more time with her and their children, or the marriage was through. The album's title was Taylor's answer, and Simon asked for divorce. (The emotional repercussions of the divorce likely served as at least part of the inspiration for "Her Town Too.")
in Manhattan and on a methadone
maintenance program. Over the course of four months starting in September 1983, spurred on in part by the deaths of his friends John Belushi
and Dennis Wilson
and in part by the desire to be a better father to his children, he dropped methadone and finally kicked his habit for good.
Taylor had thoughts of retiring by the time he played the massive Rock in Rio
festival in Rio de Janeiro
in January 1985. He was encouraged by the nascent democracy in Brazil
at the time, buoyed by the positive reception he got from the large crowd and other musicians, and musically energized by the sounds and nature of Brazilian music. "I had... sort of bottomed-out in a drug habit, my marriage with Carly had dissolved, and I had basically been depressed and lost for a while, " he recalled in 1995. "I sort of hit a low spot. I was asked to go down to Rio de Janeiro to play in this festival down there. We put the band together and went down and it was just an amazing response. I played to 300,000 people. They not only knew my music, they knew things about it and were interested in aspects of it that to that point had only interested me. To have that kind of validation right about then was really what I needed. It helped get me back on track." The song "Only a Dream in Rio" was written in tribute to that night, with lines like I was there that very day and my heart came back alive. The October 1985 album, That's Why I'm Here
, from which that song came, started a series of studio recordings that, while spaced further apart than his previous records, showed a more consistent level of quality and fewer covers
, most notably the Buddy Holly
song "Everyday
", released as a single reached #61.
On December 14, 1985, Taylor married actress Kathryn Walker
at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. Taylor's next albums were partially successful – in 1988, he released Never Die Young
, highlighted with the charting title track, and in 1991, the platinum New Moon Shine
provided Taylor some popular songs with the melancholic "Copperline" and the upbeat "(I've Got to) Stop Thinkin' About That", both hit singles in the AC radio. During the late 1980s, he began touring regularly, especially on the summer amphitheater circuit. His later concerts feature songs from throughout his career and are marked by the musicianship of his band and backup singers. The 1993
two-disc Live
album captures this, with a highlight being Arnold McCuller
's descant
s in the codas
of "Shower the People
" and "I Will Follow." In 1995, Taylor performed the role of the Lord in Randy Newman's Faust
.
After six years since his last studio album, Taylor released Hourglass, an introspective album that gave him the best critical reviews in almost twenty years. The album had much of its focus on Taylor's troubled past and family. "Jump Up Behind Me" paid tribute to his father's rescue of him after The Flying Machine days, and the long drive from New York City back to his home in Chapel Hill. "Enough To Be On Your Way" was inspired by the alcoholism-related death of his brother Alex earlier in the decade. The themes were also inspired by Taylor and Walker's divorce, which took place in 1996. Rolling Stone found that "one of the themes of this record is disbelief", while Taylor told the magazine that it was "spirituals for agnostics." Critics embraced the dark themes on the album, and Hourglass was a huge commercial success, reaching #9 on the Billboard 200
(Taylor's first Top 10 album in sixteen years) and also provided a big adult contemporary hit on "Little More Time With You". The album also gave Taylor his first Grammy since JT, when he was honored with Best Pop Album
in 1998
.
On February 18, 2001 at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Boston, Taylor wed for the third time, marrying Caroline ("Kim") Smedvig, the director of public relations and marketing for the Boston Symphony Orchestra
. They had begun dating in 1995, when they met as he appeared with John Williams
and the Boston Pops Orchestra
. Part of their relationship was worked into the album October Road, on the song "On the 4th of July." The couple reside in the town of Washington, Massachusetts
with their twin boys, Rufus and Henry, born in April 2001 to a surrogate mother via in vitro fertilization.
Flanked by two greatest hit releases, Taylor's Platinum-certified October Road
appeared in 2002
to a receptive audience. It featured a number of quiet instrumental accompaniments and passages. Overall, it found Taylor in a more peaceful frame of mind; rather than facing a crisis now, Taylor said in an interview that "I thought I'd passed the midpoint of my life when I was 17." The album appeared in two versions, a single-disc version and a "limited edition" two-disc version which contained three extra songs including a duet with Mark Knopfler
, "Sailing to Philadelphia," which also appeared on Knopfler's Sailing to Philadelphia
album. Also in 2002, Taylor teamed with bluegrass musician Alison Krauss
in singing "The Boxer
" at the Kennedy Center Honors
Tribute to Paul Simon
. They later recorded the Louvin Brothers
duet, "How's the World Treating You?" In 2004
, after he chose not to renew his record contract with Columbia/Sony, he released James Taylor: A Christmas Album
with distribution through Hallmark Cards
.
Always visibly active in environmental
and liberal causes, in October 2004 Taylor joined the "Vote for Change
" tour playing a series of concerts in American swing states. These concerts were organized by MoveOn.org with the goal of mobilizing people to vote for John Kerry
and against George W. Bush
in that year's Presidential campaign. Taylor's appearances were joint performances with the Dixie Chicks
.
Taylor performed "The Star-Spangled Banner
" at Game 2 of the World Series in Boston on October 24, 2004 and again on October 25, 2007. In December 2004, he appeared as himself in an episode of The West Wing
entitled "A Change Is Gonna Come
". He sang Sam Cooke
's classic "A Change Is Gonna Come
" at an event honoring an artist played by Taylor's wife Caroline. Later on, he appeared on CMT
's Crossroads alongside the Dixie Chicks
. In early 2006
, MusiCares
honored Taylor with performances of his songs by an array of notable musicians. Before a performance by the Dixie Chicks, lead singer Natalie Maines
acknowledged that he had always been one of their musical heroes, and had for them lived up to their once-imagined reputation of him. They performed his song, "Shower the People", with a surprise appearance by Arnold McCuller
, who has sung backing vocals on Taylor's live tours and albums for many years.
In the fall of 2006, Taylor released a repackaged and slightly different version of his Hallmark Christmas album, now entitled James Taylor at Christmas, and distributed by Columbia/Sony. In 2006
, Taylor performed Randy Newman
's song "Our Town" for the Disney animated film Cars
. The song was nominated for the 2007 Academy Award for the best Original Song. On January 1, 2007, Taylor headlined the inaugural concert at the Times Union Center in Albany, New York
, honoring newly sworn in Governor of New York
Eliot Spitzer
.
Taylor's next album, One Man Band was released on CD and DVD in November 2007 on Starbucks
' Hear Music
Label, where he joined with Paul McCartney
and Joni Mitchell
. The introspective album grew out of a three-year tour of the United States and Europe—featuring some of Taylor's most beloved songs and anecdotes about their creative origins—accompanied solely by the "one man band" of his longtime pianist/keyboardist, Larry Goldings
. The digital discrete 5.1 surround sound mix of One Man Band won a TEC Award
for best surround sound recording in 2008.
November 28–30, 2007, Taylor, accompanied by his original band and Carole King, headlined a series of six shows at The Troubadour. The appearances marked the 50th anniversary of the venue, where Taylor, King and many others, such as Tom Waits
, Neil Diamond
, and Elton John
, began their music careers. Proceeds from the concert went to benefit the Natural Resources Defense Council, MusiCares, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, and the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank, a member of America's Second Harvest
— The Nation's Food Bank Network. Parts of the performance shown on CBS Sunday Morning in the December 23, 2007, broadcast showed Taylor alluding to his early drug problems by saying, "I played here a number of times in the 70s, allegedly..." Taylor has used versions of this joke on other occasions, and it appears as part of his One Man Band DVD and tour performances.
In December 2007 James Taylor at Christmas was nominated for a Grammy Award. In January 2008 Taylor recorded approximately 20 songs by others for a new album with a band including Luis Conte
, Michael Landau
, Lou Marini
, Arnold McCuller
, Jimmy Johnson
, David Lasley
, Walt Fowler, Andrea Zonn
, Kate Markowitz
, Steve Gadd
and Larry Goldings
. The resulting live-in-studio album, named Covers
, was released in September 2008. This album forays into country and soul while being the latest proof that Taylor is a more versatile singer than his best known hits might suggest. The Covers sessions stretched to include "Oh What a Beautiful Morning," from the musical Oklahoma - a song that his grandmother had caught him singing over and over at the top of his lungs when he was seven years old. Meanwhile, in summer 2008, Taylor and this band toured 34 North American cities with a tour entitled James Taylor and His Band of Legends. An additional album, called Other Covers
, came out in April 2009, containing songs that were recorded during the same sessions as the original Covers but had not been put out to the full public yet.
During October 19–21, 2008, Taylor performed a series of free concerts in five North Carolina cities in support of Barack Obama
's presidential bid.
On Sunday, January 18, 2009, he performed at the We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial
, singing "Shower the People" with John Legend
and Jennifer Nettles
of Sugarland.
Taylor performed on the final The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on May 29, 2009, distinguishing himself further as the final musician to appear in Leno's original 17-year run.
On September 8, 2009 Taylor made an appearance at the twenty-fourth season premiere block party of The Oprah Winfrey Show
on Chicago's Michigan Avenue
.
On January 1, 2010, Taylor sang the American national anthem at the NHL Winter Classic
at Fenway Park
, while Daniel Powter
sang the Canadian national anthem
.
On March 7, 2010, Taylor sang The Beatles
' "In My Life
" in tribute to deceased artists at the 82nd Academy Awards
.
In March 2010 he commenced the Troubadour Reunion Tour
with Carole King and members of his original band, including Russ Kunkel
, Leland Sklar
, and Danny Kortchmar
. They played shows in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and North America, with the final night being at the Honda Center, in Anaheim, CA. The tour was a major commercial success, and in some locations found Taylor playing arenas instead of his usual theaters or amphitheaters. Ticket sales amounted to over 700,000 and the tour grossed over 59 million dollars. It was one of the most successful tours of the year.
Taylor owns a house in the Berkshire County town of Washington, Massachusetts
.
On September 11, 2011, Taylor performed 'You Can Close Your Eyes' in New York City at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum for the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
On November 22, 2011, Taylor performed "Fire and Rain" with Taylor Swift
at the last concert of her Speak Now World Tour
in Madison Square Garden, as well as her own song "Fifteen".
, Livingston
, Hugh, and Kate
—have also been musicians with recorded albums. Livingston is still an active musician; Kate was active in the 1970s but did not record another album until 2003; Hugh operates a bed-and-breakfast with his wife, The Outermost Inn in Aquinnah on Martha's Vineyard
; and Alex died in 1993. Taylor's children with Carly Simon—Ben
and Sally—have also embarked on musical careers.
In 2010 James Taylor was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.
U.S. Billboard Top 10 'Pop' Singles
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
and guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
. A five-time Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
Taylor achieved his major breakthrough in 1970 with the #3 single "Fire and Rain
Fire and Rain
"Fire and Rain" is a folk/rock song written and performed by James Taylor. As a song on his second album, Sweet Baby James, the song engendered widespread attention for him. The album was released in February 1970, with the song being released as a single that month. "Fire and Rain" quickly rose to...
" and had his first #1 hit the following year with "You've Got a Friend
You've Got a Friend
"You've Got a Friend" is a song from 1971, originally written and performed by Carole King. It was included in her album Tapestry of 1971, but was made famous by James Taylor's cover version the same year...
", a recording of Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
's classic song. His 1976 Greatest Hits
Greatest Hits (James Taylor album)
Greatest Hits is singer-songwriter James Taylor's eighth album. Released on November 1, 1976. To this day, it is the best-selling album of his career....
album was certified Diamond
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
and has sold 12 million US copies. Following his 1977 album, JT
JT (album)
JT is singer-songwriter James Taylor's eighth album, and his first album for Columbia Records. Released in 1977, it contains hit singles in "Handy Man" and "Your Smiling Face" and was Taylor's highest charting album since Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon.This album also contains several Taylor...
, he has retained a large audience over the decades. His commercial achievements declined slightly until a big resurgence during the late 1990s and 2000s, when some of his best-selling and most-awarded albums (including Hourglass, October Road and Covers
Covers (James Taylor album)
Covers is the sixteenth album and the first "covers" album by singer-songwriter James Taylor, released on September 30, 2008. The album was recorded by Taylor's regular touring band. Some of the tunes Taylor had been performing off and on in concerts for years, while others were new to his repertoire...
) were released.
Early years
James Taylor was born at Massachusetts General HospitalMassachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital is a teaching hospital and biomedical research facility in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts...
in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 12, 1948, where his father, Isaac M. Taylor
Isaac M. Taylor
Isaac Montrose Taylor, M.D., was the dean of the Medical School of the University of North Carolina from 1964 until 1971, and the father of James Taylor, the singer and guitarist, and four other children, Alex, Livingston, Hugh, and Kate.Through his second marriage to Suzanne Francis Sheats, he...
, was a resident physician. His father was from a well-off family of Southern Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
ancestry. His mother, the former Gertrude Woodard, had studied singing with Marie Sundelius
Marie Sundelius
Marie Sundelius was a Swedish-American classical soprano. She sang for many years with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and later embarked on a second career as a celebrated voice teacher in Boston....
at the New England Conservatory of Music
New England Conservatory of Music
The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest independent school of music in the United States.The conservatory is home each year to 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies along with 1400 more in its Preparatory School as well as the School of...
and was an aspiring opera singer before the couple's marriage in 1946. James was the second of five children, the others being Alex
Alex Taylor (musician)
Alex Taylor was an American singer. Alexander Taylor was the eldest child of Dr. Isaac Taylor and Gertrude Taylor. He was a member of a family which produced a number of musicians, the most famous of whom is James Taylor, but also includes Livingston, Hugh and Kate Taylor.Alex Taylor had two sons,...
(born 1947), Kate
Kate Taylor
Kate Taylor is an American folk singer, originally from Boston, Massachusetts.-Biography:Kate was born in Boston and grew up with her four brothers in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where her father was Dean of the medical school at the University of North Carolina...
(born 1949), Livingston
Livingston Taylor
Livingston Taylor is an American singer-songwriter, born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He attended the Westtown School in Pennsylvania...
(born 1950), and Hugh (born 1952).
In 1951, when James was three years old, the family moved to what was then the countryside of Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
, when Isaac took a job as Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine
University of North Carolina School of Medicine
The University of North Carolina School of Medicine is a professional school within the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It offers a Doctor of Medicine degree along with combined Doctor of Medicine / Doctor of Philosophy or Doctor of Medicine / Master of Public Health degrees.It is one...
. They built a house in the Morgan Creek area off of what is now Morgan Creek Road, which was sparsely populated. James would later say, "Chapel Hill, the Piedmont, the outlying hills, were tranquil, rural, beautiful, but quiet. Thinking of the red soil, the seasons, the way things smelled down there, I feel as though my experience of coming of age there was more a matter of landscape and climate than people." James attended public
Public education
State schools, also known in the United States and Canada as public schools,In much of the Commonwealth, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, the terms 'public education', 'public school' and 'independent school' are used for private schools, that is, schools...
primary school
Primary education
A primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,...
in Chapel Hill. Isaac's career prospered, but he was frequently away from home, either on military service at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
or as part of Operation Deep Freeze
Operation Deep Freeze
Operation Deep Freeze is the codename for a series of United States missions to Antarctica, beginning with "Operation Deep Freeze I" in 1955–56, followed by "Operation Deep Freeze II", "Operation Deep Freeze III", and so on...
in Antarctica during 1955–1956. Isaac Taylor later rose to become Dean
Dean (education)
In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...
of the UNC School of Medicine from 1964 to 1971. The family spent summers on Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
beginning in 1953.
Taylor first learned to play the cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
as a child in North Carolina, and switched to the guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
in 1960. His style on that instrument evolved from listening to hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
s, carols
Carol (music)
A carol is a festive song, generally religious but not necessarily connected with church worship, and often with a dance-like or popular character....
, and Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
, while his technique derived from his bass clef-oriented cello training and from experimenting on his sister Kate's keyboards: "My style was a finger-picking style that was meant to be like a piano, as if my thumb were my left hand, and my first, second, and third fingers were my right hand." He began attending Milton Academy
Milton Academy
Milton Academy is a coeducational, independent preparatory, boarding and day school in Milton, Massachusetts consisting of a grade 9–12 Upper School and a grade K–8 Lower School. Boarding is offered starting in 9th grade...
, a prep
University-preparatory school
A university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education...
boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
in Massachusetts in Fall 1961; summering before then with his family on Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
, he met Danny Kortchmar
Danny Kortchmar
Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar is a guitarist, session musician, and songwriter. Kortchmar's work with singer-songwriters such as David Crosby, Carole King, Graham Nash, Carly Simon and James Taylor helped define the signature sound of the singer-songwriter era of the 1970s...
, an aspiring teenage guitarist from Larchmont, New York
Larchmont, New York
Larchmont is a village in Westchester County, New York. The population was 5,864 at the 2010 census. It is located within the town of Mamaroneck, on the shore of Long Island Sound, northeast of Midtown Manhattan...
. The two began listening to and playing blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
together, and Kortchmar quickly realized that Taylor's singing had a "natural sense of phrasing, every syllable beautifully in time. I knew James had that thing." Taylor wrote his first song on guitar at age 14, and continued to learn the instrument effortlessly. By the summer of 1963, he and Kortchmar were playing coffeehouses around the Vineyard, billed as "Jamie & Kootch".
Taylor faltered during his junior year at Milton, not feeling at ease in the high-pressured college prep environment despite having good scholastic performance. The Milton principal would later say, "James was more sensitive and less goal oriented than most students of his day." He returned home to North Carolina to finish out the semester at Chapel Hill High School. There he joined a band his brother Alex had formed called The Corsayers (later The Fabulous Corsairs), playing electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
; in 1964 they cut a single in Raleigh
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...
that featured James's song "Cha Cha Blues" on the B-side. Having lost touch with his former school friends in North Carolina, Taylor returned to Milton for his senior year.
There, Taylor started applying to colleges, but soon descended into depression
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
; his grades collapsed, he slept twenty hours a day, and he felt part of a "life that I [was] unable to lead." In late 1965 he committed himself to the renowned McLean Hospital
McLean Hospital
McLean Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts.It is noted for its clinical staff expertise and ground-breaking neuroscience research...
in Belmont, Massachusetts
Belmont, Massachusetts
Belmont is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. The population was 24,729 at the 2010 census.- History :Belmont was founded on March 18, 1859 by former citizens of, and land from the bordering towns of Watertown, to the south; Waltham, to the west; and Arlington, then...
, where he was treated with Thorazine and where the organized days began to give him a sense of time and structure. As the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
built up, Taylor received a psychological rejection from Selective Service System
Selective Service System
The Selective Service System is a means by which the United States government maintains information on those potentially subject to military conscription. Most male U.S. citizens and male immigrant non-citizens between the ages of 18 and 25 are required by law to have registered within 30 days of...
when he appeared before them with two white-suited McLean assistants and was uncommunicative. Taylor earned a high school diploma in 1966 from the hospital's associated Arlington School. He would later view his nine-month stay at McLean as "a lifesaver ... like a pardon or like a reprieve," and both his brother Livingston and sister Kate would later be patients and students there as well. As for his mental health struggles, Taylor would think of them as innate, and say: "It's an inseparable part of my personality that I have these feelings."
1966–1969: Early career
Taylor checked himself out of McLean and, at Kortchmar's urging, moved to New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to form a band. They recruited Joel O'Brien, formerly of Kortchmar's old band The King Bees, to play drums, and Taylor's childhood friend Zachary Wiesner (son of noted academic Jerome Wiesner
Jerome Wiesner
Jerome Bert Wiesner was an educator, a Science Advisor to U.S. Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy and Johnson, an advocate for arms control, and a critic of anti-ballistic-missile defense systems...
) to play bass, and – after Taylor rejected the notion of naming the group after him – called themselves The Flying Machine. They played songs that Taylor had written at and about McLean, such as "Knocking 'Round the Zoo", "Don't Talk Now", and "The Blues Is Just a Bad Dream". In some other songs, Taylor romanticized his life, although he was plagued by self-doubt. By summer 1966 they were performing regularly at the high-visibility Night Owl Cafe in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
alongside acts such as The Turtles
The Turtles
The Turtles are an American rock group led by vocalists Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman. The band became notable for several Top 40 hits beginning with its cover version of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" in 1965...
and Lothar and the Hand People
Lothar and the Hand People
Lothar and the Hand People was a late-1960s psychedelic rock band known for its spacey music and pioneering use of the theremin and Moog modular synthesizer....
.
Taylor associated with a motley collection of people and began using heroin, to Kortchmar's dismay, and wrote the "Paint It, Black
Paint It, Black
"Paint It, Black" is a song released by The Rolling Stones on 13 May 1966 as the first single from their fourth album Aftermath. It was originally titled "Paint It Black" without a comma. Keith Richards has stated that the comma was added by the record label, Decca.The song was written by Mick...
"-influenced "Rainy Day Man" to depict his drug experience. In a hasty recording session in late 1966, the group cut a single, Taylor's "Brighten Your Night with My Day" backed with his "Night Owl". Released on Jay Gee Records, a subsidiary of Jubilee Records
Jubilee Records
Jubilee Records was a record label specializing in rhythm and blues along with novelty records. It was founded in New York City in 1946 by Herb Abramson. Jerry Blaine became Abramson's partner. Blaine bought out Abramson's half of the company in 1947. The company name was Jay-Gee Recording...
, it received some radio airplay in the Northeast, but only charted to #102 nationally. Other songs had been recorded during the same session, but Jubilee declined to go forward with an album. After a series of poorly-chosen appearances outside New York, culminating with a three-week stay at a failing nightspot in Freeport, Bahamas
Freeport, Bahamas
Freeport is a city, district and free trade zone located on the island of Grand Bahama of the North-west Bahamas. In 1955, Wallace Groves, a Virginian financier with lumber interests in Grand Bahama, was granted 50,000 acres Freeport is a city, district and free trade zone located on the island of...
for which they were never paid, The Flying Machine broke up. (A UK band with the same name emerged in 1969 with the hit song "Smile a Little Smile for Me". The New York band's recordings were later released in 1971 as James Taylor and the Original Flying Machine
James Taylor and the Original Flying Machine
James Taylor and the Original Flying Machine is the third album by American singer/songwriter James Taylor's early band, first released in 1971.-History:...
.)
Taylor would later say of this New York period, "I learned a lot about music and too much about drugs." Indeed, his drug use had developed into full-blown heroin addiction during the final Flying Machine period: "I just fell into it, since it was as easy to get high in the Village as get a drink." He hung out in Washington Square Park, playing guitar to ward off depression and then passing out, letting runaways and criminals stay at his apartment. Finally out of money and abandoned by his manager, he made a desperate call one night to his father. Isaac Taylor flew to New York and staged a rescue, renting a car and driving all night back to North Carolina with James and his possessions. Taylor spent six months getting treatment and making a tentative recovery; he also required a throat operation to fix vocal cords damaged from singing too harshly.
Taylor decided to try being a solo act and a change of scenery. In late 1967, funded by a small family inheritance, he moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, living variously in Notting Hill
Notting Hill
Notting Hill is an area in London, England, close to the north-western corner of Kensington Gardens, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
, Belgravia
Belgravia
Belgravia is a district of central London in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Noted for its immensely expensive residential properties, it is one of the wealthiest districts in the world...
, and Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
. He recorded some demos in Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
and, capitalizing on Kortchmar's connection to The King Bees (who once once opened for Peter and Gordon), brought the demos to Peter Asher
Peter Asher
Peter Asher is an English guitarist, singer, manager and record producer. He first came to prominence in the 1960s as a member of the vocal duo Peter and Gordon before going on to a successful career as a record producer.-Early life:He was born at the Central Middlesex Hospital, a child actor and...
, who was A&R
A&R
Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
head for The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' newly-formed label Apple Records
Apple Records
Apple Records is a record label founded by The Beatles in 1968, as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger, and Billy Preston...
. Asher showed the demos to Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
, who later said, "I just heard his voice and his guitar and I thought he was great ... and he came and played live, so it was just like, 'Wow, he's great." Taylor became the first non-British act signed to Apple. Living chaotically in various places with various women, Taylor wrote additional material, including "Carolina in My Mind
Carolina in My Mind
"Carolina in My Mind" is a song written and performed by singer-songwriter James Taylor, which first appeared on his 1968 debut album, James Taylor. Taylor wrote it while overseas recording for The Beatles' label Apple Records, and the song's themes reflect his homesickness at the time. Released as...
", and rehearsed with a new backing band. Taylor recorded the album from July to October 1968 at Trident Studios
Trident Studios
Trident Studios was a British recording facility, originally located at 17 St. Anne's Court in London's Soho district. It was constructed in 1967 by Norman Sheffield a drummer of former 1960's group The Hunters and his Brother Barry....
, at the same time The Beatles were recording The White Album
The Beatles (album)
The Beatles is the ninth official album by the English rock group The Beatles, a double album released in 1968. It is also commonly known as "The White Album" as it has no graphics or text other than the band's name embossed on its plain white sleeve.The album was written and recorded during a...
. McCartney and an uncredited George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
guested on "Carolina in My Mind
Carolina in My Mind
"Carolina in My Mind" is a song written and performed by singer-songwriter James Taylor, which first appeared on his 1968 debut album, James Taylor. Taylor wrote it while overseas recording for The Beatles' label Apple Records, and the song's themes reflect his homesickness at the time. Released as...
", whose lyric holy host of others standing around me made reference to the Beatles, while the title phrase of Taylor's "Something in the Way She Moves" provided the lyrical starting point for Harrison's classic "Something
Something
"Something" is a song by The Beatles, written by lead guitarist George Harrison in 1969. It was featured on the album Abbey Road, and was also the first song written by Harrison to appear on the A-side of a Beatles' single...
". McCartney and Asher brought in arranger
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
Richard Hewson
Richard Anthony Hewson
Richard Anthony Hewson is an English producer, arranger, conductor and multi-instrumentalist, who is best recognized for his studio group The RAH Band.-Career:...
to add orchestrations to several of the songs and unusual "link" passages in between them; these would receive a mixed reception at best.
During the recording sessions, Taylor fell back into his drug habit, using heroin and methedrine. He underwent physeptone treatment in a British program, returned to New York and was hospitalized there, and then finally committed himself to the Austen Riggs Center
Austen Riggs Center
The Austen Riggs Center is a psychiatric treatment facility founded in 1913 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.-Founding – 1946:A New York City internist who repaired to the bucolic countryside of Stockbridge while suffering from tuberculosis, Austen Fox Riggs developed an innovative treatment regimen...
in Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,947 at the 2010 census...
, which emphasized cultural and historical factors in trying to treat difficult psychiatric disorders. Meanwhile, Apple released his debut album, James Taylor
James Taylor (album)
James Taylor is singer-songwriter James Taylor's debut album. Released in 1968, it was the first recording by a non-British artist released by Apple Records, and would also be Taylor's only release on that label...
, in December 1968 in the UK and February 1969 in the U.S. Critical reaction was generally good, including a very positive Jon Landau
Jon Landau
Jon Landau is an American music critic, manager and record producer, most known for his association in all three capacities with Bruce Springsteen.He is currently the head of the nominating committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame....
review in Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
which said "this album is the coolest breath of fresh air I've inhaled in a good long while. It knocks me out." The record's commercial potential suffered from Taylor's inability to promote it due to his hospitalization and it sold poorly; "Carolina in My Mind
Carolina in My Mind
"Carolina in My Mind" is a song written and performed by singer-songwriter James Taylor, which first appeared on his 1968 debut album, James Taylor. Taylor wrote it while overseas recording for The Beatles' label Apple Records, and the song's themes reflect his homesickness at the time. Released as...
" was released as a single, but failed to chart in the UK and only made #118 in the U.S.
Apple Corps
Apple Corps
Apple Corps Ltd. is a multi-armed multimedia corporation founded in January 1968 by the members of The Beatles to replace their earlier company and to form a conglomerate. Its name is a pun. Its chief division is Apple Records, which was launched in the same year...
itself had fallen into chaos, with anarchic business planning and freeloaders taking advantage of it in every direction. In early 1969, to clean up the situation, three of the Beatles brought in Allen Klein
Allen Klein
Allen Klein was an American businessman, talent agent and record label executive. His clients included The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.- The accountant :...
, who began purging Apple personnel. Asher did not like Klein; he resigned of his own accord and offered to manage Taylor, to which Taylor agreed. Klein wanted to hit Taylor with a $5 million lawsuit for leaving, but McCartney (a Klein antagonist) and then the other Beatles, overruled him on the grounds that artists should not be holding each other to contracts.
In July 1969 Taylor headlined a six-night stand at The Troubadour in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. On July 20 he performed at the Newport Folk Festival
Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival...
as the last act, and was cheered by thousands of fans who stayed in the rain to hear him. Shortly thereafter, he broke both hands and both feet in a motorcycle accident on Martha's Vineyard and was forced to stop playing for several months. But while recovering, he continued to write songs and in October 1969, signed a new deal with Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
.
1970–1973: Breakthrough
Once recovered, Taylor moved to CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, keeping Asher as his manager and record producer. In December 1969, he held the recording sessions for his second album there. Entitled Sweet Baby James
Sweet Baby James
Sweet Baby James is singer-songwriter James Taylor's second album, and his first release on Warner Bros. Records. Released in February 1970, it showcased Taylor's talents and showed the direction he would take in the early 1970s with the expansion of his career. The album featured one of Taylor's...
, and with the participation of Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
, the album was released in February 1970 and was Taylor's critical and popular triumph, buoyed by the single "Fire and Rain
Fire and Rain
"Fire and Rain" is a folk/rock song written and performed by James Taylor. As a song on his second album, Sweet Baby James, the song engendered widespread attention for him. The album was released in February 1970, with the song being released as a single that month. "Fire and Rain" quickly rose to...
", a song about Taylor's experience in psychiatric institutions and the suicide of his friend, Suzanne Schnerr. Both the album and the single reached #3 in the Billboard charts, with Sweet Baby James selling more than 1½ million copies in its first year and eventually more than 3 million in the United States alone. Sweet Baby James was received at its time as a folk-rock masterpiece, an album that effectively showcased Taylor's talents to the mainstream public, marked the direction he would take in following years, and made Taylor one of the main forces of the nascent movement. It earned several Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
nominations including one for Album of the Year
Grammy Award for Album of the Year
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys. It has been awarded since 1959 and though it was originally presented to the artist alone, the award is now presented to the artist, the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer...
. (It would be listed at #103 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003, with "Fire and Rain" listed as #227 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time the year after.)
Dennis Wilson
Dennis Carl Wilson was an American rock and roll musician best known as a founding member and the drummer of The Beach Boys. He was a member of the group from its formation until his death in 1983...
of The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...
in a Monte Hellman
Monte Hellman
Monte Hellman is an American film director, producer, and film editor.Hellman is among a group of directing talent mentored by Roger Corman, who produced several of the director's early films...
film, Two-Lane Blacktop
Two-Lane Blacktop
Two-Lane Blacktop is a 1971 road movie directed by Monte Hellman, starring singer-songwriter James Taylor, Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, Warren Oates, and Laurie Bird. Esquire magazine declared the film its movie of the year for 1971, and even published the entire screenplay in its April, 1971...
. In October 1970, he performed with Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
, Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
, and the Canadian band Chilliwack
Chilliwack (band)
Chilliwack are a Canadian rock band that had their heyday during the 1970s and 1980s. Although they are a Canadian band, the members were all born in, as well as reside in, the United States of America. They are perhaps best remembered for their five biggest songs "My Girl ", "I Believe", "Whatcha...
at a Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
benefit concert that funded Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
's protests of 1971 nuclear weapons tests by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission at Amchitka
Amchitka
Amchitka is a volcanic, tectonically unstable island in the Rat Islands group of the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska. It is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. The island is about long, and from wide...
, Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
. (This performance would be released in 2009 on the album Amchitka, The 1970 Concert That Launched Greenpeace.) In January 1971, sessions for Taylor's next album began.
His career success so far, and appeal to female fans of various ages, piqued tremendous interest in Taylor, prompting a March 1, 1971, Time magazine cover story. It compared his strong-but-brooding persona to that of Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights is a novel by Emily Brontë published in 1847. It was her only novel and written between December 1845 and July 1846. It remained unpublished until July 1847 and was not printed until December after the success of her sister Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre...
s Heathcliff
Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights)
Heathcliff is a fictional character in the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. Owing to the novel's enduring fame and popularity, he is often regarded as an archetype of the tortured Romantic hero whose all-consuming passions destroy both himself and those around him.Legend has stereotyped...
and to The Sorrows of Young Werther
The Sorrows of Young Werther
The Sorrows of Young Werther is an epistolary and loosely autobiographical novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, first published in 1774; a revised edition of the novel was published in 1787...
, and said that, "Taylor's use of elemental imagery—darkness and sunlight, references to roads traveled and untraveled. to fears spoken and left unsaid—reaches a level both of intimacy and controlled emotion rarely achieved in purely pop music." Released in April, Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon
Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon
-Track listing:All songs by James Taylor unless otherwise noted.#"Love Has Brought Me Around" – 2:41#"You've Got a Friend" – 4:28#"Places in My Past" – 2:01#"Riding on a Railroad" – 2:41#"Soldiers" – 1:13#"Mud Slide Slim" – 5:20...
also gained massive critical acclaim and contained Taylor's biggest hit single in the U.S., a version of the Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
standard "You've Got a Friend
You've Got a Friend
"You've Got a Friend" is a song from 1971, originally written and performed by Carole King. It was included in her album Tapestry of 1971, but was made famous by James Taylor's cover version the same year...
" (featuring backing vocals by Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
), which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late July. The album itself reached #2 in the album charts, which would be Taylor's highest position ever on this list. In early 1972, Taylor received his first Grammy Award, for (Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male
Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance was awarded between 1966 and 2011...
) for "You've Got a Friend" (King also won Song of the Year
Grammy Award for Song of the Year
The Song of the Year is one of the four most prestigious awards in the Grammy Awards ceremony, if not in all of the American music industry. It has been awarded since 1959 and unlike the Record of the Year award, which goes to the performer and production team of a single song, Song of the Year...
for the same song in that ceremony). The album went on to sell 2½ million copies in the United States alone.
November 1972 saw the release of Taylor's fourth album, One Man Dog
One Man Dog
-Track listing:All songs by James Taylor unless otherwise noted.#"One Man Parade" – 3:10#"Nobody But You" – 2:57#"Chili Dog" – 1:35#"Fool for You" – 1:42#"Instrumental I" – 0:55#"New Tune" – 1:35#"Back on the Street Again" – 3:00...
. A concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
primarily recorded in his home recording studio, it featured cameos by Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
and consisted of eighteen short pieces of music put together. It was received with generally lukewarm reviews and, despite making the Top 10 of the Billboard Album Charts, overall sales were disappointing. The lead single "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" peaked at #18 on the Hot 100, and the follow-up, "One Man Parade", barely reached the Top 75. Almost simultaneously, Taylor married fellow singer-songwriter Carly Simon
Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...
on November 3, in a small ceremony at her Murray Hill, Manhattan
Murray Hill, Manhattan
Murray Hill is a Midtown Manhattan neighborhood in New York City, USA. Around 1987 many real estate promoters of the neighborhood and newer residents described the boundaries as within East 34th Street, East 42nd Street, Madison Avenue, and the East River; in 1999, Frank P...
apartment. A post-concert party following a Taylor performance at Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...
turned into a large-scale wedding party, and the Simon-Taylor marriage would find much public attention over the following years. They had two children, Sarah Maria "Sally" Taylor, born January 7, 1974, and Benjamin Simon "Ben" Taylor, born January 22, 1977.
1974–1976: Career ups and downs
Taylor spent most of 1973 enjoying his new life as a married man, and he did not return to the recording studio until January 1974, when sessions for his fifth album began. Walking ManWalking Man
Walking Man is singer-songwriter James Taylor's fifth album. Released on June 1, 1974, it was not as successful as his previous efforts, only reaching #13 on the Billboard Album Chart. It is also his only studio album not certified gold by the RIAA...
was released in June and featured appearances of Paul
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
and Linda McCartney
Linda McCartney
Linda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney was an American photographer, musician and animal rights activist. Her father and mother were Lee Eastman and Louise Sara Lindner Eastman....
and guitarist David Spinozza
David Spinozza
David Spinozza is an American musician , who worked with former Beatles Paul McCartney and John Lennon during the 1970s, and had a long collaboration with singer-songwriter James Taylor, producing Taylor's album Walking Man....
. The album was a critical and commercial disaster, being his first album to miss the Top 5 since his contract with Warner. It received poor reviews and sold a mere 300,000 copies in the United States. The title track was a huge disappointment, and failed to even appear on the Top 100 – nevertheless, it stands today as an often reprised fan favorite in concerts.
However, James Taylor's artistic fortunes spiked again in 1975 when the Gold album Gorilla reached #6 and provided one of his biggest hit singles, a cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
's "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
"How Sweet It Is " is a 1964 hit song written and produced by the Motown songwriting team of Holland–Dozier–Holland. It was originally recorded by American soul singer Marvin Gaye and became one of his most popular songs...
", which featured wife Carly in backing vocals and reached #5 in America and #1 in Canada. On the Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart, the track also reached the top, and the follow-up single, the feel-good "Mexico" also reached the Top 5 of that list. A critically very-well received album, Gorilla showcased Taylor's electric, lighter side that was evident on Walking Man. However, it was arguably a more consistent and fresher-sounding Taylor, with classics such as "Wandering" and "Angry Blues." It also featured a song about his daughter Sally, "Sarah Maria".
Gorilla was followed in 1976 by In the Pocket, Taylor's last studio album to be released under Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
. The album found him with many colleagues and friends, including Art Garfunkel
Art Garfunkel
Arthur Ira "Art" Garfunkel is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and actor, best known as being a member of the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel...
, David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
, Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
and Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
(who co-wrote a song with Taylor and contributed a harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
solo). A very melodic album, it was highlighted with the single "Shower the People
Shower the People
"Shower the People" is the opening track on James Taylor's 1976 album In the Pocket. The song reached #22 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. that fall, remaining in the Top 40 for eight weeks...
", an enduring classic that hit #1 Adult Contemporary and almost hit the Top 20 of the Pop Charts. But the album was not very well-received, reaching only #16 and being highly criticized, particularly by Rolling Stone. Nevertheless 1976 was a huge boom year in the recording business — the year of inception of the "Platinum" disc — and In The Pocket was certified Gold.
With the close of Taylor's contract with Warner, in November the label released Greatest Hits
Greatest Hits (James Taylor album)
Greatest Hits is singer-songwriter James Taylor's eighth album. Released on November 1, 1976. To this day, it is the best-selling album of his career....
, the album that comprised most of his best work between 1970 and 1976. It became with time his best-selling album, ever. It was certified eleven times Platinum in the US, earning a Diamond certification by the RIAA and eventually selling close to twenty million copies worldwide. It still stands as the best-selling folk album by any artist.
1977–1981: Move to Columbia and maintained success
In 1977 Taylor signed with Columbia RecordsColumbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
. Between March and April, he quickly recorded his first album for the label. JT
JT (album)
JT is singer-songwriter James Taylor's eighth album, and his first album for Columbia Records. Released in 1977, it contains hit singles in "Handy Man" and "Your Smiling Face" and was Taylor's highest charting album since Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon.This album also contains several Taylor...
, released that June, gave Taylor his best reviews since Sweet Baby James, earning a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year in 1978. Rolling Stone was particularly favorable to the album – "JT is the least stiff and by far the most various album Taylor has done. That's not meant to criticize Taylor's earlier efforts [...]. But it's nice to hear him sounding so healthy." JT reached #4 in the Billboard charts, selling more than 3 million copies in the United States alone. The album's Triple Platinum status ties it with Sweet Baby James as Taylor's all-time biggest selling studio album. It was propelled by the highly successful cover of Jimmy Jones
Jimmy Jones (singer)
Jimmy Jones is an African American singer-songwriter, who moved to New York while a teenager. According to Allmusic journalist, Steve Huey, "best known for his 1960 R&B smash, "Handy Man," Jones sang in a smooth yet soulful falsetto modeled on the likes of Clyde McPhatter and Sam...
and Otis Blackwell
Otis Blackwell
Otis Blackwell was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist, whose work significantly influenced rock 'n' roll...
's "Handy Man
Handy Man
"Handy Man" is a rock and roll song credited to singer Jimmy Jones and songwriter Otis Blackwell. It was originally recorded by The Sparks Of Rhythm, a group Jones had been a member of when he wrote it, although he was not with them when they recorded it. In 1959, Jones recorded the song himself,...
", which hit #1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart and reached #4 on the Hot 100, earning Taylor another Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance was awarded between 1966 and 2011...
for his cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
. The song also topped the Canadian charts. The success of the album propelled the release of two further singles – the up-tempo pop "Your Smiling Face" (an enduring live favorite) reached the American Top 20; however, "Honey Don't Leave L.A.," penned by Danny Kortchmar
Danny Kortchmar
Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar is a guitarist, session musician, and songwriter. Kortchmar's work with singer-songwriters such as David Crosby, Carole King, Graham Nash, Carly Simon and James Taylor helped define the signature sound of the singer-songwriter era of the 1970s...
did not enjoy much success, barely reaching the Top 75.
Back in the forefront of popular music, Taylor collaborated with Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
and Art Garfunkel in the recording of a cover of Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...
's "Wonderful World", which reached the Top 20 in the U.S. and topped the AC charts in early 1978. After briefly working on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
, he took a one-year break, reappearing in the summer of 1979 with the cover-studded Platinum album Flag
Flag (James Taylor album)
Flag is singer-songwriter James Taylor's ninth album. Released in 1979, it included songs from Taylor's music score to Studs Terkel and Stephen Schwartz's Broadway musical, Working ....
, featuring a Top 30 version of Gerry Goffin
Gerry Goffin
Gerry Goffin is an American lyricist. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 with former songwriting partner and first wife, Carole King. he has co-written six Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers.-Career:Goffin enlisted with the Marine Corps Reserve after graduating from...
and Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
's "Up on the Roof
Up on the Roof (song)
"Up on the Roof" is a song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King and recorded in 1962 by The Drifters. Released at the tail end of that year, the song became a big hit in early 1963, reaching number five on the U.S. pop singles chart and number 4 on the U.S...
". (Two selections from Flag, "Millworker" and "Brother Trucker," were featured on the PBS production of the Broadway musical
Working (musical)
Working is a musical with a book by Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso, music by Schwartz, Craig Carnelia, Micki Grant, Mary Rodgers, and James Taylor, and lyrics by Schwartz, Carnelia, Grant, Taylor, and Susan Birkenhead....
based on Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel
Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for The Good War, and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.-Early...
's non-fiction book Working, and James himself appeared in that production as a trucker; he performed "Brother Trucker" in character.) Taylor also appeared on the No Nukes
Musicians United for Safe Energy
Musicians United for Safe Energy, or MUSE, is an activist group founded in 1979 by Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, and John Hall. The group advocates against the use of nuclear energy, forming shortly after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in March 1979...
concert in Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
, where he made a memorable live performance of "Mockingbird" with his wife Carly. The concert appeared on both the No Nukes album
No Nukes (album)
No Nukes: The Muse Concerts For a Non-Nuclear Future was a 1979 triple live album that contained selections from the September 1979 Madison Square Garden concerts by the Musicians United for Safe Energy collective, with Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, and John Hall being the key...
and film
No Nukes (film)
No Nukes is a 1980 documentary and concert film that contained selections from the September 1979 Madison Square Garden concerts by the Musicians United for Safe Energy collective, with Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, and John Hall being the key organizers of the event and guiding forces...
.
On December 7, 1980 Taylor had an encounter with Mark David Chapman
Mark David Chapman
Mark David Chapman is an American prison inmate who murdered former Beatles member John Lennon on December 8, 1980. He committed the crime as Lennon and Yoko Ono were outside of The Dakota apartment building in New York City. Chapman aimed five shots at Lennon, hitting him four times in his back...
who would assassinate John Lennon. Taylor told the BBC in 2010 "The guy had sort of pinned me to the wall and was glistening with maniacal sweat and talking some freak speak about what he was going to do and his stuff with how John was interested, and he was going to get in touch with John Lennon. And it was surreal to actually have contact with the guy 24 hours before he shot John." The next night Taylor, who lived in the next building from Lennon, heard the assassination occur. Taylor commented "I heard him shot — five, just as quick as you could pull the trigger, about five explosions".
In March 1981, James Taylor released the album Dad Loves His Work
Dad Loves His Work
-Track listing:All songs by James Taylor unless otherwise noted.#"Hard Times" – 3:13#"Her Town Too" – 4:34#"Hour That the Morning Comes" – 2:56#"I Will Follow" – 4:19#"Believe It or Not" – 3:53...
, whose themes concerned his relationship with his father, the course his ancestors had taken, and the effect he and Simon had had on each other. The album was another Platinum success, reaching #10 and providing Taylor's final real hit single in a duet with J. D. Souther
J. D. Souther
John David Souther is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and actor. He has written and co-written numerous hits songs recorded by artists such as Linda Ronstadt and Glenn Frey of the Eagles.-Singing career:...
, "Her Town Too," which reached #5 Adult Contemporary and #11 on the Hot 100 in Billboard. The album's title was, in part, drawn from the reasons for Taylor's divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
from Carly Simon
Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...
. She gave him an ultimatum: cut back on his music and touring, and spend more time with her and their children, or the marriage was through. The album's title was Taylor's answer, and Simon asked for divorce. (The emotional repercussions of the divorce likely served as at least part of the inspiration for "Her Town Too.")
1981–1996: Troubled times and new beginnings
Simon announced her separation from Taylor in September 1981 – saying "Our needs are different; it seem[s] impossible to stay together" – and their divorce became final in 1983. Taylor was living on West End AvenueWest End Avenue
West End Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, not far from the Hudson River.West End Avenue originates at West 59th Street; the continuation of the street below 59th Street is called Eleventh Avenue. It runs from 59th Street to its...
in Manhattan and on a methadone
Methadone
Methadone is a synthetic opioid, used medically as an analgesic and a maintenance anti-addictive for use in patients with opioid dependency. It was developed in Germany in 1937...
maintenance program. Over the course of four months starting in September 1983, spurred on in part by the deaths of his friends John Belushi
John Belushi
John Adam Belushi was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, The Star of the Films National Lampoon's Animal House and the The Blues Brothers and for fronting the American blues and soul...
and Dennis Wilson
Dennis Wilson
Dennis Carl Wilson was an American rock and roll musician best known as a founding member and the drummer of The Beach Boys. He was a member of the group from its formation until his death in 1983...
and in part by the desire to be a better father to his children, he dropped methadone and finally kicked his habit for good.
Taylor had thoughts of retiring by the time he played the massive Rock in Rio
Rock in Rio
Rock in Rio is a series of music festivals held in three cities: Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Lisbon in Portugal and Madrid in Spain.Four incarnations of the festival were in Rio de Janeiro, in 1985, 1991, 2001 and 2011, four in Lisbon, in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010, and two in Madrid in 2008 and 2010....
festival in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
in January 1985. He was encouraged by the nascent democracy in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
at the time, buoyed by the positive reception he got from the large crowd and other musicians, and musically energized by the sounds and nature of Brazilian music. "I had... sort of bottomed-out in a drug habit, my marriage with Carly had dissolved, and I had basically been depressed and lost for a while, " he recalled in 1995. "I sort of hit a low spot. I was asked to go down to Rio de Janeiro to play in this festival down there. We put the band together and went down and it was just an amazing response. I played to 300,000 people. They not only knew my music, they knew things about it and were interested in aspects of it that to that point had only interested me. To have that kind of validation right about then was really what I needed. It helped get me back on track." The song "Only a Dream in Rio" was written in tribute to that night, with lines like I was there that very day and my heart came back alive. The October 1985 album, That's Why I'm Here
That's Why I'm Here
-Track listing:All songs were written by James Taylor, except where noted.#"That's Why I'm Here" – 3:39#"Song for You Far Away" – 2:58#"Only a Dream in Rio" -Track listing:All songs were written by James Taylor, except where noted.#"That's Why I'm Here" – 3:39#"Song for You Far Away" – 2:58#"Only a...
, from which that song came, started a series of studio recordings that, while spaced further apart than his previous records, showed a more consistent level of quality and fewer covers
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
, most notably the Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley , known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll...
song "Everyday
Everyday (Buddy Holly song)
"Everyday" is a song written by Buddy Holly and Norman Petty, recorded by Buddy Holly and the Crickets on May 29, 1957 and released on September 20, 1957 as the B-side to "Peggy Sue". On the original single the Crickets are not mentioned, but it is known that Holly plays acoustic guitar; drummer...
", released as a single reached #61.
On December 14, 1985, Taylor married actress Kathryn Walker
Kathryn Walker
Kathryn Walker is an American theater, television and film actress. She was with Douglas Kenney for many years until his death in 1980 at the age of 32, and was married to singer James Taylor from 1985 to 1995...
at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. Taylor's next albums were partially successful – in 1988, he released Never Die Young
Never Die Young
Never Die Young is singer-songwriter James Taylor's twelfth album. It was released in 1988, three years after his previous effort, That's Why I'm Here...
, highlighted with the charting title track, and in 1991, the platinum New Moon Shine
New Moon Shine
-Track listing:All songs by James Taylor unless otherwise noted.#"Copperline" – 4:22#"Down in the Hole" – 5:15#" Stop Thinkin' 'Bout That" -Track listing:All songs by James Taylor unless otherwise noted.#"Copperline" (Reynolds Price, J. Taylor) – 4:22#"Down in the Hole" – 5:15#"(I've Got to) Stop...
provided Taylor some popular songs with the melancholic "Copperline" and the upbeat "(I've Got to) Stop Thinkin' About That", both hit singles in the AC radio. During the late 1980s, he began touring regularly, especially on the summer amphitheater circuit. His later concerts feature songs from throughout his career and are marked by the musicianship of his band and backup singers. The 1993
1993 in music
This is a summary of significant events in music in 1993.-January–February:*January 8 – The U.S. Postal Service issues an Elvis Presley stamp. The design was voted on in February 1992....
two-disc Live
Live (James Taylor album)
Live is singer-songwriter James Taylor's fifteenth album, and first live album. Released in 1993, this double CD presents selections from 14 shows during a November 1992 tour...
album captures this, with a highlight being Arnold McCuller
Arnold McCuller
Arnold McCuller is an American vocalist, record producer, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. While establishing his own career as a singer, and working as a very busy session musician, McCuller has become best known for his work as a back-up singer for famous artists with long careers, including...
's descant
Descant
Descant or discant can refer to several different things in music, depending on the period in question; etymologically, the word means a voice above or removed from others....
s in the codas
Coda (music)
Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
of "Shower the People
Shower the People
"Shower the People" is the opening track on James Taylor's 1976 album In the Pocket. The song reached #22 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. that fall, remaining in the Top 40 for eight weeks...
" and "I Will Follow." In 1995, Taylor performed the role of the Lord in Randy Newman's Faust
Randy Newman's Faust
Randy Newman's Faust is a 1993 musical by American musician and songwriter Randy Newman, who based the work on the classic story of Faust, borrowing elements from the version by Goethe, as well as Milton's Paradise Lost, but updating the story to the modern day, and infusing it with humorous cynicism...
.
1997–2003: Successful comeback
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
(Taylor's first Top 10 album in sixteen years) and also provided a big adult contemporary hit on "Little More Time With You". The album also gave Taylor his first Grammy since JT, when he was honored with Best Pop Album
Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album
The Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality pop music albums...
in 1998
1998 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1998.-Events:*January 28 – "Weird Al" Yankovic gets LASIK surgery to cure his myopia...
.
On February 18, 2001 at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Boston, Taylor wed for the third time, marrying Caroline ("Kim") Smedvig, the director of public relations and marketing for the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
. They had begun dating in 1995, when they met as he appeared with John Williams
John Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
and the Boston Pops Orchestra
Boston Pops Orchestra
The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, that specializes in playing light classical and popular music....
. Part of their relationship was worked into the album October Road, on the song "On the 4th of July." The couple reside in the town of Washington, Massachusetts
Washington, Massachusetts
Washington is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 538 at the 2010 census.- History :...
with their twin boys, Rufus and Henry, born in April 2001 to a surrogate mother via in vitro fertilization.
Flanked by two greatest hit releases, Taylor's Platinum-certified October Road
October Road
October Road is singer-songwriter James Taylor's fifteenth album. It was released in 2002, in two versions: a single-disc version and a "limited edition" two-disc version, which contains three extra songs, as well as a video presentation. It has been certified Platinum.-Track listing:All songs by...
appeared in 2002
2002 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2002.-Events:*February 3 – U2 perform during the halftime show for Super Bowl XXXVI...
to a receptive audience. It featured a number of quiet instrumental accompaniments and passages. Overall, it found Taylor in a more peaceful frame of mind; rather than facing a crisis now, Taylor said in an interview that "I thought I'd passed the midpoint of my life when I was 17." The album appeared in two versions, a single-disc version and a "limited edition" two-disc version which contained three extra songs including a duet with Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...
, "Sailing to Philadelphia," which also appeared on Knopfler's Sailing to Philadelphia
Sailing to Philadelphia
Sailing to Philadelphia is the second solo album by Mark Knopfler, released on 26 September 2000. The title track is drawn from Thomas Pynchon's novel about Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, the two English surveyors who established the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland, Delaware and...
album. Also in 2002, Taylor teamed with bluegrass musician Alison Krauss
Alison Krauss
Alison Maria Krauss is an American bluegrass-country singer, songwriter and fiddler. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in...
in singing "The Boxer
The Boxer
"The Boxer" is a folk rock ballad written by Paul Simon in 1968 and first recorded by Simon & Garfunkel. It was released as the follow-up single to their number one hit "Mrs. Robinson", and reached #7 in the US charts. It later appeared on their last studio album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, along...
" at the Kennedy Center Honors
Kennedy Center Honors
The Kennedy Center Honors is an annual honor given to those in the performing arts for their lifetime of contributions to American culture. The Honors have been presented annually since 1978 in Washington, D.C., during gala weekend-long events which culminate in a performance for—and...
Tribute to Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
. They later recorded the Louvin Brothers
Louvin Brothers
The Louvin Brothers were an American country music duo composed of brothers Ira Lonnie Loudermilk and Charlie Elzer Loudermilk , better known as Ira and Charlie Louvin. They helped popularize close harmony, a genre of country music.-History:The brothers adopted the name Louvin Brothers in the...
duet, "How's the World Treating You?" In 2004
2004 in music
See also:* 2004 in music Record labels established in 2004-January:*January 1**The Vienna New Year's Concert is conducted by Riccardo Muti.**Kurt Nilsen wins World Idol....
, after he chose not to renew his record contract with Columbia/Sony, he released James Taylor: A Christmas Album
James Taylor: A Christmas Album
James Taylor: A Christmas Album is singer-songwriter James Taylor's 21st album and first Christmas album. It was released on a limited-edition basis in 2004, with distribution through Hallmark Cards.-Track listing:...
with distribution through Hallmark Cards
Hallmark Cards
Hallmark Cards is a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce C. Hall, Hallmark is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts....
.
Current events
Political ecology
Political ecology is the study of the relationships between political, economic and social factors with environmental issues and changes. Political ecology differs from apolitical ecological studies by politicizing environmental issues and phenomena....
and liberal causes, in October 2004 Taylor joined the "Vote for Change
Vote for Change
The Vote for Change tour was a politically-motivated American popular music concert tour that took place in October 2004. The tour was presented by MoveOn.org to benefit America Coming Together. The tour was held in swing states and was designed to encourage people to register and vote...
" tour playing a series of concerts in American swing states. These concerts were organized by MoveOn.org with the goal of mobilizing people to vote for John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
and against George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
in that year's Presidential campaign. Taylor's appearances were joint performances with the Dixie Chicks
Dixie Chicks
The Dixie Chicks are an American country band which has also successfully crossed over into other genres. The band is composed of founding members Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison, and lead singer Natalie Maines...
.
Taylor performed "The Star-Spangled Banner
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships...
" at Game 2 of the World Series in Boston on October 24, 2004 and again on October 25, 2007. In December 2004, he appeared as himself in an episode of The West Wing
The West Wing (TV series)
The West Wing is an American television serial drama created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999 to May 14, 2006...
entitled "A Change Is Gonna Come
A Change Is Gonna Come (The West Wing)
-Plot:While preparing the upcoming China summit, the Chinese are insulted by President Bartlet's acceptance of a Taiwanese independence movement flag at a prayer breakfast. Charlie must try and return the flag, and CJ has to agree to stipulations the Chinese are making in order to mend fences...
". He sang Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...
's classic "A Change Is Gonna Come
A Change Is Gonna Come (song)
"A Change Is Gonna Come" is a 1964 single by R&B singer-songwriter Sam Cooke, written and first recorded in 1963 and released under the RCA Victor label shortly after his death in late 1964. Though only a modest hit for Cooke in comparison with his previous singles, the song came to exemplify the...
" at an event honoring an artist played by Taylor's wife Caroline. Later on, he appeared on CMT
CMT
- Medicine :* California mastitis test* Certified Massage Therapist* Cervical motion tenderness, a sign of pelvic inflammatory disease* Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease* Chemically modified tetracyclines* Circus Movement Tachycardia...
's Crossroads alongside the Dixie Chicks
Dixie Chicks
The Dixie Chicks are an American country band which has also successfully crossed over into other genres. The band is composed of founding members Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison, and lead singer Natalie Maines...
. In early 2006
2006 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2006.-January:*January 10 – Eric Burdon releases his album Soul of a Man and begins touring with a new band....
, MusiCares
MusiCares
The MusiCares Foundation, Inc., was established in 1989 by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Meant for musicians to have a place to turn, in times of financial, personal, or medical crisis, its primary purpose is to focus the resources and attention of the music industry on human...
honored Taylor with performances of his songs by an array of notable musicians. Before a performance by the Dixie Chicks, lead singer Natalie Maines
Natalie Maines
Natalie Louise Maines Pasdar is an American singer-songwriter who achieved success as the lead vocalist for the female alternative country band, the Dixie Chicks...
acknowledged that he had always been one of their musical heroes, and had for them lived up to their once-imagined reputation of him. They performed his song, "Shower the People", with a surprise appearance by Arnold McCuller
Arnold McCuller
Arnold McCuller is an American vocalist, record producer, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. While establishing his own career as a singer, and working as a very busy session musician, McCuller has become best known for his work as a back-up singer for famous artists with long careers, including...
, who has sung backing vocals on Taylor's live tours and albums for many years.
In the fall of 2006, Taylor released a repackaged and slightly different version of his Hallmark Christmas album, now entitled James Taylor at Christmas, and distributed by Columbia/Sony. In 2006
2006 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2006.-January:*January 10 – Eric Burdon releases his album Soul of a Man and begins touring with a new band....
, Taylor performed Randy Newman
Randy Newman
Randall Stuart "Randy" Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is known for his mordant pop songs and for film scores....
's song "Our Town" for the Disney animated film Cars
Cars (film)
Cars is a 2006 American animated family film produced by Pixar and directed by John Lasseter and co-directed by Joe Ranft. It is the seventh Disney·Pixar feature film, and Pixar's final, independently-produced motion picture before its purchase by Disney...
. The song was nominated for the 2007 Academy Award for the best Original Song. On January 1, 2007, Taylor headlined the inaugural concert at the Times Union Center in Albany, New York
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
, honoring newly sworn in Governor of New York
Governor of New York
The Governor of the State of New York is the chief executive of the State of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military and naval forces. The officeholder is afforded the courtesy title of His/Her...
Eliot Spitzer
Eliot Spitzer
Eliot Laurence Spitzer is an American lawyer, former Democratic Party politician, and political commentator. He was the co-host of In the Arena, a talk-show and punditry forum broadcast on CNN until CNN cancelled his show in July of 2011...
.
Taylor's next album, One Man Band was released on CD and DVD in November 2007 on Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
' Hear Music
Hear Music
Hear Music, also known as StarCon is the brand name of Starbucks' retail music concept and record label. Hear Music began as a catalog company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1990 before being purchased by Starbucks in 1999.-Concept:...
Label, where he joined with Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
and Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
. The introspective album grew out of a three-year tour of the United States and Europe—featuring some of Taylor's most beloved songs and anecdotes about their creative origins—accompanied solely by the "one man band" of his longtime pianist/keyboardist, Larry Goldings
Larry Goldings
-Life and career:Goldings was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His father was a classical music enthusiast, and Larry studied classical piano until the age of twelve. While in high school at Concord Academy, he attended a program at the Eastman School of Music. During this period Erroll Garner,...
. The digital discrete 5.1 surround sound mix of One Man Band won a TEC Award
TEC Awards
The TEC Awards is an annual program recognizing the achievements of audio professionals. The awards are given to honor technically innovative products as well as companies and individuals who have excelled in sound for television, film, recordings and concerts...
for best surround sound recording in 2008.
November 28–30, 2007, Taylor, accompanied by his original band and Carole King, headlined a series of six shows at The Troubadour. The appearances marked the 50th anniversary of the venue, where Taylor, King and many others, such as Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
, Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
, and Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
, began their music careers. Proceeds from the concert went to benefit the Natural Resources Defense Council, MusiCares, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, and the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank, a member of America's Second Harvest
America's Second Harvest
Feeding America is a United States-based non-profit organization. It consists of a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks and food rescue organizations that serve virtually every county in the United States as well as Puerto Rico. It is the nation's leading hunger-relief charity,...
— The Nation's Food Bank Network. Parts of the performance shown on CBS Sunday Morning in the December 23, 2007, broadcast showed Taylor alluding to his early drug problems by saying, "I played here a number of times in the 70s, allegedly..." Taylor has used versions of this joke on other occasions, and it appears as part of his One Man Band DVD and tour performances.
Luis Conte
Luis Conte is a Cuban percussionist.-Early years:As a child in Cuba, Conte began his musical odyssey playing the guitar. However, he soon switched to percussion, and that has remained his mode since....
, Michael Landau
Michael Landau
Michael Landau is a prolific session musician and guitarist who has played on a large number of albums since the early 1980s with artists as varied as Seal, James Taylor, Helen Watson, Richard Marx, Steve Perry, Pink Floyd and Miles Davis...
, Lou Marini
Lou Marini
Lou Marini, Jr. is an American saxophonist, arranger and composer. He is noted for his work in the jazz, rock, blues and soul music traditions.-Early life and range of musical experience:...
, Arnold McCuller
Arnold McCuller
Arnold McCuller is an American vocalist, record producer, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. While establishing his own career as a singer, and working as a very busy session musician, McCuller has become best known for his work as a back-up singer for famous artists with long careers, including...
, Jimmy Johnson
Jimmy Johnson (bassist)
Jimmy Johnson is an American bass guitarist best known for his work with James Taylor, Allan Holdsworth, Lee Ritenour and Flim & the BB's...
, David Lasley
David Lasley
David Lasley is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his contributions as a background singer for such artists as Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor and Luther Vandross....
, Walt Fowler, Andrea Zonn
Andrea Zonn
Andrea Zonn is a singer fiddle player who grew up in Champaign, Illinois. She grew up in an environment surrounded by music. She sings, and plays classical violin, and is fluent in numerous other musical genres. Zonn first met Alison Krauss at a fiddle contest at the Champaign County Fair when she...
, Kate Markowitz
Kate Markowitz
Kate Markowitz is an American singer-songwriter. Markowitz is perhaps best known as a back-up vocalist who has recorded and performed with a number of singers, most notably James Taylor but also Willy DeVille, Shawn Colvin, Mylène Farmer, Don Henley, Billy Joel, k.d. lang, Lyle Lovett, Graham...
, Steve Gadd
Steve Gadd
Steve Gadd is an American session and studio drummer, notable for his work with popular musicians from a wide range of genres.-Biography:...
and Larry Goldings
Larry Goldings
-Life and career:Goldings was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His father was a classical music enthusiast, and Larry studied classical piano until the age of twelve. While in high school at Concord Academy, he attended a program at the Eastman School of Music. During this period Erroll Garner,...
. The resulting live-in-studio album, named Covers
Covers (James Taylor album)
Covers is the sixteenth album and the first "covers" album by singer-songwriter James Taylor, released on September 30, 2008. The album was recorded by Taylor's regular touring band. Some of the tunes Taylor had been performing off and on in concerts for years, while others were new to his repertoire...
, was released in September 2008. This album forays into country and soul while being the latest proof that Taylor is a more versatile singer than his best known hits might suggest. The Covers sessions stretched to include "Oh What a Beautiful Morning," from the musical Oklahoma - a song that his grandmother had caught him singing over and over at the top of his lungs when he was seven years old. Meanwhile, in summer 2008, Taylor and this band toured 34 North American cities with a tour entitled James Taylor and His Band of Legends. An additional album, called Other Covers
Other Covers
Other Covers is the second covers album by singer-songwriter James Taylor, released in April 2009 as a follow-up to the previous year's Covers.-History:...
, came out in April 2009, containing songs that were recorded during the same sessions as the original Covers but had not been put out to the full public yet.
During October 19–21, 2008, Taylor performed a series of free concerts in five North Carolina cities in support of Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
's presidential bid.
On Sunday, January 18, 2009, he performed at the We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial
We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial
We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial was a public celebration of the then forthcoming inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States at the Lincoln Memorial and the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on January 18, 2009. By some estimates the...
, singing "Shower the People" with John Legend
John Legend
John Roger Stephens , better known by his stage name John Legend, is an American singer, musician, and actor. He is the recipient of nine Grammy Awards, and in 2007, he received the special Starlight award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.Prior to the release of his debut album, Stephens' career...
and Jennifer Nettles
Jennifer Nettles
Jennifer Nettles is an American country music artist. She is known primarily for her role as lead vocalist of the duo Sugarland alongside Kristian Bush. Before Sugarland's inception, she also fronted Atlanta, Georgia-based bands called Soul Miner's Daughter and Jennifer Nettles Band...
of Sugarland.
Taylor performed on the final The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on May 29, 2009, distinguishing himself further as the final musician to appear in Leno's original 17-year run.
On September 8, 2009 Taylor made an appearance at the twenty-fourth season premiere block party of The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
on Chicago's Michigan Avenue
Michigan Avenue (Chicago)
Michigan Avenue is a major north-south street in Chicago which runs at 100 east south of the Chicago River and at 132 East north of the river from 12628 south to 950 north in the Chicago street address system...
.
On January 1, 2010, Taylor sang the American national anthem at the NHL Winter Classic
2010 NHL Winter Classic
The 2010 NHL Winter Classic, known as the 2010 NHL Winter Classic presented by Bridgestone via corporate sponsorship, was the third edition of the NHL Winter Classic, an annual outdoor ice hockey game held by the National Hockey League , played on January 1, 2010, as a regular season game at...
at Fenway Park
Fenway Park
Fenway Park is a baseball park near Kenmore Square in Boston, Massachusetts. Located at 4 Yawkey Way, it has served as the home ballpark of the Boston Red Sox baseball club since it opened in 1912, and is the oldest Major League Baseball stadium currently in use. It is one of two "classic"...
, while Daniel Powter
Daniel Powter
Daniel Richard Powter is a Canadian recording artist. He is known for his hit "Bad Day", which spent five weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. Powter became the only act to register the #1 hit of the year but chart no other Hot 100 hit.- Life and career :Powter grew up in Vernon, in the...
sang the Canadian national anthem
O Canada
It has been noted that the opening theme of "O Canada" bears a strong resemblance to the "Marsch der Priester" , from the opera Die Zauberflöte , composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and that Lavallée's melody was inspired by Mozart's tune...
.
On March 7, 2010, Taylor sang The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' "In My Life
In My Life
"In My Life" is a song by The Beatles written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney . The song originated with Lennon, and while Paul McCartney contributed to the final version, the extent of his contribution is in dispute. George Martin contributed the instrumental bridge...
" in tribute to deceased artists at the 82nd Academy Awards
82nd Academy Awards
The 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2009 and took place March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. The ceremony was scheduled well after...
.
In March 2010 he commenced the Troubadour Reunion Tour
Troubadour Reunion Tour
The Troubadour Reunion Tour was a 2010 international concert tour by Carole King and James Taylor. It celebrated the 40th anniversary of their first performance together at The Troubadour in November 1970, and was a continuation of their reunion at the Troubadour in November 2007.-History:The tour...
with Carole King and members of his original band, including Russ Kunkel
Russ Kunkel
Russell Kunkel , also known as Russ Kunkel, is an American drummer and producer who has worked as a session musician with a number of well-known artists.Kunkel was born in Pittsburgh, PA...
, Leland Sklar
Leland Sklar
Leland "Lee" Bruce Sklar is an American musician, singer-songwriter and film score composer. A prominent bass guitarist, Sklar has contributed to thousands of albums as a session musician...
, and Danny Kortchmar
Danny Kortchmar
Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar is a guitarist, session musician, and songwriter. Kortchmar's work with singer-songwriters such as David Crosby, Carole King, Graham Nash, Carly Simon and James Taylor helped define the signature sound of the singer-songwriter era of the 1970s...
. They played shows in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and North America, with the final night being at the Honda Center, in Anaheim, CA. The tour was a major commercial success, and in some locations found Taylor playing arenas instead of his usual theaters or amphitheaters. Ticket sales amounted to over 700,000 and the tour grossed over 59 million dollars. It was one of the most successful tours of the year.
Taylor owns a house in the Berkshire County town of Washington, Massachusetts
Washington, Massachusetts
Washington is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 538 at the 2010 census.- History :...
.
On September 11, 2011, Taylor performed 'You Can Close Your Eyes' in New York City at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum for the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
On November 22, 2011, Taylor performed "Fire and Rain" with Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift
Taylor Alison Swift is an American country pop singer-songwriter, musician and actress.In 2006, she released her debut single "Tim McGraw", then her self-titled debut album, which was subsequently certified multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America...
at the last concert of her Speak Now World Tour
Speak Now World Tour
Speak Now World Tour is the second concert tour by American country singer-songwriter, Taylor Swift, in support of her third studio album, Speak Now. The tour visited Asia, Europe, North America and Australasia...
in Madison Square Garden, as well as her own song "Fifteen".
Musicians in the family
Taylor's four siblings—AlexAlex Taylor (musician)
Alex Taylor was an American singer. Alexander Taylor was the eldest child of Dr. Isaac Taylor and Gertrude Taylor. He was a member of a family which produced a number of musicians, the most famous of whom is James Taylor, but also includes Livingston, Hugh and Kate Taylor.Alex Taylor had two sons,...
, Livingston
Livingston Taylor
Livingston Taylor is an American singer-songwriter, born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He attended the Westtown School in Pennsylvania...
, Hugh, and Kate
Kate Taylor
Kate Taylor is an American folk singer, originally from Boston, Massachusetts.-Biography:Kate was born in Boston and grew up with her four brothers in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where her father was Dean of the medical school at the University of North Carolina...
—have also been musicians with recorded albums. Livingston is still an active musician; Kate was active in the 1970s but did not record another album until 2003; Hugh operates a bed-and-breakfast with his wife, The Outermost Inn in Aquinnah on Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
; and Alex died in 1993. Taylor's children with Carly Simon—Ben
Ben Taylor (musician)
Benjamin Taylor is a musician and actor. He is the son of folk rock artists James Taylor and Carly Simon. His sister, Sally Taylor, is also a musician. Ben Taylor bears a striking resemblance to his famous father and has a singing voice akin to him as well...
and Sally—have also embarked on musical careers.
Grammy Awards
- 1971 — Best Pop Vocal Performance, MaleGrammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal PerformanceThe Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance was awarded between 1966 and 2011...
, "You've Got a Friend" - 1977 — Best Pop Vocal Performance, MaleGrammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal PerformanceThe Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance was awarded between 1966 and 2011...
, "Handy Man" - 1998 — Best Pop AlbumGrammy Award for Best Pop Vocal AlbumThe Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality pop music albums...
, Hourglass - 2001 — Best Pop Vocal Performance, MaleGrammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal PerformanceThe Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance was awarded between 1966 and 2011...
, "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" - 2003 — Best Country Collaboration With VocalsGrammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with VocalsThe Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to quality country music collaborations for artists who do not normally perform together...
, "How's the World Treating You" with Alison KraussAlison KraussAlison Maria Krauss is an American bluegrass-country singer, songwriter and fiddler. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in... - 2006 — Grammy AwardGrammy AwardA Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-sponsored MusiCaresMusiCaresThe MusiCares Foundation, Inc., was established in 1989 by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Meant for musicians to have a place to turn, in times of financial, personal, or medical crisis, its primary purpose is to focus the resources and attention of the music industry on human...
Person of the Year. At a black tieBlack tieBlack tie is a dress code for evening events and social functions. For a man, the main component is a usually black jacket, known as a dinner jacket or tuxedo...
ceremony held in Los Angeles, musicians from several eras paid tribute to Taylor by performing his songs, often prefacing them with remarks on his influence on their decisions to become musicians. These artists included Carole KingCarole KingCarole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
, Bruce SpringsteenBruce SpringsteenBruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
, Sting, Taj MahalTaj Mahal (musician)Henry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...
, Dr. JohnDr. JohnMalcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. , better known by the stage name Dr. John , is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as Zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll.Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider...
, Bonnie RaittBonnie RaittBonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
, Jackson BrowneJackson BrowneJackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
, David CrosbyDavid CrosbyDavid Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
, Sheryl CrowSheryl CrowSheryl Suzanne Crow is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, folk, hip hop, country and pop...
, India.ArieIndia.ArieIndia.Arie is a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and record producer . She has sold over 3.3 million records in the U.S. and 10 million worldwide. She has won four Grammy Awards from her 21 nominations, including Best R&B Album.-Background:Simpson was born in Denver, Colorado...
, the Dixie ChicksDixie ChicksThe Dixie Chicks are an American country band which has also successfully crossed over into other genres. The band is composed of founding members Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison, and lead singer Natalie Maines...
, Jerry DouglasJerry Douglas (musician)Jerry Douglas is an American record producer and resonator guitar player. Called "Dobro's matchless contemporary master," by The New York Times, and lauded as "my favorite musician" by John Fogerty, Douglas is one of the world’s most renowned Dobro players.-Career:In addition to his twelve solo...
, Alison KraussAlison KraussAlison Maria Krauss is an American bluegrass-country singer, songwriter and fiddler. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in...
, and Keith UrbanKeith UrbanKeith Lionel Urban is a New Zealand-born Australian, country music singer, songwriter and guitarist whose commercial success has been mainly in the United States and Australia. Urban was born in New Zealand and began his career in Australia at an early age...
. Paul SimonPaul SimonPaul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
performed as well, although he was not included in the televised program; Taylor's brother Livingston appeared on stage as a "backup singer" for the finale, along with Taylor's twin boys, Rufus and Henry.
In 2010 James Taylor was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.
Other recognition
- 1995 — Honorary doctorate of music from the Berklee College of MusicBerklee College of MusicBerklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
, Boston, 1995. - 2000 — Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of FameRock and Roll Hall of FameThe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
, 2000. - 2000 — Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of FameSongwriters Hall of FameThe Songwriters Hall of Fame is an arm of the National Academy of Popular Music. It was founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer and music publishers Abe Olman and Howie Richmond. The goal is to create a museum but as of April, 2008, the means do not yet exist and so instead it is an online...
, 2000. - 2003 — The Chapel Hill MuseumChapel Hill MuseumChapel Hill Museum was a local cultural and historical museum in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The museum was founded in 1996 by leaders of the Town of Chapel Hill's Bicentennial Committee and celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2006. In the decade since its founding, Chapel Hill Museum averaged over...
in Chapel Hill, North CarolinaChapel Hill, North CarolinaChapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
opened a permanent exhibit dedicated to Taylor. At the same occasion the US-15U.S. Route 15U.S. Route 15 is a -long United States highway, designated along South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. The route is signed north–south, from U.S. Route 17 Alternate in Walterboro, South Carolina to Interstate 86 and NY 17 in Painted Post, New York.US...
-501U.S. Route 501-North Carolina business loops:-Virginia business loop:-External links:*...
highway bridge over Morgan Creek, near the site of the Taylor family home and mentioned in Taylor's song "Copperline", was named in honor of Taylor. - 2004 — George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, UCLA Spring SingUCLA Spring SingSpring Sing is UCLA's oldest and greatest musical tradition, an annual music competition held in May at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion. The competition brings together UCLA students to perform as solo artists, duets, bands, and a cappella groups in front of an audience of over 7,000 UCLA students, alumni,...
. - 2004 — Ranked 84th in Rolling StoneRolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s list of "The Immortals: 100 Greatest Artists of All Time." - 2009 — Honorary Doctorate of Music from Williams CollegeWilliams CollegeWilliams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
, Williamstown, MassachusettsWilliamstown, MassachusettsWilliamstown is a town in Berkshire County, in the northwest corner of Massachusetts. It shares a border with Vermont to the north and New York to the west. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,754 at the 2010 census...
.
Discography
U.S. Billboard Top 10 Albums- 1970 – Sweet Baby JamesSweet Baby JamesSweet Baby James is singer-songwriter James Taylor's second album, and his first release on Warner Bros. Records. Released in February 1970, it showcased Taylor's talents and showed the direction he would take in the early 1970s with the expansion of his career. The album featured one of Taylor's...
(#3) - 1971 – Mud Slide Slim and the Blue HorizonMud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon-Track listing:All songs by James Taylor unless otherwise noted.#"Love Has Brought Me Around" – 2:41#"You've Got a Friend" – 4:28#"Places in My Past" – 2:01#"Riding on a Railroad" – 2:41#"Soldiers" – 1:13#"Mud Slide Slim" – 5:20...
(#2) - 1972 – One Man DogOne Man Dog-Track listing:All songs by James Taylor unless otherwise noted.#"One Man Parade" – 3:10#"Nobody But You" – 2:57#"Chili Dog" – 1:35#"Fool for You" – 1:42#"Instrumental I" – 0:55#"New Tune" – 1:35#"Back on the Street Again" – 3:00...
(#4) - 1974 - Walking ManWalking ManWalking Man is singer-songwriter James Taylor's fifth album. Released on June 1, 1974, it was not as successful as his previous efforts, only reaching #13 on the Billboard Album Chart. It is also his only studio album not certified gold by the RIAA...
- 1975 – Gorilla (#6)
- 1976 - In The Pocket
- 1977 – JTJT (album)JT is singer-songwriter James Taylor's eighth album, and his first album for Columbia Records. Released in 1977, it contains hit singles in "Handy Man" and "Your Smiling Face" and was Taylor's highest charting album since Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon.This album also contains several Taylor...
(#4) - 1979 – FlagFlag (James Taylor album)Flag is singer-songwriter James Taylor's ninth album. Released in 1979, it included songs from Taylor's music score to Studs Terkel and Stephen Schwartz's Broadway musical, Working ....
(#10) - 1981 – Dad Loves His WorkDad Loves His Work-Track listing:All songs by James Taylor unless otherwise noted.#"Hard Times" – 3:13#"Her Town Too" – 4:34#"Hour That the Morning Comes" – 2:56#"I Will Follow" – 4:19#"Believe It or Not" – 3:53...
(#10) - 1997 – Hourglass (#9)
- 2002 – October Road (#4)
- 2008 – CoversCovers (James Taylor album)Covers is the sixteenth album and the first "covers" album by singer-songwriter James Taylor, released on September 30, 2008. The album was recorded by Taylor's regular touring band. Some of the tunes Taylor had been performing off and on in concerts for years, while others were new to his repertoire...
(#4) - 2010 – Live at the TroubadourLive at the Troubadour (Carole King and James Taylor)Live at the Troubadour is a live album by Carole King and James Taylor released in 2010. The album was recorded at The Troubadour in West Hollywood in November 2007 to celebrate the venue's 50th anniversary...
(with Carole King) (#4)
U.S. Billboard Top 10 'Pop' Singles
- 1970 – "Fire and RainFire and Rain"Fire and Rain" is a folk/rock song written and performed by James Taylor. As a song on his second album, Sweet Baby James, the song engendered widespread attention for him. The album was released in February 1970, with the song being released as a single that month. "Fire and Rain" quickly rose to...
" (#3) - 1971 – "You've Got a FriendYou've Got a Friend"You've Got a Friend" is a song from 1971, originally written and performed by Carole King. It was included in her album Tapestry of 1971, but was made famous by James Taylor's cover version the same year...
" (#1) - 1974 – "MockingbirdMockingbird (Inez & Charlie Foxx song)"Mockingbird" is a 1963 song written and recorded by Inez and Charlie Foxx, based on the folk song "Hush Little Baby".-1960s:The original single was credited to Inez Foxx with vocal accompaniment by her brother Charlie, as they alternated the lyric on a syllabic basis...
" (with Carly Simon) (#5) - 1975 – "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)"How Sweet It Is " is a 1964 hit song written and produced by the Motown songwriting team of Holland–Dozier–Holland. It was originally recorded by American soul singer Marvin Gaye and became one of his most popular songs...
" (#5) - 1977 – "Handy ManHandy Man"Handy Man" is a rock and roll song credited to singer Jimmy Jones and songwriter Otis Blackwell. It was originally recorded by The Sparks Of Rhythm, a group Jones had been a member of when he wrote it, although he was not with them when they recorded it. In 1959, Jones recorded the song himself,...
" (#4)
Other appearances
- He provided acoustic guitar accompaniment for several tracks on Joni MitchellJoni MitchellJoni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
's 1971 album BlueBlue (Joni Mitchell album)Blue is the fourth album of Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. Exploring the various facets of relationships from infatuation on "A Case of You" to insecurity on "This Flight Tonight", the songs feature simple accompaniments on piano, guitar, and Appalachian dulcimer...
. - He provided a guest voice to The SimpsonsThe SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode "Deep Space HomerDeep Space Homer"Deep Space Homer" is the fifteenth episode of The Simpsons fifth season and first aired on February 24, 1994. The episode was directed by Carlos Baeza and was the only episode of The Simpsons written by David Mirkin, who was also the executive producer at the time...
" where he played some of his songs to HomerHomer SimpsonHomer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
, Buzz AldrinBuzz AldrinBuzz Aldrin is an American mechanical engineer, retired United States Air Force pilot and astronaut who was the Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in history...
, and Race Bannon when they were in space. He also appeared later on in the series when the family put together a jigsaw puzzle. His face was the missing final piece. - Performed "Second Star to the Right" on Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films in 1988 as one of Various Artists.
- Taylor performed "The Star-Spangled BannerThe Star-Spangled Banner"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships...
" at Game 2 of the World SeriesWorld SeriesThe World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
in Boston on October 25, 2007, at Game 1 of the 2008 NBA Finals2008 NBA FinalsThe 2008 NBA Finals was the championship series of the 2007–08 NBA season, and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. The Boston Celtics, top-seeded champions of the Eastern Conference, defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, top-seeded champions of the Western Conference, four games to two in a...
in Boston on June 5, 2008, and at the NHL's Winter Classic2010 NHL Winter ClassicThe 2010 NHL Winter Classic, known as the 2010 NHL Winter Classic presented by Bridgestone via corporate sponsorship, was the third edition of the NHL Winter Classic, an annual outdoor ice hockey game held by the National Hockey League , played on January 1, 2010, as a regular season game at...
game between the Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins, the first hockey game ever held at Boston's Fenway Park. - He appeared on Sesame StreetSesame StreetSesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
performing the song "Your Smiling Face" although the song was sung "Your Grouchy Face" as he sang it to Oscar the GrouchOscar the GrouchOscar the Grouch is a Muppet character on the television program Sesame Street. He has a green body , has no nose , and lives in a trash can. His favorite thing in life is trash; evidence for this is the song "I Love Trash". A running theme is his compulsive hoarding of seemingly useless items...
. He also appeared on the Sesame Street video compilation Silly Songs, and the album In Harmony: A Sesame Street Record, performing the song "Jellyman Kelly". - Has appeared on NBC's Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
six times as a musical guest: in 1976 performing "Shower the People," "Roadrunner" (with David SanbornDavid SanbornDavid Sanborn is an American alto saxophonist. Though Sanborn has worked in many genres, his solo recordings typically blend jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He released his first solo album Taking Off in 1975, but has been playing the saxophone since before he was in high school...
), and "Sweet Baby James" (host: Lily TomlinLily TomlinMary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in...
); in 1979 performing "Johnnie Comes Back," "Up on the Roof," and "Millworker" (host: Michael PalinMichael PalinMichael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....
); in 1980 performing with Paul SimonPaul SimonPaul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
"Cathy's Clown / Take Me to the Mardi Gras" (host: Paul Simon); in 1988 performing "Never Die Young," "Sweet Potato Pie," and "Lonesome Road" (host: Robin WilliamsRobin WilliamsRobin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
); in 1991 performing "Stop Thinkin' About That," "Shed A Little Light," and "Sweet Baby James" (Host: Steve MartinSteve MartinStephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....
); and in 1993 performing "Memphis," "Slap Leather," and "Secret of Life" (host: Rosie O'DonnellRosie O'DonnellRoseann "Rosie" O'Donnell is an American stand-up comedian, actress, author and television personality. She has also been a magazine editor and continues to be a celebrity blogger, LGBT rights activist, television producer and collaborative partner in the LGBT family vacation company R Family...
). - He provided background vocals for "Back In The High Life Again" by Steve WinwoodSteve WinwoodStephen Lawrence "Steve" Winwood is an English international recording artist whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is a songwriter and a musician whose genres include soul music , R&B, rock, blues-rock, pop-rock, and jazz...
in 1986. - He performed at a benefit concert supporting John B. AndersonJohn B. AndersonJohn Bayard Anderson is a former United States Congressman and Presidential candidate from Illinois. He was a U.S. Representative from the 16th Congressional District of Illinois for ten terms from 1961 through 1981 and an Independent candidate in the 1980 presidential election. He was previously...
's U.S. presidential campaign at Charleston, West VirginiaCharleston, West VirginiaCharleston is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha Rivers in Kanawha County. As of the 2010 census, it has a population of 51,400, and its metropolitan area 304,214. It is the county seat of Kanawha County.Early...
in 1980. - He provided background vocals for "Perfect LoveMarc Cohn (album)Marc Cohn is the self-titled debut album by American singer-songwriter Marc Cohn, released in 1991.The album peaked at #38 on the Billboard 200 Chart and was RIAA certified Gold on February 12, 1992 and RIAA certified Platinum on April 2, 1996....
" by Marc CohnMarc CohnMarc Craig Cohn is an American folk rock singer-songwriter and musician.- Personal life :Cohn was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from Beachwood High School in Beachwood, a Cleveland suburb. He then attended Oberlin College....
. - He appeared on The West Wing where he played Sam Cooke's A Change is Gonna Come.
- He appeared on the The Johnny Cash ShowThe Johnny Cash Show (TV series)The Johnny Cash Show was an American television music variety show hosted by Johnny Cash. The Screen Gems 58-episode series ran from June 7, 1969 to March 31, 1971 on ABC; it was taped at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. The show reached No...
, singing "Sweet Baby James", "Fire and Rain", and "Country Road", on February 17, 1971. - His song "Fire and Rain" was in the movie Remember the TitansRemember the TitansRemember the Titans is a 2000 American sports film produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Boaz Yakin. Inspired by real events, the plot was conceived from a screenplay written by Gregory Allen Howard. The film starts as a new coach of the Titans, a football team previously coached by the...
and the movie " Running on Empty" in 1988 . - He provided vocals for the song "First Me, Second Me" by the Italian band Elio e le Storie TeseElio e le Storie TeseElio e le Storie Tese , often abbreviated EelST, is an Italian band from Milan, formed in 1980, whose music is clearly inspired to the style of Frank Zappa, both in music and lyrics...
- Along with Linda RonstadtLinda RonstadtLinda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
, he did backup vocals for two hit singles on Neil YoungNeil YoungNeil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
's Harvest: "Old ManOld Man (song)"Old Man" is a song written and performed by Neil Young on his 1972 album Harvest.The song was written for the caretaker of the Northern California Broken Arrow Ranch, which Young purchased for $350,000 in 1970. The song compares a young man's life to an old man's and shows that the young man has,...
" and "Heart of GoldHeart of Gold (song)"Heart of Gold" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young. Released from the 1972 album Harvest, it is so far Young's only U.S. #1 single. In Canada, it reached #1 on the RPM national singles chart for the first time on April 8, 1972, on which date Young held the top spot on both the...
". Twenty years later, the two would reunite with Young on his Harvest MoonHarvest Moon (album)Harvest Moon is the twenty-first studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young, released in 1992. Many of the musicians appearing on it also appeared on his 1972 album Harvest, and this album is considered by many to be a pseudo-sequel to Harvest....
album, singing backup on "From Hank to Hendrix," "War of Man," and the title track. - He made his debut for his 24th album Other CoversOther CoversOther Covers is the second covers album by singer-songwriter James Taylor, released in April 2009 as a follow-up to the previous year's Covers.-History:...
on The Oprah Winfrey ShowThe Oprah Winfrey ShowThe Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
on April 10, 2009. - He appeared on the final of Star AcadémieStar AcadémieStar Académie is a Canadian reality TV series started in 2003, aimed primarily at the Quebec television audience, featuring an array of competing young women and men for the title of the best singer...
, the Quebec version of American IdolAmerican IdolAmerican Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
, on April 13, 2009. - On May 29, 2009, he made a guest appearance and sang "Sweet Baby James" on the final episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno before Leno was replaced by Conan O'BrienConan O'BrienConan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer and performer. Since November 2010 he has hosted Conan, a late-night talk show that airs on the American cable television station TBS....
. - Taylor appeared briefly in the 2009 movie Funny PeopleFunny PeopleFunny People is a 2009 American comedy-drama film written, co-produced and directed by Judd Apatow, and starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, and Leslie Mann. The film was released on 31 July 2009 in North America, and on 28 August 2009 in the United Kingdom. Funny People uses considerably more...
, where he played Carolina in My MindCarolina in My Mind"Carolina in My Mind" is a song written and performed by singer-songwriter James Taylor, which first appeared on his 1968 debut album, James Taylor. Taylor wrote it while overseas recording for The Beatles' label Apple Records, and the song's themes reflect his homesickness at the time. Released as...
for a MySpaceMySpaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
corporate event as the opening act for the main character. - He appeared in 2011 in the ABCAmerican Broadcasting CompanyThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
comedy Mr.Sunshine as the ex-husband of the character played by Allison JanneyAllison JanneyAllison Brooks Janney is an American actress, best known for her role as C.J. Cregg on the television series The West Wing.- Personal life :...
; they exchange some sardonic dialogue and then perform a duet of sorts on Leon RussellLeon RussellClaude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....
's 1970 classic "A Song for YouA Song for You"A Song for You" is a soulful love song written and originally recorded by rock singer-songwriter and pianist Leon Russell for his first solo album 'Leon Russell', which was released in 1970 on Shelter Records. A slow, pained plea for forgiveness and understanding from an estranged lover, the tune...
". - He appeared at the last Taylor Swift concert for the Speak Now tour
External links
- The Official James Taylor website
- The official James Taylor Facebook page
- James Taylor Online
- James Taylor discography
- James Taylor profile, NNDB
- Dedication of James Taylor Bridge
- "Carolina in My Mind" — The James Taylor Story at the Chapel Hill Museum
- 2006 Grammy MusiCares Person of the Year
- James Taylor Tabs
- BBC Radio 2BBC Radio 2BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
, "The James Taylor Story: Parts I & II, presented by Bob HarrisBob Harris (radio)Robert Brinley Joseph "Bob" Harris, OBE , known as "Whispering" Bob Harris, is British radio host who currently works for BBC Radio 2, presenting music two nights a week...
, 13 & 20 January 2004