"Sweet Baby James" is a song written and recorded by James Taylor

James Taylor

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....

 which serves as the opening and title track from his 1970 breakthrough album 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...

. Although never released as a single, it is one of his best-known and most popular tunes, and arguably his signature song

Signature song

A signature song is the one song that a popular and well-established singer or band is most closely identified with or best known for, even if they have had success with a variety of songs...

.

History

The song was written by Taylor for the son of his older brother Alex, who was also named James (and indeed was named after him). Deliberately a cross between a cowboy

Cowboy

A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...

 song and a lullaby

Lullaby

A lullaby is a soothing song, usually sung to young children before they go to sleep, with the intention of speeding that process. As a result they are often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in every culture and since the ancient period....

, it was first thought up by Taylor as he was driving through Carolina to meet his infant nephew for the first time.

Taylor spent considerable effort on the lyrics, whose verses he later said used the most intricate rhyming pattern of his career.

Now the First of December was covered with snow

And so was the Turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston

Lord, the Berkshires seemed dream-like on account of that frostin'

With ten miles behind me and ten thousand more to go

The song is composed as a waltz, in 3/4 time. The chorus echoes the lullaby sentiment, with a reference to "Rock-a-bye Baby

Rock-a-bye Baby

Rock-a-bye Baby is a nursery rhyme and lullaby. The melody is a variant of the English satirical ballad Lilliburlero. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 2768.-Lyrics:...

".

"Sweet Baby James" was included on Taylor's diamond-selling 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....

1976 compilation.

Live performance history

"Sweet Baby James" has been played at virtually every Taylor concert since its release. It is often saved for near or at the end of shows, where it serves as the emotional climax with Taylor performing it as the last encore coming back on stage without his band, or perhaps with just a keyboard player accompanying his guitar.

Invariably, the second verse mentions of the Massachusetts Turnpike

Massachusetts Turnpike

The Massachusetts Turnpike is the easternmost stretch of Interstate 90. The Turnpike begins at the western border of Massachusetts in West Stockbridge connecting with the Berkshire Connector portion of the New York State Thruway...

, Stockbridge

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...

 and The Berkshires

The Berkshires

The Berkshires , is a highland geologic region located in the western parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut.Also referred to as the Berkshire Hills, Berkshire Mountains, and Berkshire Plateau, the region enjoys a vibrant tourism industry based on music, arts, and recreation.-Definition:The term...

, and Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 brings cheers from people in the audience who lived in Massachusetts, once lived there, once went to college there, etc. And if the concert is in Tanglewood

Tanglewood

Tanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home since 1937. It was the venue of the Berkshire Festival.- History...

 or Great Woods, the commotion is enough to pause the song.

A concert performance from 1992 was included on his 1993 album 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...

.

Jay Leno

Jay Leno

James Douglas Muir "Jay" Leno is an American stand-up comedian and television host.From 1992 to 2009, Leno was the host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Beginning in September 2009, Leno started a primetime talk show, titled The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ,...

 requested Taylor's live performance of the song on his final The Tonight Show (first stint) on May 29, 2009. He said he had listened to it on the car radio as he left Boston for Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 in the early 1970s and that the "ten miles behind, ten thousand more to go" line resonated deeply with him.

Other versions

Due to its being closely associated with Taylor, "Sweet Baby James" has not often been attempted by other artists. Tom Rush

Tom Rush

Tom Rush is an American folk and blues singer, songwriter, musician and recording artist.- Life and career :Rush was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His father was a teacher at St. Paul's School, in Concord, New Hampshire. Tom began performing in 1961 while studying at Harvard University after...

, who made a practice of recording material from the best new singer songwriters of the era, put it on his October 1970 album Wrong End of the Rainbow

Wrong End of the Rainbow

Wrong End of the Rainbow is the 1970 album from pioneer Folk rock musician Tom Rush. The music on this album, his second in 1970, tends to lean more torward the Country rock style.-Track listing:...

. The Seldom Scene

The Seldom Scene

The Seldom Scene is an American bluegrass band formed in 1971 in Bethesda, Maryland.-Early history:The band formed out of the weekly jam sessions in the basement of banjo player Ben Eldridge. These sessions included John Starling on guitar and lead vocals, Mike Auldridge on Dobro and baritone...

 added harmony

Harmony

In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...

 on their bluegrass version, released on their debut album Act 1 in 1972. Highway 101

Highway 101 (band)

Highway 101 is an American country music band founded by Paulette Carlson , Jack Daniels , Curtis Stone and Scott "Cactus" Moser . With Carlson as lead vocalist, the band recorded three albums for Warner Bros. Records Nashville and charted ten consecutive Top Ten hits on the Hot Country Songs...

 closed their 1989 album Paint the Town

Paint the Town

Paint the Town is the third album by the American country music band Highway 101. The last of their albums featuring Paulette Carlson as lead vocalist, it included the Billboard Country #1 "Who's Lonely Now," the #4 "Walkin', Talkin', Cryin', Barely Beatin' Broken Heart," and the #11 "This Side of...

with it.

Cultural references

Many listeners have thought the song was about, or additionally about, Taylor himself — a "self lullaby" being a reasonable interpretation given the name and "singing works just fine for me" lyric — and so Taylor is often referred to in the press by the nickname "Sweet Baby James". On ABC's "Good Morning America" on September 15, 2008, Taylor acknowledged "there was that element" about the song.

This appellation has been used in other contexts as well. Celebrity chef James Martin

James Martin (chef)

James Martin , is an English cook who first appeared on television in 1996.-Television career:...

 has a BBC 2 show about desserts called Sweet Baby James, a 2005 episode of the Pokémon: Battle Frontier animated series is called "Sweet Baby James", and one of the producers of syndicated radio's The Sean Hannity Show

The Sean Hannity Show

The Sean Hannity Show is a talk radio show hosted by Sean Hannity on Citadel Media and Premiere Radio Networks. The program is broadcast live every weekday, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m...

is consistently referred to on-air as "Sweet Baby" James.