James Taylor

Induction Year: 2000

Induction Category: Performer

James Taylor was the pre-eminent singer/songwriter of the Seventies and has remained a solid musical craftsman and performer. Born in Boston in 1948, Taylor grew up in the university town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He summered with his family on Martha’s Vineyard, where he met fellow guitarist/songwriter Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar and began performing. Beset by drug problems, he voluntarily institutionalized himself and began writing songs during his stay. Moving to New York , Taylor formed the Flying Machine with Kortchmar in 1966. After their breakup, he headed to London, where he lived for a year. He cut a demo tape that got him signed to the Beatles’ Apple Records by A&R man Peter Asher, who became his manager and producer. The debut album James Taylor (1968) contained Taylor’s classic “Carolina in My Mind.”

In 1969, he signed to Warner Bros. and moved to California, where he recorded the classic Sweet Baby James with a band that included guitarist Kortchmar and Carole King on piano. Released in March 1970, the album offered its share of signature songs, including “Fire and Rain,” “Sunny Skies,” “Country Road” and “Sweet Baby James.” Its phenomenal success helped usher in an age of “new troubadours"--including such singer/songwriters as , , and --who pointed popular music in a quieter, more introspective direction after the turbulent Sixties.

His third album, Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon (1971), found Taylor-mania in full swing. It was certified platinum the month of its release and reaches #2 on Billboard’s album chart. Taylor’s version of Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend” became his first--and, to date, only--#1 single. It won Grammys both for Taylor (Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male ) and King (Song of the Year). A 1971 cover story in Rolling Stone proclaimed James Taylor and his musical siblings--sister Kate and brothers Livingston, Alex and Hugh--"the first family of the new rock.”

Taylor remained a prolific recording artist throughout the Seventies, releasing a string of solid albums: One Man Dog (1972), Walking Man (1974), Gorilla (1975) and In the Pocket (1976). Such breezy, soulful singles as “How Sweet It Is (to Be Loved by You)” and “Mockingbird,” a duet with Carly Simon, made the Top Five. His reign as a pop icon culminated in the December 1976 release of Greatest Hits, which has sold more than 11 million copies. Taylor’s combined catalog has sold an astonishing 30 million copies to date.

In 1977, Taylor moved to Columbia Records, where he debuted with JT, an album that found him in peak form as a folk-pop stylist whose songcraft cut deeply. The pace of his releases has slowed over the years, but his work has intensified in its depth and craft. His later albums, notably New Moon Shine (1991) and Hourglass (1997), rank with his best. In fact, Hourglass won Taylor a coveted Grammy for Best Pop Album in 1998. Taylor’s hit-filled live shows are renowned for their exquisitely polished musicianship. James Taylor (LIVE), A double CD released in 1993, was a career-spanning triumph that documented his exacting artistry onstage.

TIMELINE

March 12, 1948: James Taylor is born in Boston, Massachusetts.

Summer 1963: James Taylor performs with longtime friend and guitarist Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar on Martha’s Vineyard, winning a local hootenanny competition.

Summer 1966: James Taylor and Kortchmar form the Flying Machine in New York’s Greenwich Village. Their demos are later released as James Taylor and the Original Flying Machine 1967 on the Euphoria label.

December 6, 1968: James Taylor is issued in England on the Beatles’ Apple label. Taylor is the first non-Beatle signed to Apple.

December 1, 1969: James Taylor moves to California and begins working on a new album, ‘Sweet Baby James’, for a new label, Warner Bros.

1970: James Taylor’s breakthrough ‘Sweet Baby James’ released.

March 14, 1970: ‘Sweet Baby James’ enters the Billboard chart, where it will remain for over a hundred weeks, peaking at #3 and launching the singer/songwriter movement.

October 31, 1970: James Taylor hits #3 with “Fire & Rain”.

March 1, 1971: ‘Time’ puts James Taylor on its cover shortly before the release of his hotly anticipated third album, Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon. Its first single, “You’ve Got a Friend” (written by Carole King), hits #1 on July 31st.

July 31, 1971: James Taylor hits #1 with “You’ve Got a Friend”.

November 6, 1971: James Taylor hits #31 with “Long Ago and Far Away.”

November 3, 1972: James Taylor and Carly Simon are married in Manhattan. Their marriage lasts ten years and yields two children, Sarah and Benjamin.

January 13, 1973: James Taylor hits #14 with “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight.”

March 23, 1974: “Mockingbird,” a remake of the 1963 Inez and Charlie Foxx hit by James Taylor and Carly Simon, peaks at #5.

August 10, 1974: Carly Simon and James Taylor hits #5 with “Mockingbird”.

September 18, 1976: James Taylor hits #22 with “Shower the People.”

November 1, 1976: James Taylor’s ‘Greatest Hits’ album, featuring newly recorded versions of “Carolina in My Mind” and “Something in the Way She Moves,” is released. A steady seller that never rose higher than #23, it has been certified platinum 11 times over and remains Taylor’s best-selling album.

June 24, 1977: Having switched labels, James Taylor’s first album for Columbia Records, ‘JT’, is released. It yields hit singles in “Handy Man” and “Your Smiling Face” and becomes Taylor’s highest charting album since Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon.

October 17, 1985: ‘That’s Why I’m Here’, James Taylor’s first album since ‘Dad Loves His Work’ appeared four years earlier, is released. The only other album by Taylor that will appear in this decade is Never Die Young (1988).

October 1, 1991: James Taylor’s ‘New Moon Shine’, featuring the autobiographical opening track “Copperline,” is released.

July 20, 1993: ‘James Taylor (LIVE)’, a double CD culled from 14 shows during a November 1992 East Coast tour, is released. A year later it appears in abbreviated single-disc form as ‘(Best LIVE)’.

May 6, 1997: James Taylor inducts into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Cleveland.

May 20, 1997: Hourglass, James Taylor’s first studio album in eight years, is released to glowing notices.

March 6, 2000: James Taylor is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the fifteenth annual induction dinner. is his presenter.

Essential Recordings

Walking Man
Country Road
Secret O’ Life
Fire and Rain
You’ve Got a Friend
Shower the People
Copperline
Something in the Way She Moves
Carolina in My Mind
Steamroller Blues

Recommended Reading

“James Taylor: Portrait of a Walking Man.”
Timothy White. Rolling Stone (June 11, 1981): 28-32.

“Still Singing the Blues.”
Sam. Allis Time (May 19, 1997).

“The First Family of the New Rock.”
Timothy Crouse. Rolling Stone (February 16, 1971): 34-37.

“The Rolling Stone Interview: James Taylor.”
Peter Herbst. Rolling Stone (September 6, 1979): 38-43.