Greatest Hits (CD - 1976)

Personnel includes: James Taylor (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars); Danny Kootch (acoustic guitar, congas); David Spinozza, Danny Kortchmar (guitar); Dan Dugmore, Red Rhodes (steel guitar); Byron Berline (fiddle); David Sanborn, Michael Brecker (saxophone); Clarence McDonald (piano, Fender Rhodes, keyboards); Carole King (piano); Kenny Ascher (electric piano); Andrew Gold (harmonium, background vocals); Victor Feldman (vibraphone); Bobby West (acoustic bass); Lee Sklar, John London, Randy Meisner, Andy Muson (bass); Russ Kunkel (drums, congas, cabasa); Jim Keltner, Rick Marotta (drums); Ralph MacDonald, Milt Holland (percussion); Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Herb Pedersen (background vocals).

Producers: Peter Asher, David Spinozza, Lenny Waronker, Russ Titelman.

Principally recorded at Sound Factory, Sunset Sound, Crystal Recording Studios and Warner Bros. Recording Studios, Hollywood, California between 1969 & 1976.

Personnel: James Taylor (vocals, guitar); Carly Simon (vocals); David Spinozza (guitar); Michael Brecker (tenor saxophone); Carole King (piano); Clarence McDonald (Fender Rhodes piano); Victor Feldman (vibraphone); Lee Sklar, John London (bass guitar); Jim Keltner, Rick Marotta, Russ Kunkel (drums); Danny Kootch (congas).

James Taylor had scored eight Top 40 hits by the fall of 1976 when Warner Brothers marked the end of his contract with this compilation. One of those hits, the Top Ten gold single "Mockingbird," a duet with his wife Carly Simon, was on Elektra Records, part of the Warner family of labels and presumably available, but it was left off. "Long Ago and Far Away," a lesser hit (though it made the Top Ten on the easy listening charts), wasn't used either. In addition to the six hits -- "Fire and Rain," "Country Road," "You've Got a Friend," "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight," "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)," and "Shower the People" -- that were included, the album featured a couple of less successful singles, "Mexico" and "Walking Man," the album track "Sweet Baby James," and three previously unreleased recordings -- a live version of "Steamroller" and newly recorded versions of "Something in the Way She Moves" and "Carolina in My Mind," songs featured on Taylor's 1968 debut album, recorded for Apple/Capitol. The result was a reasonable collection for an artist who wasn't particularly well-defined by his singles. One got little sense of Taylor's evolution from the dour, confessional songs of his first two albums to the more conventional pop songs of his sixth and seventh ones. But one did hear isolated examples of Taylor's undeniable warmth and facility for folk/country-tinged pop. By the next summer, Taylor was back in the Top Ten on Columbia, and Greatest Hits was out of date. But it remains a good sampler of Taylor's more popular early work. ~ William Ruhlmann

What self-respecting '70s pop music fan's collection would be complete without James Taylor's GREATEST HITS? Not many, apparently, since it is one of the biggest selling catalog titles of all time. All of Taylor's huge hits from the first, and possibly most acclaimed, leg of his long career are included. "Fire And Rain," "You've Got A Friend," "Sweet Baby James" and "How Sweet It Is" sound as golden as the day they were first heard on the radio.

Interestingly, two of the songs here, "Something In the Way She Moves" and "Carolina In My Mind" from Taylor's first album have been re-recorded especially for this collection. Special guests like Carole King, Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash, David Crosby and David Sanborn add an extra special something to the atmosphere. Listening to these songs together in one collection takes you back to a gentler time when a carefully crafted song was a thing of beauty and not just a product to be marketed like so many shiny trinkets. If you are among the few who don't already own this special collection, what are you waiting for? minimize