James Taylor

• Born: March 12, 1948
• Place of Birth: Boston, Massachusetts

• AMERICAN FOLK-ROCK SINGER-SONGWRITER

A popular singer-songwriter, Taylor is noted for his autobiographical, melodic, soft rock- and country-flavored tunes, sung in a warm, pleasant voice.

The Life

One of five children, James Taylor was born into a wealthy family in Boston, Massachusetts, to Isaac and Gertrude (Woodard) Taylor. He grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where his father served as dean of the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina. Interested in music from an early age—like siblings Alex, Kate, Hugh, and Livingston Taylor, who also became professional musicians—Taylor took cello lessons, and he learned to play guitar before entering Milton Academy, a Massachusetts prep school. Taylor eventually dropped out of school to play in a band. Later, he underwent treatment for depression and drug addiction, problems that have periodically recurred.

Taylor began recording in 1968, and he has released more than twenty albums, most to critical and commercial success. In 1972, he married singer-songwriter Carly Simon, and they had two children before divorcing in 1983. Taylor was married to actress Kathryn Walker from 1985 to 1995. He has been married since 2001 to Caroline Smedvig, and they have twin sons. A longtime liberal and environmental activist, Taylor and his family settled in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

The Music

Voluntarily institutionalized in his late teens for drug abuse and for emotional problems, Taylor began writing songs during rehabilitation, and he restored himself through his music. The first artist not associated with the Beatles to sign with Apple Records—his debut there was not successful—Taylor had a hit with his second album in 1970. A consummate professional and a charismatic performer, he has released a steady stream of recordings featuring thoughtful, personal lyrics and lilting melodies with hymn-like progressions and structure, flavored by the country-and-western songs he listened to as a child. Though Taylor’s output of original material has slowed since the late 1970s in favor of live albums and compilations, he has remained a popular performer throughout his career. Of his more than twenty-five albums released since 1968, fourteen have been certified as platinum or multiplatinum, and five have been certified as gold—despite the fact that he has garnered only one number-one hit: his 1971 cover of Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend.” Sweet Baby James. A 1970 release for Warner Bros., Taylor’s second solo effort was backed with a corps of seasoned session musicians (Carole King, piano and vocals; Danny Kortchmar, guitar; Russ Kunkel, drums; Randy Meisner, bass; and Leland Sklar, bass). Together, they produced a series of Taylor-penned hits that have become soft-rock standards: “Sunny Skies,” “Country Road,” “Fire and Rain,” and the title track. In 2003, the triple platinum album appeared on both VHI’s and Rolling Stone’s lists of the greatest albums of all time.

Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon. Taylor’s third album, released in 1971, is notable primarily for producing his sole number-one single: his interpretation of King’s “You’ve Got a Friend,” though another song from the album, “Long Ago and Far Away,” also made it into the Top 40 charts. “You’ve Got a Friend” earned Grammy Awards for both Taylor (Best Pop Male Vocal Performance) and King (Song of the Year).

Gorilla. A 1975 release, this was Taylor’s sixth album, and, in addition to his regular stable of session musicians (Kortchmar, Kunkel, Sklar), it featured the backing vocals of David Crosby, Graham Nash, Linda Ronstadt, and Simon, his wife at the time. A gold album, Gorilla produced two Billboard Hot 100 singles: “Mexico” and the Brian Holland-Lamont Dozier-Edward Holland classic “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You),” which rose to number five on the pop charts.

Dad Loves His Work. Released in 1981, this album is the last recording before Taylor divorced Simon. Simon had demanded that the singer reduce his touring to spend more time with his children, and the album title reflects Taylor’s attitude toward his wife’s ultimatum. The platinum album produced two songs that charted in the Top 20: “Hard Times” and “Her Town Too.”

Hourglass. A 1997 release, Hourglass yielded no hits, but it received high critical acclaim, and it was commercially successful, becoming certified platinum. Featuring diverse backup personnel (Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Branford Marsalis, soprano saxophone; Stevie Wonder, harmonica; Shawn Colvin, Valerie Carter, and Sting, vocals), Hourglass won the Best Pop Album Grammy Award with such tracks as “Little More Time With You,” “Yellow and Rose,” and “Jump Up Behind Me,” the last a tribute to Taylor’s father, who came to his son’s aid during Taylor’s addiction to heroin.

Musical Legacy

In the forefront of a trend of introspective singer-songwriters, Taylor—along with such contemporaries as Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash—helped pave the way for a softer, more leisurely brand of music in the early 1970s. One of the most accessible and successful of these melodic, down-tempo artists, Taylor had more than twenty of his efforts chart in the Top 100 between 1970 and 1988—though his first number one did not come until 2015, when the album Before This World topped the chart a few weeks after its release. Many of his songs, such as “Fire and Rain,” “Handy Man,” “Shower the People,” and “Carolina in My Mind,” are mainstays on radio playlists. In addition to his many platinum and gold albums, Taylor has been honored with six Grammy Awards (1971, 1977, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2020), and he was the Grammy MusiCares Person of the Year in 2006. He was inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, he received the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement in 2004, and in the same year he was named on the Rolling Stone list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. He was given the Kennedy Center Honors for his lifetime contribution to American culture in 2016. In 2022, the artist was granted an honorary doctorate degree from the New England Conservatory. Taylor was the recipient of the 2024 Tanglewood Medal, presented by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, for his exceptional accomplishments as a musician. Taylor was only the fourth recipient of the prestigious award. The inaugural medal was awarded to the late Seiji Ozawa, the Boston Symphony's music director, in 2012.

Principal Recordings

ALBUMS: James Taylor, 1968; Sweet Baby James, 1970; Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon, 1971; One Man Dog, 1972; Walking Man, 1974; Gorilla, 1975; In the Pocket, 1976; J. T., 1977; Flag, 1979; Dad Loves His Work, 1981; That’s Why I’m Here, 1985; Never Die Young, 1988; New Moon Shine, 1991; Hourglass, 1997; October Road, 2002; A Christmas Album, 2004; James Taylor at Christmas, 2006; One Man Band, 2007; Covers, 2008; American Standard, 2020.

SINGLES: “Mockingbird,” 1974 (with Carly Simon); “Devoted to You,” 1978 (with Simon).

Bibliography

"BSO to Honor James Taylor with 2024 Tanglewood Medal on His 50th Anniversary." BSO, 2024, www.bso.org/press/bso-to-honor-james-taylor-with-2024-tanglewood-medal-on-his-50th-anniversary. Accessed 15 Oct. 2024.

Halperin, Ian. Fire and Rain: The James Taylor Story. New York: Citadel, 2000.

Mansfield, Ken. The White Book: The Beatles, the Bands, the Biz—An Insider’s Look at an Era. Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 2007.

Risberg, Joel. The James Taylor Encyclopedia. Morrisville, N.C.: Joel Risberg, 2005.

Weller, Sheila. Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon—and the Journey of a Generation. New York: Atria, 2008.

White, Timothy. Long Ago and Far Away: James Taylor, His Life and Music. London: Omnibus Press, 2001.