10 Best James Taylor Songs

James Vernon Taylor became the figurehead of the early 1970s singer-songwriter movement. He appeared on the cover of Time magazine with the headline “the face of the new rock”, where he was compared to Heathcliff and to a “cowboy Jesus”.

Taylor peaked early – I’m not sure that he’s ever topped 1970’s breakthrough Sweet Baby James or its 1971 follow-up Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon – half of the songs on this list are drawn from those two records. But he’s remained a popular live attraction, and he often feels effortlessly talented with his warm voice and accomplished guitar picking. He also inspired the name of one of pop music’s most successful stars.

Here are ten of his best songs – apologies for fans of ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ (I prefer Carole King’s version) and ‘How Sweet It Is (to Be Loved By You)’.

10 Best James Taylor Songs

#10 Only a Dream in Rio

from That’s Why I’m Here, 1985
Many rockers of the 1960s and 1970s struggled with the changing musical fashions of the 1980s. In Taylor’s case, his 1980s albums sound slightly over-arranged – never a tough-sounding musician, he drifts too close to toothless easy listening. ‘Only a Dream in Rio’ sounds better in the 1988 live version with Milton Nascimento that I’ve posted below. But this is a strong tune that means a lot for Taylor – struggling with drug addiction, he stepped off the stage after playing Rock in Rio and successfully resolved to kick his drug habit for good.

#9 Country Road

from Sweet Baby James, 1970
‘Country Road’ was Taylor’s follow-up single to his breakthrough ‘Fire and Rain’. It was inspired by a bout of depression in 1965 – he’d walk along Somerset Street in Belmont Massachusetts, next to the hospital he’d committed himself to. Randy Meisner, who’d shortly join the Eagles, plays bass. It’s notable for the line “Sail on home to Jesus won’t you good girls and boys/I’m all in pieces, you can have your own choice”.

#8 One Morning In May

from One Man Dog, 1972
Taylor’s 1972 album One Man Dog is unusual, packing 18 songs into a 36-minute single disc. ‘Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight’ was the single, but I’ve always been partial to his cover of this English folk song. Taylor’s joined by Linda Ronstadt, who sings backing vocals and takes the lead for a couple of lines. The duet makes sense as the song tells the story of a soldier and a lady besotted by his fiddle-playing.

#7 Steamroller Blues

from Sweet Baby James, 1970
There’s little blues in James Taylor’s musical DNA – he largely draws from folk and country. But he delivers a spot-on parody of ineffective blues bands on ‘Steamroller’. I’m less fond of the live version on his 1976 Greatest Hits, which becomes the the overblown blues monster that Taylor was parodying in the first place.

‘Steamroller’ was often covered by other artists – most famously, Elvis Presley recorded a version in 1973.

We played this eight-month long gig at a place called the Night Owl Cafe down in Greenwich Village in New York. It used to be a McDougal and Third, but it might have moved since then. I don’t know. Anyhow, at that time there were a lot of so-called blues groups in New York City, you know? And they were making a lot of noise with electric guitars and amplifiers that their parents had bought them for Christmas and birthdays and stuff. Their idea of soul was volume. They’d just crank it up, you know? And they were singing all these heavy songs like “I’m a Man” or “I’m a Jackhammer” or “I’m a Steamship” … whatever … “I’m the Queen Mary” [laughter] … “I’m a Ton of Bricks.”

And we weren’t to be left out of all this. So I wrote this next song, which is the heaviest blues tune I know, ladies and gentlemen … called “I’m a Steamroller.”

James Taylor, 1970 BBC broadcast

#6 Your Smiling Face

from JT, 1977
Taylor feels too slick on 1977’s JT, using polished LA musicians like Leland Sklar and Russ Kunkel and a string arrangement from David Campbell. But it all comes together on this charming tune – its fast pace and harmonic sophistication make the busy arrangement work perfectly. It sounds like a romantic love song but was written for Taylor’s three-year-old daughter Sally.

#5 Long Ago and Far Away

from Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon, 1971
Taylor’s 1976 Greatest Hits defines his early canon – this track missed the cut, so it’s been half-forgotten. It features singer-songwriter royalty – Carole King is on piano, and Joni Mitchell is on backing vocals. Taylor biographer Timothy White names ‘Long Ago and Far Away’ as “among the most wistful of Taylor’s vast catalogue of secular hymns.” The arrangement is low-key, giving lots of room for the emotion in Taylor’s voice, as he delivers lines like “Where do those golden rainbows end?/Why is this song so sad?”

#4 Copperline

from New Moon Shine, 1991
Most of these songs come from the 1970s, but Taylor delivered one of his best songs more than two decades after Sweet Baby James. Taylor worked with author Reynolds Price on the song – both men grew up in North Carolina. It’s autobiographical, telling of Taylor’s childhood in Chapel Hill, although Price’s turn of phrase helps the tune immensely – he’s able to pull off triple rhymes effortlessly.

Copper head, copper beech
Copper kettles sitting side by each
Copper coil, cup o’Georgia peach

There’s a bittersweet ending to the song, Taylor dismayed by the proliferation of prefab houses – “I tried to go back, as if I could/All spec house and plywood/Tore up and tore up good.” It’s gorgeous musically too, with lovely fiddle and fingerpicked guitar and one of Taylor’s most memorable melodies.

#3 Mud Slide Slim

from Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon, 1971
Like others on this list, this tune wasn’t a single. It’s a shame, as it successfully breaks away from Taylor’s usual singer-songwriter style. Instead, it uses a funk groove, while remaining laid-back enough to fit Taylor’s languid style. The song was inspired by a photo sent to Taylor of a fire-damaged tree that had been washed down a hill by a mudslide – someone had stuck a note to the tree that read “I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain.”

#2 Carolina In My Mind

from James Taylor, 1968, rerecorded version on Greatest Hits, 1976
James Taylor was one of the highest profile artists to sign to The Beatles’ Apple label. His only album for the label was his debut – ‘Carolina in My Mind’ was written about Taylor’s homesickness while in England recording. He finished the song while stranded in Ibiza with a Swedish girl named Karin – hence the line “Karen, she’s a silver sun.”

George Harrison sang backing vocals and Paul McCartney played bass on the original song. The fast pace and baroque feel didn’t bring out all of its potential. Instead, the definitive version of the song is found on 1976’s Greatest Hits. Peter Asher, formerly of Peter and Gordon, produces both, but Taylor is backed by an LA soft rock crew, with Andrew Gold on backing vocals.

#1 Fire And Rain

from Sweet Baby James, 1970
‘Fire and Rain’ was music as therapy. It addresses several traumatic events in Taylor’s life – the failure of his band James Taylor and the Original Flying Machine, his struggles with depression and addiction, and the suicide of his friend Suzanne while he was in England recording his first album.

It’s gorgeous, with Taylor backed by Carole King’s piano. King took the line “I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend” as inspiration for her song ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ – Taylor covered the song and turned it into a hit.

Did I miss your favourite James Taylor song?

Read more

• 10 best Cat Stevens songs
• 10 best Carole King songs
• 1970s album reviews