Sweet Baby James

Infobox Album |
Name = Sweet Baby James
Type = Album
Artist = James Taylor


Released = February, 1970
Recorded = December, 1969 at Sunset Sound
Genre = Rock
Length = 31:51
Label = Warner Bros. Records
Producer = Peter Asher
Reviews =
* Allmusic Rating|5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:ojdnvwdva9ik~T1 link]
*"Rolling Stone" [http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/300988/sweet_baby_james link]
*Robert Christgau (B-) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=james+taylor link]
Last album = "James Taylor"
(1968)
This album = "Sweet Baby James"
(1970)
Next album = "James Taylor and the Original Flying Machine"
(1971)

"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 earliest single successes: "Fire and Rain", which reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album itself also managed to reach #3 on the Billboard Album Charts. Sweet Baby James made of Taylor one of the main forces of the ascendent folk movement. The album was nominated to a Grammy Award for Album of the Year, in 1971.

The song "Suite for 20 G" was so named because Taylor was promised $20,000 once the album was delivered. With one more song needed, he strung together three unfinished songs into a "suite," and completed the album. [ [http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=4609 Suite For 20G by James Taylor Songfacts] ]

Track listing

All songs by James Taylor unless otherwise noted.
#"Sweet Baby James" – 2:48
#"Lo and Behold" – 2:34
#"Sunny Skies" – 2:15
#"Steamroller Blues" – 2:55
#"Country Road" – 3:21
#"Oh! Susanna" (Stephen Foster) – 1:58
#"Fire and Rain" – 3:20
#"Blossom" – 2:10
#"Anywhere Like Heaven" – 3:23
#"Oh Baby, Don't You Loose Your Lip on Me" – 1:45
#"Suite for 20 G" – 4:45

Personnel

*James Taylor — guitar, vocals
*Jack Bielan — brass
*Chris Darrow — fiddle, violin
*Carole King — piano, vocals
*Danny Kortchmar — guitar
*Russ Kunkel — drums
*John London — bass
*Randy Meisner — bass
*Red Rhodes — steel guitar
*Leland Sklar — bass
*Bobby West — double bass

Awards and recognition

*In 2003 the TV network VH1 named "Sweet Baby James" the 77th greatest album of all time.
*RS500|104

References