Sept 12th in Pop History
On this day, September 12th, in:
• 1970 - James Taylor debuted on the charts for the first time with his single Fire And Rain.
Fire and Rain was his first big hit. It is a story about the suicide of a friend, and includes the themes that came to define his songwriting – the precarity of our emotional lives, and happiness as something to be treasured. The line “I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend,” prompted Carole King to write the song You’ve Got a Friend for him in response. The following year (1971) that song would be included on her album Tapestry, as well as released by Taylor as a single (from his new album Mud Slide Slim), and which would go all the way to the top of the charts to become his first number one hit.
(Source: Jenny Stevens, The Guardian)
“James Taylor looks out at the sprawling London skyline. “This is where it started,” he says. “The moment.” He made his first trip here in 1968, playing for Paul McCartney and George Harrison and becoming the first artist signed to the Beatles’ record label, Apple Records. This was before he moved to Laurel Canyon with the rest of the denim-draped California dreamers who defined the sound of the late 60s and far beyond. Before he met David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King and Joni Mitchell. Before he and Mitchell fell in love. Before he wrote his pivotal album Sweet Baby James during a stint in a psychiatric hospital. Before his marriage to Carly Simon, which opened up his personal life – including his long battle with heroin addiction – to public consciousness. Before he sold 100 million records….”
His 1976 Greatest Hits album was certified Diamond, and has sold 12 million US copies. Following his 1977 album JT, he retained a large, faithful audience over the decades. In fact, every album that he released from 1977 to 2007 sold over 1 million copies. He also enjoyed a resurgence in chart performance during the late 1990s and 2000s, when he recorded some of his most-awarded work (including Hourglass, October Road, and Covers).
James Taylor is a six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 100 million records worldwide. And he is one of my top five favorite artists.
Here’s Fire and Rain on Spotify:
Here’s Greatest Hits from 1976 on Spotify:
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Also, on this day, Sept. 12th, in…
• 1960 - The song had only been out nine weeks and five of those were at # 1 for Elvis Presley — It's Now Or Never. Waiting in the runner-up position was The Twist from Chubby Checker
• 1979 - My Sharona by the Knack hits # 1 and stays at the top for 6 weeks
• 1981 - Endless Love from Diana Ross & Lionel Richie remained # 1 for a fourth week on the R&B chart
• 1989 - Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville released their version of the great Bill Medley song Don't Know Much
