AccuRadio Song Of The Day-James Taylor

Artist:James Taylor

Song:How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)

Album:The Essential James Taylor

James Taylor's 1975 cover of the Motown classic How Sweet It Is was his final top ten hit before he left Warner Bros. for Columbia in 1979. At the time, Taylor took some time off after he married Carly Simon and Warners was bugging him to get back into the recording studio. The 1974 album Walking Man was a commercial failure with no hit singles. Taylor decided his 1975 album Gorilla would be more polished and commercial with a lighter tone. Warners house producers Russ Titleman and Lenny Waronker were brought in to make sure the album would be successful. How Sweet It Is was the first single and it reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Of course that song was originally a hit for Marvin Gaye in 1964 and written and produced by Holland-Dozier-Holland. It was lighter in tone than Taylor's previous hits. Carly Simon was on harmony vocals. Musicians were Danny Kotchmar on guitar, Clarence McDonald on electric piano, Leland Sklar on bass and Russ Kunkel and Jim Keltner on drums. David Sanborn plays the sax solo and he plays it on the video. It is believed that Taylor recorded this song as a tribute to Carly. So all was well with Taylor and Warner Bros., right? Wrong. Taylor was unhappy at Warners and he had one album left on his contract. While he was recording the 1976 album In the Pocket, Taylor talked to labels and settled on Columbia. They offered him a whole lot more money and promised a more attentive production. Taylor's Columbia debut album was the 1977 album JT. And his cover of the Jimmy Jones classic Handy Man was a top five hit. The album was produced by Peter Asher who worked with Taylor when he was at Apple. This 2CD comp contains a mix of Warners and Columbia hits. Taylor sued Warner Bros. in 2012 for $2M of unpaid royalties mostly from digital downloads. After an audit was done, Warners settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. So I guess Taylor got his pound of flesh. Here's James Taylor performing How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) at the Blossom Music Festival at Cuyahoga Falls, OH. July 18, 1979. And that is David Sanborn on sax.