James Taylor, born in Boston in 1948, was the first non-British artist signed to the Beatles' Apple Records and became a defining voice of the 1970s singer-songwriter movement. Sweet Baby James (1970) — home of Fire and Rain — and JT (1977) are the essentials. Explore James Taylor vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
James Vernon Taylor was born in Boston, Massachusetts on March 12, 1948 and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He was the first non-British artist signed to the Beatles' Apple Records, releasing his self-titled debut James Taylor (1968) on the label. His move to Warner Bros. produced the landmark Sweet Baby James (1970), with the hit single Fire and Rain becoming a defining song of the early-1970s singer-songwriter movement. He was married to singer-songwriter Carly Simon from 1972 to 1983. He has won six Grammy Awards across multiple decades and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. He continued releasing material across multiple decades, with Hourglass (1997) winning the Grammy for Best Pop Album and Before This World (2015) reaching number one on the Billboard 200.
James Taylor's sound combines singer-songwriter, soft rock, folk rock, country rock, and Americana with his distinctive warm tenor vocal delivery and fingerpicked acoustic guitar work. His foundational influence on the 1970s singer-songwriter movement and on subsequent generations of American folk-rock is widely documented.
Original Warner Bros. and Columbia pressings of the 1970s James Taylor catalog are widely collected. Multiple anniversary editions, audiophile reissues, and the comprehensive Warner Archives reissue programs have been released.
Listeners new to James Taylor typically start with Sweet Baby James (1970) or JT (1977).
