20 of his greatest singles and most popular album tracks released on Apple, Warner Bros. and Columbia/Sony. Slipcase. 2003.
Any good singer can interpret a song, but it takes a stylist to make it his own. James Taylor is a stylist. This 20-track anthology obviously can't chronicle much more than the hits and high points of Taylor's career, but it nonetheless captures the artistic essence of a performer who's become a virtual synonym for "singer-songwriter" since his emergence in the late '60s. A lot of ink has been spilled ruminating about Taylor's role in soothing a '60s-burned generation, but given his own well-known demons (depression, addiction) his gentle voice often sounds like the physician wisely healing himself. His muse seems fully formed from the opening "Something in the Way She Moves," a track cut for the Beatles' Apple label in late ‘68 (and one that seems to share some symbiotic relationship with George Harrison's own classic "Something" from the period), its tone at once familiar and inviting--if ripe for a few decades of parody--as it wends its way from his seminal early '70s hits through a slate of later originals, R&B ("How Sweet It Is," "Handy Man") and pop ("Up On the Roof") covers. Tellingly, he delivers those chestnuts with an offhand confidence and illumination that makes them his own, a sense that informs even his jazz and Brazilian ("Only a Dream a Rio") flirtations. The set's newly recorded bonus cut, John Sheldon's "Bittersweet," is a pleasant pop confection that showcases Taylor's knack for being laconic and upbeat in the same breath. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Material Ruined by Excess Compression
Comment: this cd has almost everything you could want from a J.T. best of, however the sound is extremely loud...almost unplayable, if you spin it for longer than 20 minutes, you will have a headache and frayed nerves....I had to get rid of mine for that reason; also, the swearing in "steamroller blues" is edited, what the hell for?

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great CD
Comment: The best of james Taylor makes me smile and think positive thoughts ! Great CD

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Customer Rating:
Summary: James Taylor the Best
Comment: Can't do better than Best of James, unless you see him live.
prefect for everyday misic in 50 something home!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The title says it all!
Comment: First,I'd like to wish James Taylor happy 60th birthday. This is a very good collection consuming the contents of his GREATEST HITS package with a few others from his Columbia Records era(Taylor has recorded on the label since 1977). This disc could use HER TOWN TOO(duet with J.D. Souther on 1981's DAD LOVES HIS WORK).

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Discovery
Comment: I have just discovered the many things James Taylor writes and sings about. I got this album to get a copy of "How Sweet It Is" and found several other songs I like almost as much.

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