You've Got A Friend
James Taylor
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Browse piano sheets by James Taylor on Zen Virtual Piano. Britannica describes Taylor’s gentle tenor as carrying contemplative songs, rooted in complex chord changes and influenced by Appalachian folk music, Hank Williams and early soul vocalists, set against his deft accompaniment on acoustic guitar. The songs were also set against rock-oriented backing from a regular group of studio musicians that included Danny Kortchmar. A gentle voice over complicated chords suggests songs whose calm surface hides a good deal of craft, with the ease of delivery hiding the effort behind it. James Taylor was born on 12 March 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in an upper-middle-class North Carolina family. As a child in North Carolina Taylor had cello lessons, and in 1960 he learned the guitar; his technique derived from the bass-clef orientation of his cello training and from experiments on his sister Kate’s keyboards. In his words, “My style was a finger-picking style that was meant to be like a piano, as if my thumb were my left hand, and my first, second, and third fingers were my right hand.” A childhood cello student who learned guitar in 1960 and experimented on his sister’s keyboards can be read as a player who found his own way to cover several musical roles on one instrument. Taylor played in bands with his brother Alex and his friend Danny Kortchmar, then went to England, where his debut album came out on the Beatles’ Apple label in 1968 and went largely unnoticed. Fire and Rain, a No. 3 hit, was his breakthrough; in 1971 his recording of You’ve Got a Friend, written by Carole King, gave Taylor his first No. 1 hit. A largely unnoticed first album and a breakthrough hit make a contrast within the same early career. Britannica credits Bob Dylan with bringing confessional poetry to folk rock, while Taylor, it says, became the epitome of the troubadour whose life was the subject of his songs and defined the 1970s singer-songwriter movement. His official biography says his music embodies the art of songwriting in its most personal and universal forms, and that he is a master at describing specific, even autobiographical situations in a way that resonates with people everywhere. He has won multiple Grammy Awards, has been inducted into both the Rock and Roll and the Songwriters Halls of Fame, and was honored as a MusiCares Person of the Year. Grammy awards and two Hall of Fame inductions, next to songs about his own life, make it tempting to read the recognition as going to a writer who put personal subject matter at the centre of his work.
Browse piano sheets by James Taylor on Zen Virtual Piano.
Britannica describes Taylor’s gentle tenor as carrying contemplative songs, rooted in complex chord changes and influenced by Appalachian folk music, Hank Williams and early soul vocalists, set against his deft accompaniment on acoustic guitar. The songs were also set against rock-oriented backing from a regular group of studio musicians that included Danny Kortchmar. A gentle voice over complicated chords suggests songs whose calm surface hides a good deal of craft, with the ease of delivery hiding the effort behind it.
James Taylor was born on 12 March 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in an upper-middle-class North Carolina family. As a child in North Carolina Taylor had cello lessons, and in 1960 he learned the guitar; his technique derived from the bass-clef orientation of his cello training and from experiments on his sister Kate’s keyboards. In his words, “My style was a finger-picking style that was meant to be like a piano, as if my thumb were my left hand, and my first, second, and third fingers were my right hand.” A childhood cello student who learned guitar in 1960 and experimented on his sister’s keyboards can be read as a player who found his own way to cover several musical roles on one instrument.
Taylor played in bands with his brother Alex and his friend Danny Kortchmar, then went to England, where his debut album came out on the Beatles’ Apple label in 1968 and went largely unnoticed. Fire and Rain, a No. 3 hit, was his breakthrough; in 1971 his recording of You’ve Got a Friend, written by Carole King, gave Taylor his first No. 1 hit. A largely unnoticed first album and a breakthrough hit make a contrast within the same early career.
Britannica credits Bob Dylan with bringing confessional poetry to folk rock, while Taylor, it says, became the epitome of the troubadour whose life was the subject of his songs and defined the 1970s singer-songwriter movement. His official biography says his music embodies the art of songwriting in its most personal and universal forms, and that he is a master at describing specific, even autobiographical situations in a way that resonates with people everywhere. He has won multiple Grammy Awards, has been inducted into both the Rock and Roll and the Songwriters Halls of Fame, and was honored as a MusiCares Person of the Year. Grammy awards and two Hall of Fame inductions, next to songs about his own life, make it tempting to read the recognition as going to a writer who put personal subject matter at the centre of his work.
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Common questions
He was born on 12 March 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in North Carolina.
In 1971 he had his first No. 1 hit with his recording of You’ve Got a Friend, written by Carole King.
He took cello lessons as a child before learning the guitar in 1960, and his technique derived from his cello training and experiments on his sister Kate’s keyboards.
He has won multiple Grammy Awards, been inducted into the Rock and Roll and Songwriters Halls of Fame and honored as a MusiCares Person of the Year.