You Gotta Have Heart: Audio Fidelity Preps Gold Heart, "Sweet Baby James"

Audiophile specialty label Audio Fidelity continues to revisit familiar titles in 24k Gold CD editions with its two latest releases, both due August 23: James Taylor's 1970 breakthrough Sweet Baby James, and Heart's 1998 retrospective Greatest Hits.

In the documentary film Troubadours, Carole King comments that due to the "generational and cultural turbulence...there was a hunger for the intimacy of what we did." And as 1970 began, listeners certainly did hunger for James Taylor. After the commercial failure of his 1968 Apple Records debut (review here), Taylor and his producer Peter Asher decamped for the singer's native America, where Sweet Baby James (so named for the singer's namesake nephew) was recorded. Taylor assembled loyal friends, including a pre-Tapestry King and future Eagle Randy Meisner, to support his often-gentle vocals and distinct guitar style. That combination of an innately sweet voice with an almost painfully honest lyric led "Fire and Rain" straight to a No. 3 placement on the Billboard Hot 100, but that single is far from all Sweet Baby James has to offer. "Steamroller" is Taylor and Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar's satire on the blues jam, and the upbeat "Country Road' followed "Fire and Rain" into the Top 40. "Lo and Behold" offers a hint of gospel style while Taylor even makes Stephen Foster's "Oh, Susannah" his own. Sweet Baby James also introduced “Blossom,” frequently the opening song on Taylor and King’s 2010 joint tour. The album earned a 1971 Grammy nomination for Album of the Year, and launched a career that still goes strong today. This release marks the third excursion by Audio Fidelity into Taylor's Warner Bros. catalogue after One Man Dog (1972) and Walking Man (1974). Audio Fidelity's Marshall Blonstein promised in an interview with Mike Ragogna that "an album like James Taylor's Sweet Baby James had different artwork when it was originally released than it did when it was released years later on CD, so we go back and recreate everything to restore it to its original state."

Hit the jump to continue with Heart's Greatest Hits and check out track listings and pre-order links for both titles!

The gold CD reissue of Heart's Greatest Hits is a more unusual title for Audio Fidelity, which primarily concentrates on original studio albums. However this release follows the labels' gold remaster of Legacy's Laura Nyro compilation, Time and Love: The Essential Masters. Heart's 1998 Greatest Hits focuses on the period between 1976 and 1983 when the Wilson sisters, Ann and Nancy, first took the male-dominated rock world by storm. Its seventeen tracks have been largely drawn from the Dreamboat Annie, Little Queen, Dog & Butterfly, and Bebe Le Strange albums. Added to these prime cuts are "Strong, Strong Wind," a song recorded in 1998 and introduced on the original compilation, and a live cover of Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" from 1980. That means you'll hear radio staples like "Crazy on You," "Magic Man," "Barracuda,"Straight On," "Even It Up," and "Kick It Out." Greatest Hits is a solid place to start exploring the catalogue of Heart, the duo that has sold more than 30 million records, with 21 Top 40 hits over the years. (A 2000 Capitol follow-up, Greatest Hits 1985-1995, picks up the Heart story where this disc leaves off, including such hits as "What About Love" and "These Dreams.") Perhaps Audio Fidelity will tackle that anthology next!

Both titles have been remastered for Audio Fidelity by Steve Hoffman, and are in stores on August 23.

James Taylor, Sweet Baby James (Warner Bros. WS 1843, 1970 - reissued Audio Fidelity AFZ118, 2011)

Sweet Baby James
Lo and Behold
Sunny Skies
Steamroller
Country Road
Oh, Susannah
Fire and Rain
Blossom
Anywhere Like Heaven
Oh Baby, Don't You Loose Your Lip On Me
Suite for 20G

Heart, Greatest Hits (Epic/Legacy EK 69015, 1998 - reissued Audio Fidelity AFZ119, 2011)

Strong, Strong Wind
Magic Man
Crazy on You
Dreamboat Annie
Barracuda
Little Queen
Kick It Out
Love Alive
Heartless
Straight On
Dog and Butterfly
Even It Up
Bebe le Strange
Tell It Like It Is
This Man Is Mine
How Can I Refuse
Rock and Roll

Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with Real Gone Music, has released newly-curated collections produced by Joe from iconic artists such as Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Chet Atkins, and many others. He has contributed liner notes to reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, B.J. Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, and Andy Williams, and has compiled releases for talents including Robert Goulet and Keith Allison of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray. Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.