James Taylor Racks Up His First No. 1 Album
James Taylor just scored his first No. 1 album. After 47 years and 17 studio albums, the veteran singer-songwriter has reached the top of the Billboard chart with Before This World, his first LP of original material since 2002's October Road.
Previously, Taylor's highest-charting LP was Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon, which made it to No. 2 for four weeks in 1971. October Road reached No. 4, as did 2008's Covers, a record containing cover versions of songs made famous by Glen Campbell, Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley. Taylor also hit No. 1 in 1971 on the singles chart with his cover of Carole King's "You've Got a Friend."
Before This World sold more than 97,000 copies in its first week. It has a long way to go to top the 11 million copies of Taylor's Greatest Hits that have been sold since 1976 and the three million copies each of 1970's Sweet Baby James and 1977's JT albums. But it was enough to beat new albums by fun. frontman Nate Ruess and Queen collaborator Adam Lambert that were also released the same week.
It helped that Taylor was all over television promoting the album over the past week. He appeared on The Today Show as part of its summer concert series, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Live With Kelly and Michael and Late Night With Seth Meyers. He even joined Fallon for "Two James Taylors on a Seesaw," which is pretty self-explanatory and which you can watch below.
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