Editing Harry Chapin (section)

===Early music career (1971–1972)===
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Harry Chapin Sniper and Other Love Songs Photoshoot.jpg|thumb|right|Chapin at a photo-shoot for his 1972 album, Sniper and other Love Songs]] -->
In 1972, there was a bidding war over Chapin between music business heavyweights [[Clive Davis ]] at Columbia and [[Jac Holzman]] at Elektra. Chapin signed a multi-million dollar recording contract with [[Elektra Records]]. The contract was one of the biggest of its time. It granted him free recording time, along with many other perks.<ref name=coan>{{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Hd9PZyV7-HQC | title = Taxi: The Harry Chapin Story|pages=204–207| isbn = 9780806521916| last1 = Coan| first1 = Peter M.| date = January 2001| publisher = Citadel Press}}</ref>

The same year, Chapin released his debut album, ''[[Heads & Tales (album)|Heads & Tales]].'' The album was an international success, selling over one million units. Its success was due to the top-25 [[Billboard Hot 100]] hit single "[[Taxi (Harry Chapin song)|Taxi]]." The song also became a top-5 hit in Canada. The success of the song in America is credited to American radio personality Jim Connors, who helped promote the song on the radio despite its length, and helped it to stay on the charts for 16 weeks. It became the number-one requested song for 10 weeks in a row. The song was performed on ''[[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson]],'' which received so many calls that Chapin returned the next night. It was the first time in the show's history that a performer had been called back the next night. It was also one of the first performances on ''[[The Midnight Special (TV series)|The Midnight Special]]'', with [[John Denver]] hosting.

When asked if the song was true, Chapin said "It's emotionally true, if not literally true. I've been in the film business on and off for a lot of years and wasn't doing well at one point. So, I went out and got a hack license for bread, and during the month that I was waiting for it to come through, I heard an old girlfriend of mine had gotten married and instead of becoming an actress, she married a rich guy. I envisioned some night I'd be driving a cab in the big city streets and this lady would get in the back, and I'd turn and look at her and she'd look at me and know we both sold out our dreams."<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itkwPhZFAHQ&t=38m01s |title = Harry Chapin Midnight Special, Taxi; intro| date=6 March 2023 |publisher=[[YouTube]]}}</ref> Billboard ranked "Taxi" as the 85th song of the year. "Taxi" also earned Chapin a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist of the Year.

The follow-up album, ''[[Sniper and Other Love Songs]],'' was also released in 1972. The album's title song, "[[Sniper (song)|Sniper]]," is a semi-fictional account of the [[University of Texas tower shooting]]. The single release from the album, "[[Sunday Morning Sunshine]]," charted on the [[Billboard Hot 100]] and became a top-40 hit on [[Billboard Adult Contemporary]]. The album was less successful than the last, selling 350,000 units. The album also contained the Chapin anthem "Circle." In 2004, the double album ''Sniper and Other Love Songs and Heads & Tales'' was released. It contained previously unreleased tracks from both albums.