Editing James Taylor (section)

===1970–1972: Warner Bros. and career breakthrough===
[[File:James taylor publicity photo.jpg|thumb|A publicity photograph of Taylor for his second studio album ''[[Sweet Baby James]]'', December 1969|249x249px]]
Once he had recovered, Taylor moved to California, keeping Asher as his manager and record producer. In December 1969, he held the recording sessions for his second album there. Titled ''[[Sweet Baby James]]'', and featuring the participation of [[Carole King]], the album was released in February 1970 and was Taylor's critical and popular breakthrough, buoyed by the single "[[Fire and Rain (song)|Fire and Rain]]", a song about both Taylor's experiences attempting to break his drug habit by undergoing treatment in psychiatric institutions and the suicide of his friend Suzanne Schnerr. Both the album and the single reached {{numero|3}} on the ''Billboard'' charts, with ''Sweet Baby James'' selling more than 1.5&nbsp;million copies in its first year<ref name="time-cover-story"/> and eventually more than 3 million in the United States alone. ''Sweet Baby James'' was received at its time as a folk-rock masterpiece, an album that effectively showcased Taylor's talents to the mainstream public, marking a direction he would take in following years. It earned several Grammy Award nominations including one for [[Grammy Award for Album of the Year|Album of the Year]]. It went on to be listed at {{numero|103}} on [[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time]] in 2003, with "Fire and Rain" listed as {{numero|227}} on [[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time]] in 2004.

During the time that ''Sweet Baby James'' was released, Taylor appeared with [[Dennis Wilson]] of [[the Beach Boys]] in a [[Monte Hellman]] film, ''[[Two-Lane Blacktop]]''. In October 1970, he performed with his then partner [[Joni Mitchell]], [[Phil Ochs]], and the Canadian band [[Chilliwack (band)|Chilliwack]] at a [[Vancouver]] benefit concert that funded [[Greenpeace]]'s protests of [[Amchitka#Milrow and Cannikin tests|1971 nuclear weapons tests]] by the [[US Atomic Energy Commission]] at [[Amchitka]], [[Alaska]]; this performance was released in album format in 2009 as ''[[Amchitka (album)|Amchitka, The 1970 Concert That Launched Greenpeace]]''. In January 1971, sessions for Taylor's next album began.

He appeared on ''[[The Johnny Cash Show (TV series)|The Johnny Cash Show]]'', singing "Sweet Baby James", "Fire and Rain", and "Country Road", on February 17, 1971. His career success at this point and appeal to female fans of various ages piqued tremendous interest in him, prompting a March 1, 1971, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine cover story of him as "the face of new rock".<ref name="time-cover-story"/> It compared his strong-but-brooding persona to that of ''[[Wuthering Heights]]''{{'}} [[Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights)|Heathcliff]] and to ''[[The Sorrows of Young Werther]]'', and said, "Taylor's use of elemental imagery—darkness and sunlight, references to roads traveled and untraveled, to fears spoken and left unsaid—reaches a level both of intimacy and controlled emotion rarely achieved in purely pop music."<ref name="time-cover-story"/> One of the writers described his look as "a cowboy Jesus", to which Taylor later replied, "I thought I was trying to look like George Harrison."<ref>''CBS Early This Morning'', musician James Taylor, December 5, 2016</ref>
[[File:James Taylor Billboard 1971.jpg|left|thumb|293x293px|Taylor in a publicity photograph for his 1971 studio album ''[[Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon]]'']]
Released in April 1971, ''[[Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon]]'' also gained critical acclaim and contained Taylor's biggest hit single in the US, a version of Carole King's new "[[You've Got a Friend]]" (featuring backing vocals by [[Joni Mitchell]]), which reached {{numero|1}} on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in late July. The follow-up single, "[[Long Ago and Far Away (James Taylor song)|Long Ago and Far Away]]", also made the Top 40 and reached {{numero|4}} on the ''Billboard'' [[Adult Contemporary (chart)|Adult Contemporary]] chart. The album itself reached {{numero|2}} on the album charts, which would be Taylor's highest position ever until the release of his 2015 album, ''Before This World'', which went to {{numero|1}} superseding [[Taylor Swift]]. In early 1972, Taylor won his first Grammy Award for [[Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance|Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male]], for "You've Got a Friend"; King also won [[Grammy Award for Song of the Year|Song of the Year]] for the same song in that ceremony. The album went on to sell 2.5&nbsp;million copies in the United States.

November 1972 heralded the release of Taylor's fourth album, ''[[One Man Dog]]''. A [[concept album]] primarily recorded in his home recording studio, it featured a cameo by [[Linda Ronstadt]] along with Carole King, Carly Simon, and [[John McLaughlin (musician)|John McLaughlin]]. The album consisted of eighteen short pieces of music put together. Reception was generally lukewarm and, despite making the Top 10 of the ''Billboard'' Album Charts, its overall sales were disappointing. The lead single, "[[Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight]]", peaked at {{numero|14}} on the Hot 100, and the follow-up, "[[One Man Parade]]", barely reached the Top 75. Almost simultaneously, Taylor married fellow singer-songwriter [[Carly Simon]] on November 3, in a small ceremony at her [[Murray Hill, Manhattan]] apartment.<ref name="white-208">White, ''Long Ago and Far Away'', p. 208.</ref> A post-concert party following a Taylor performance at [[Radio City Music Hall]] turned into a large-scale wedding party, and the Simon-Taylor marriage would find much public attention over the following years.<ref name="white-208"/> They had two children, [[Sally Taylor (musician)|Sarah Maria "Sally" Taylor]], born January 7, 1974, and Benjamin Simon "Ben" Taylor, born January 22, 1977.<ref>White, ''Long Ago and Far Away'', pp. 216, 243.</ref> During their marriage, the couple would guest on each other's albums and have two hit singles as duet partners: a cover of Inez & Charlie Foxx's "[[Mockingbird (Inez & Charlie Foxx song)#1970s: Carly Simon and James Taylor|Mockingbird]]" and a version of The Everly Brothers' "[[Devoted to You (song)#Carly Simon and James Taylor version|Devoted to You]]".