Maps of Music

Torch (1981)

Where the lyrics of Torch take you, and where it was really made.

Simon's first album of standards was recorded while her marriage to James Taylor was breaking up, and the split was announced shortly after the album came out.

Key places

Recording studio in New York City (1981)

Recording site Power Station Studio — The album was recorded at the Power Station in New York City, according to the Italian Wikipedia entry for the album. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Torch: 10th studio album by American singer-songwriter Carly Simon
• Released by Warner Bros. Records in August 1981
• Simon's first album devoted to standards, namely torch songs about unrequited love or rejection
• Contains one Simon original, "From the Heart"
• Recorded during her marriage breakup with James Taylor
• The split was announced shortly after the album's release

Background

• Simon learned the standards while growing up in her parents' house
• While working on her previous album, Come Upstairs, she jammed on older songs between takes with producer Mike Mainieri and pianist Warren Bernhardt
• Her lyrical knowledge of those classic songs surprised Mainieri and Bernhardt
• That experience inspired her to make an album of this type of material
• "Body and Soul" had already been performed on the Come Upstairs tour

Recording

• The album was recorded at Power Station in New York City

Cover

• The man whose arm Simon tugs on the cover is American actor Al Corley
• Corley is known for playing Steven Carrington on the 1980s soap opera Dynasty
• The photographer was Lynn Goldsmith

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born June 25, 1943 in New York City; American singer-songwriter and author.
• In 1963 began performing as the Simon Sisters with sister Lucy Simon; released Meet the Simon Sisters, which produced the minor hit "Winkin', Blinkin' and Nod".
• Signed to Elektra Records in 1970 and went solo.

Career

• Debut album (1971) won the Grammy for Best New Artist; "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" was her first top 10 single.
• No Secrets (1972) topped the Billboard 200 for five weeks; "You're So Vain" hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
• Recorded "Nobody Does It Better" for the 1977 Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me.
• Won an Academy Award, Golden Globe and Grammy for "Let the River Run" from Working Girl (1988).
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone: critic Stephen Holden called the album "a gorgeous throwback"
• Holden wrote that Simon's "magnificent alto, with its rough-and-tumble lows and wistful highs, has never sounded better."
• Holden singled out "Not a Day Goes By" as "Torch's moment of truth" and a "big, direct ballad"
• Holden said Simon's vocal makes listeners feel each stab of pain in the song
• Holden concluded that Torch may be too sophisticated to storm the charts, but is a superb example of modern mood music

Reappraisal

• AllMusic retrospective review by William Ruhlmann also singled out "Not a Day Goes By"
• Ruhlmann said Simon delivers the track "with heartbreaking conviction"

Records

• "Hurt" was released as the album's lead single
• "Hurt" just missed the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 106 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Simon's jam sessions with Mainieri and Bernhardt during the Come Upstairs work sparked this album
• "Body and Soul" was already part of the Come Upstairs tour set
• Simon later included "Not a Day Goes By" on the two-disc career collection Anthology (2002)
• "From the Heart" was included on Simon's 2015 career retrospective Songs from the Trees (A Musical Memoir Collection)
• Cover model Al Corley is known for playing Steven Carrington on Dynasty

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · it.wikipedia.org

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