Court and Spark is the sixth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. It was an immediate commercial and critical success—and remains her most successful album. Released in January 1974, it has been described as pop, but also infuses Mitchell's folk rock style, which she had developed through her previous five albums, with jazz inflections. It reached No. 2 in the United States and No. 1 in Canada and eventually received a double platinum certification by the RIAA, the highest of Mitchell's career. It also reached the Top 20 in the UK and was voted the best album of the year for 1974 in The Village VoicePazz & Jop Critics Poll. In 2003 it was listed at No. 111 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
History
1973 was the first year since she began recording that Mitchell did not release a new album. Her previous offering, For the Roses, was released in November 1972 to critical and commercial success, and Mitchell decided to spend the whole of the next year writing and recording a new album that revealed her growing interest in new sounds—particularly jazz. During 1973, her stage appearances were fewer than in previous years. She performed in April in a benefit concert at the Sir George Williams University Auditorium and then appeared live again in August, twice at The Corral Club, accompanied by Neil Young. Mitchell spent most of 1973 in the recording studio creating Court and Spark. Mitchell and engineer Henry Lewy called in a number of top L.A. musicians to perform on the album including members of the Crusaders, Tom Scott's L.A. Express, cameos from Robbie Robertson, David Crosby & Graham Nash and even a twist of comedy from Cheech & Chong. On December 1, Asylum Records released a single, her first in over a year, "Raised on Robbery". The single reached No. 65 on the BillboardSingles Chart in February 1974.
Reception
Released in January 1974, Court and Spark was enthusiastically embraced by critics and the public. Its success was reaffirmed when the follow-up single, "Help Me", was released in March. It received heavy radio airplay and became Mitchell's first and only Top 10 Billboard single, peaking at No.7 on the Hot 100 in the first week of June, and reaching No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Court and Spark became a big seller that year, peaking at No.2 on the Billboard album chart and staying there for four weeks. The pinnacle of Mitchell's commercial success, it was kept from the top spot by Bob Dylan's Planet Waves, Barbra Streisand's The Way We Were and John Denver's Greatest Hits. However, it did top the US Cashbox and Record World charts for one week each. In a July 1979 interview with Cameron Crowe for Rolling Stone, Mitchell recounted playing the then-just completed Court & Spark to Bob Dylan, during which he fell asleep. She later suggested that Dylan was probably trying to be "cute" in front of label boss David Geffen, who was also present. Singer Stevie Nicks recalled taking acid to the album: "I was with my producer, at his house, with a set of speakers that were taller than that fireplace, and I was in a safe place. And I sat there on the floor and listened to that record… That was a pretty dynamic experience."
