Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon

Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter James Taylor. Released in April 1971 by Warner Bros. Records, it was recorded between early January and late February of the same year.

The album contains Taylor's biggest hit single in the US, a cover version of the Carole King's "You've Got a Friend". On July 31, 1971, his recording of the song hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, his only single to do so. A week earlier, the album had reached its peak position of #2 on Billboard's Top LPs chart. It was kept from the top spot by King, who was ruling the charts with her blockbuster album Tapestry, which contained her own version of "You've Got a Friend". The song earned Grammy Awards both for Taylor (Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male) and King (Song of the Year). Mud Slide Slim generated another Top 40 hit in "Long Ago and Far Away", which reached #31 on the Billboard Hot 100. Other songs on the album became standards of Taylor's concert repertoire, particularly "You Can Close Your Eyes".