The two-year interval covered in this volume of Time-Life Music's Singers & Songwriters series was one of consolidation for the many singer/songwriters who had emerged in the early '70s. Carole King followed up Tapestry, the album that established her as a performer after years as a songwriter, with Music, which spawned the hit "Sweet Seasons." James Taylor was on his second follow-up to his commercial breakthrough Sweet Baby James with One Man Dog, which produced "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight." His new wife Carly Simon released her third album, No Secrets, which gave Simon her biggest hit yet with "You're So Vain." John Denver, too, hit new sales peaks with Rocky Mountain High and its title single. And Cat Stevens had followed the success of Tea for the Tillerman with Teaser and the Firecat and its second single "Morning Has Broken." Meanwhile, several new singer/songwriters were crowding the field, among them Don McLean with the epic allegory "American Pie," America with its Neil Young sound-alike "A Horse With No Name," and Seals & Crofts with the lilting "Summer Breeze." But the biggest breakthrough of the period was also the most tragic. Jim Croce had become known for honky tonk novelties like "You Don't Mess Around With Jim," but the ballad "I Got a Name," the theme from the movie The Last American Hero, was released as a single just before his death in a plane crash, and his record company quickly followed it with the old album track "Time in a Bottle"; its lyric now unintentionally poignant, it shot to number one. All of these songs are included on this compilation, which is not to say that the series is devoted exclusively to singer/songwriter music. Rather, it features soft rock hits of the era, many of which happen to fall into the singer/songwriter category. Also featured are ballad hits by major pop stars like Elton John and Paul McCartney, as well as a couple of ringers that technically fall into the time period, the Moody Blues' 1968 song "Nights in White Satin" (heard here in its full-length, seven-and-a-half-minute version, complete with orchestral passages and recitation), which belatedly became a U.S. hit in 1972, and Todd Rundgren's re-recording of "Hello It's Me," a song he first cut with his old band the Nazz, also in 1968. Though the compilers have managed to license tracks from all five major labels and some other companies besides, coupling restrictions seem to have prevented the inclusion of such key hits of the era as Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" and Jackson Browne's "Doctor My Eyes" that clearly belong on the collection. Still, this is a good selection of the soft rock hits of 1972-1973 that will please those who remember and enlighten those who don't. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide