Hotcakes

Personnel: Carly Simon (vocals, acoustic guitar, piano); Jimmy Ryan (acoustic & electric guitar); Bucky Pizzarelli, David Spinozza (electric guitar); Bobby Keyes (tenor & baritone saxophone); Steven Madaio (trumpet); Barry Rogers (trombone); Howard Johnson (tuba, baritone saxophone); Ken Asher, Dr. John (piano, organ); Klaus Voorman, Richard Davis, Larry Brean (bass); Rick Marotta, Jim Keltner, Jim Gordon, Billy Cobham, Russell Kunkel (drums); Ralph McDonald (congas, percussion); George Devons (cabaza); Tasha Thomas, Carl Hall, Lani Groves, Lucy Simon, Todd Graff, Bennie Diggs and the Revelations, Richard Perry (background vocals).
Additional personnel: James Taylor, Robbie Robertson.
Recorded at The Hit Factory, New York from October to November 1973 and Producers Workshop, Los Angeles, California in September 1973.
A glowing, pregnant Carly Simon smiles out from the cover of Hotcakes, one of her biggest selling albums, which featured the gold single "Mockingbird," a duet with her husband James Taylor that effectively remade the old Inez and Charlie Foxx hit and bested it on the charts. The album also included another hit, "Haven't Got Time For The Pain," as well as "Misfit," in which a wife implores her carousing husband to come home, and "Think I'm Gonna Have A Baby," which celebrated the joys of same. With such tracks, Hotcakes was an autobiographical concept album that defined domestic bliss at a time when Simon's listeners also were catching their breath and turning inward. ~ William Ruhlmann