Nine-album, 6CD clamshell box set presentation of the late, American singer/ songwriter, Harry Chapin Features 2022 remasters of Chapin’s work for Elektra Records, including the enduring hits ‘Taxi’, ‘WOLD’ and ‘Cat’s In The Cradle’ Beautifully presented with colour reproductions of album sleeves, picture-sleeve singles, ephemera, trade ads and promotional photographs. With 4000-word notes, placing Chapin’s career in context, and arguing for his elevation in the cultural hierarchy, by Record Collector contributor, Charles Donovan
Acoustic guitarist and singer/songwriter, Harry Chapin, who was born in New York, was a pioneer of the elaborate story-song, a style whose roots lay in folk and country music. Chapin explored the very limits of the genre, with songs often breaching the ten-minute mark. After working in documentary film-making, Chapin signed with Elektra just before turning 30. He was immediately successful with his first single ‘Taxi’ and the album ‘Heads And Tales’ (1972).
More popular with listeners than critics, Chapin toured relentlessly. His bestselling album was 1974’s ‘Verities And Balderdash’, which included ‘Cat’s In The Cradle’, his sole US No1 single. He began using his enlarged platform to campaign for an end to world hunger, founding several charities and increasingly spurning payment for his performances so that the proceeds could go towards his favoured causes.
This 6CD box – the first serious, multi-disc reappraisal of Chapin’s work – presents the nine albums he issued from 1972 to 1978; ‘Heads And Tales’, ‘Sniper And Other Love Songs’, ‘Short Stories’, ‘Verities And Balderdash’, ‘Portrait Gallery’, ‘Greatest Stories Live’, ‘On The Road To Kingdom Come’, ‘Dance Band On The Titanic’, and ‘Living Room Suite’. After Elektra, Chapin signed with Boardwalk for a final album before dying tragically and prematurely in a car accident in 1981.
