Boys in the Trees is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Carly Simon, released in 1978. The album included "You Belong to Me", which reached No. 6 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and became Simon's fifth Top 10 pop hit. Another track, a remake of The Everly Brothers' 1958 hit "Devoted to You", sung as a duet with then-husband James Taylor, also made the Top 40 at No. 36. The singles also hit the Top 10 on the BillboardAdult Contemporary chart, peaking at No. 4 and No. 2, respectively. The photo featured on the front cover of the album was expertly airbrushed to paint a Danskin top on what was a topless photo of Simon. The album won a Grammy for Best Album Package, the Grammy went to Johnny Lee and Tony Lane.
Reception
, writing in Rolling Stone, stated "Boys in the Trees is Carly Simon's most serene accomplishment to date, but its moods vary dramatically enough to indicate that peace of mind comes at a high price." When praising the single "You Belong to Me", Maslin went on to write, "It's a number that could easily have been belted out or growled à la "You're So Vain", but this time Simon prefers to sound more like a cat who's been dining on canary. Somehow, she's a lot more compelling using a gently chiding tone than she is striking a come-hither-or-else pose." Allmusic's William Ruhlmann rated the album retrospectively a three out of five, writing "...what really made the album a winner was that Simon had had a couple of years to write some strong songs in her unflinching, reflective style, and she continued to explore the loves and mores of her age and class movingly." Boys in the Trees has been certified Platinum by the RIAA, for sales of over 1,000,000 copies in the United States alone.
Cover versions
"You Belong to Me" was covered by Anita Baker for the 1990 compilation album . Jennifer Lopez covered the song on her 2002 album This Is Me... Then. More recently, Chaka Khan remade the song as a duet with its co-writer Michael McDonald on her Grammy Award-winning 2007 album Funk This from which it was also released as a radio single.
"Boys in the Trees" is often played live by Tori Amos.
Strings – Jonathan Abramowitz, Lamar Alsop, Julien Barber, Alfred Brown, Fredrick Buldrini, Paul Gershman, Ted Hoyle, Theodore Israel, Harold Kohon, Jesse Levy, Charles Libove, Guy Lumia, Joe Malin, Yoko Matsuo, Homer Mensch, Kermit Moore, Marvin Morgenstern, Alan Shulman, Mitsue Takayama and Gerald Tarack
Production
Producer – Arif Mardin
Recorded and Mixed by Lew Hahn
Engineer – Bobby Warner
Assistant Engineers – Ollie Cotton, Bill Dooley, Tom Heid and Mike O'Reilly.
