Ranking: Songs from Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark (1974)

With 1974's Court and Spark Joni Mitchell landed her biggest selling album.  Peaking at #2, no doubt aided by her biggest single, the #7 "Help Me".  It was the success of that song that turned me on to the rest of the album.  But not until I was out of high school.  "Help Me" became known to me thanks to my frequent listening of American Top 40, while I lived in Germany (Army brats unite).  That song and its followup, the #22 charting "Free Man In Paris" latched onto my 10 year old brain during the Spring and Summer of 1974.  But it wasn't until the early 80's when I started buying more albums did I finally hear the whole thing.  And while some love Blue, I always land on Court and Spark as my favorite Joni record. While this was he jazziest album up until 1974, the success of the album was how enough Pop hooks made their way into the mix.  Joni would never reach the sales heights of this album, or have another Top 10 single again.  But in 1974 she was due for a Pop breakthrough, similar to what happened to Neil Young with Harvest. 

1.  Help Me

2.  Free Man In Paris

3.  Court and Spark

4.  Raised on Robbery

5.  Down to You

6.  Car On A Hill

7.  Just Like This Train

8.  Same Situation

9.  People's Parties

10.  Trouble Child

11.  Twisted