Taylor took four and a half years off from record-making in the early '80s, returning with
That's Why I'm Here, which suggested he had found his long-term niche with baby boomer fans now permanently tuned to soft rock radio -- this was
Taylor's first record to spawn three Top Ten adult contemporary hits, with the title track, "Only One," and a cover of
Buddy Holly's "Everyday." But those boomers just don't go to the record store as often as their children, and the album failed to go gold and was his lowest-charting effort since his debut. If, in the title song, he had reconciled himself to the notion that he was here to sing "Fire and Rain" at summer concerts, that also meant he was settling for a complacent position in which his new material was virtually irrelevant, and that being the case, why should people buy it? (Notwithstanding its initial commercial reception,
That's Why I'm Here eventually went platinum.) ~ William Ruhlmann