- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- Laura Nyro’s second and best album Eli and the Thirteenth Confession is a triumph on par with the Carole King classic album Tapestry (1971).
Laura Nyro – Eli and the Thirteenth Confession (1968): Laura Nyro is one of the most gifted singer/songwriters of the 1960’s; and if you ask me, her second and best album Eli and the Thirteenth Confession is a triumph on par with the Carole King classic album Tapestry (1971). Both albums showcase the same kind of disarming yet intensely personal vocal stylings that only a songwriter can bring to the recording session. Three very different hit songs were introduced on this album: “Sweet Blindness” (covered by the 5th Dimension), “Stoned Soul Picnic” (also by the 5th Dimension), and “Eli’s Comin’ ” (by Three Dog Night). The 5th Dimension had hits with three other Laura Nyro songs as well: “Blowing Away”, “Wedding Bell Blues”, and “Save the Country”.
Blood, Sweat & Tears had a #2 hit with “And When I Die” from their second album Blood, Sweat and Tears (1968). Also, Barbra Streisand’s biggest hit song over nearly a 10-year period – between “People” and “The Way We Were” – was “Stoney End”; another Laura Nyro song on the album Stoney End (1970), “Hands Off the Man (Flim Flam Man)” was also a hit for Barbra Streisand. As great as those three hit songs are, Laura Nyro’s versions of “Sweet Blindness”, “Stoned Soul Picnic”, and “Eli’s Comin’ ” are every bit as good. But Eli and the Thirteenth Confession works even better as an album, with one fantastic song following another through all 13 tracks.