Ben, who had been quite sickly as an infant with fevers, turned three. He was diagnosed with a dysplastic kidney, which meant that his body was toxic much of the time. He had to have his kidney removed. James' and my marriage was also unraveling. It was the most unhappy time. It was decided that a tour would help my spirits. This time fourteen shows were booked. I made it through 8 and collapsed on stage. I had gotten very thin - only 114lbs. I canceled the rest of the shows and got sued by many of the promoters. Wonder where they are now. I didn't even write down their names.

Spy was a commercial flop and my manager thought, to infuse new energy into my recording career, we should switch to Warner Brothers. (It was still under the WEA umbrella and the switch was easily affected.) I recorded Come Upstairs which had the song Jesse on it. 'Jesse' was a song laying plain the fact that good intentions go to hell when you are crazy for someone. It was a #1 single.

Warner Brothers did not want me to do what I did next, which was record Torch. It was my first album of standards. (Later, I made an album called My Romance and one called Film Noir and then Moonlight Serenade which were also concept albums). Torch was a melancholy and lovely album of which I am proud. Mo Ostin, formerly president of Warner Brothers says it was one of his biggest mistakes not to see the potential in that record. They did nothing to promote it, yet it has become a very good staple in my catalog, over time.

I believe Torch came out in the summer of '81. It was the summer of the break-up of my marriage to James Taylor. More emotional upheaval. I had no big plans for the future anymore.

Recorded Hello Big Man with Mike Mainieri. Made a few videos where I did some tumbling around in the woods, but at the time of writing this all down now, I can only remember the tumbling. I don't even remember doing Letterman.

Finally Arlyne Rothberg and I parted ways. She moved to L.A. permanently and started managing Roseanne Barr and the Roseanne show. I signed with Champion Entertainment whose president was Tommy Mottola. Tommy and his lawyer Allen Grubman signed me to a one record deal with Epic Records.

Even though I had had records that didn't perform in the past, Spoiled Girl REALLY didn't perform. In fact, it was my first 'bona fide' flop - in large part because not only didn't it do well, but also because I didn't like it. If you make a record that's true to yourself and you love the work, it can't be a flop. It can only sell poorly. Tommy Mottola et al decided I should capitalize on the disco mixers of the day. I was partnered with the least likely characters you could ever imagine and I didn't say anything. That was a character flaw on my part. I knew, but I didn't say. In spite of it, there were a few good tracks. Maybe two.

One of them was called: My New Boyfriend and it got me back together with Paul Samwell-Smith for that one track. Russ Kunkel played on some of the record. Russ and I became romantically involved.

Made two videos for Epic - My New Boyfriend being one of them, shot on what was supposed to be Cleopatra's barge. Russ and I moved in together.

Asked by Mike Nichols (who I had met a few years prior) to score the music for Heartburn starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. Wrote an adaptation of The Itsy Bitsy Spider which turned out to be the musical backdrop for the song Coming Around Again which augured well for my career. It was my first time writing for the movies and it was fun and gratifying. Russ helped me enormously. He set up machines in my living room and made me play bass parts I didn't know I could play. He was a major force in the development of my self-confidence. He never gets enough credit as far as I'm concerned. He programmed all the drum parts to most of the songs on the album that contained Coming Around Again.

I signed with Arista Records. Coming Around Again was a worthy single and HBO made me a special with the same name. It was filmed in Menemsha on Martha's Vineyard. You saw boats going by in the background. You heard seagulls. Oh joy. By the time the HBO special was made it was already 1986 and I have left out that the album produced four singles: The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of, Give Me All Night, All I Want Is You and Coming Around Again. This had all been predicted by a psychic. Even the names of the songs. He also predicted I would meet and marry a man with a high forehead who would be a business man and a poet. That was Jim Hart, who I met on a train. He would become my second husband. We got married in 1987.

Released: Greatest Hits Live (soundtrack from the HBO special). I took the kids out of school in Manhattan and we got quite cozy in the Vineyard house. I was asked by Mr. Nichols to score Working Girl which took the better part of 1988. I wrote Let The River Run as the opening theme, trying to be very Walt Whitman-esque. Jim helped me with the lyrics and Mike was ecstatic about it right from the beginning. Towards the end, however, the studio threatened to replace it with the Eagle's Witchy Woman. Fortunately Mike's decision prevailed and Let The River Run went on to win an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Grammy..

Jackie Onassis called one day to ask me to write my autobiography. I didn't say "no", but I didn't mean "yes". In fact I tried, because it was Jackie. She was so reassuring and fascinating. I wrote some 50 pages and then gave up in a flurry of regret about revelations. I could talk about my own life with all its vicissitudes, long and short comings, but not those of other people. Jackie understood and also knew that I'd had a rich story-telling past with my own now grown-up children, and so suggested substituting a children's book for an autobiography. In Amy The Dancing Bear there were fragments of my life to be sure. My life as a bear. It was the first book I collaborated on with Jackie and Margot Datz, my illustrator and friend from Martha's Vineyard. Over the years there were to be three others: The Boy Of The Bells, The Fisherman's Song and The Nighttime Chauffeur. Jackie's role was as a thoughtful editor. She made imaginative suggestions that also made sense. I grew to be friends with her and before the end of her life I wrote a song for her called Touched By The Sun (1994).

March (Oscars) I have no memory of winning. Only that I assaulted various people going into the Shrine Auditorium telling them how unworthy I was. On the way out of the Shrine Auditorium, with statue in hand, I was sitting on the curb waiting for the limo. I was trampled over by other people wanting to get to their limos first. The Oscar did nothing to win respect among the young and restless and limo-needy.

Somewhere along the way, I recorded My Romance. An album of standards that has ended up being one of my favorites. It only took thirteen days in January from the start of recording to final mixes. We did it live with an orchestra. Michael Kosarin and I had worked on piano vocal arrangements before the sessions and we gave those tapes from the rehearsals to Marty Paich who did the orchestral arrangements. If I could always make albums like that, I would have recorded over 100 in my life. What a strain on the public!