The Essential James Taylor

The Essential James Taylor is a compilation album by American singer-songwriter James Taylor. It was released on October 29, 2013, through Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings as part of their "Essential" series. The album compiles tracks spanning Taylor's second album Sweet Baby James (1970) to October Road (2002).

Reception
AllMusic gave the album four stars out of five. In their review, Matt Collar referred to the album as a "superb overview" of Taylor's career. Joe Marchese of The Second Disc also praised the compilation, calling it "a nicely-curated mix of big hits and less familiar gems". While Marchese did lament the exclusion of material from Taylor's first album alongside other select tracks from his catalogue, he still found it to be the "most comprehensive" retrospective of his work.

Writing for American Songwriter, Hal Horowitz gave the album a rating of 2.5 out of 5, expressing disappointment with the relatively short length of the compilation. Additionally, he found its release to be unnecessary, feeling that Taylor's previous three compilations–Greatest Hits (1976), Greatest Hits Volume 2 (2000), and The Best of James Taylor (2003)–already did the same job as The Essential.