Born to Be with You

The fourteenth solo studio album by Dion. Six of its eight tracks were produced by Phil Spector. Your Own Back Yard was produced by Phil Gernhard, and New York City Song by Terry Cashman and Tommy West. Spector had recently been offered a label deal by Warner Brothers with full artistic control, and Dion was the first artist he chose. At Spector's Los Angeles mansion, Dion found himself in a room lit by a single bulb. The sessions were lengthy and chaotic. The room was crowded with ten guitarists, two bassists, two drummers, choirs, an eight-piece horn section and a full string section. Bruce Springsteen and Miami Steve Van Zandt came by to watch.

When it was finished in 1974 Dion effectively disowned it, saying the production made it sound like funeral music. Spector shelved it for twelve months and then it met with indifference. Michael Hann of the Guardian wrote in 2020 that it was not released in the US at the time and was ignored elsewhere, and only gained its reputation two decades later. Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream cited it as a key influence, and was photographed on the cover of Select magazine in the early 1990s holding a seven-inch copy. Jason Pierce of Spiritualized and Pete Townshend have praised it. Jarvis Cocker sampled Only You Know on Don't Let Him Waste Your Time, from his 2006 album Jarvis. The Guardian's 1000 albums feature of 2007 said it was what you would want a lost classic to sound like. A 2001 Ace Records CD pairs it with the following album, Streetheart, and adds the Spector-produced Baby, Let's Stick Together.