and compositions being frequent areas of praise. In January 2000, The New York Times chose Blue as one of the 25 albums that represented "turning points and pinnacles in 20th-century popular music". Jason Ankeny of AllMusic describes Blue as "the quintessential confessional singer/songwriter album". Praising the songs as "raw nerves, tales of love and loss etched with stunning complexity", Ankeny concludes writing "Unrivaled in its intensity". The writers of Pitchfork gave the album a perfect 10-out-of-10 rating, calling it "possibly the most gutting break-up album ever made". Blue was included in the 2018 edition of Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Based on Blues appearances in professional rankings and listings, the aggregate website Acclaimed Music lists it as 4th most acclaimed album of 1971, the 16th most acclaimed album of the 1970s and the 49th most acclaimed album in history. Accolades Commercial performance The album was a commercial success. In Canada, the album peaked at number nine on the Canadian RPM Albums Chart. In the United Kingdom, the album peaked at number three on the UK Albums Chart and has been certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for sales over of 600,000 copies in the UK. In the US, the album peaked at number 15 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album was later certified platinum for sales over a million copies. The single "Carey" reached number 93 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 2021, Blue peaked at number 1 on iTunes, 50 years to the day after its release. It also became the number 1 Audio CD on Amazon. Track listing All tracks are written by Joni Mitchell. Side one "All I Want" – 3:34 "My Old Man" – 3:34 "Little Green" – 3:27 "Carey" – 3:02 "Blue" – 3:05 Side two "California" – 3:51 "This Flight Tonight" – 2:51 "River" – 4:04 "A Case of You" – 4:22 "The Last Time I Saw Richard" – 4:15 Personnel According to the liner notes: Joni Mitchell – production, Appalachian dulcimer, guitar, piano & vocals Henry Lewy – engineer Gary Burden – art direction Tim Considine – cover photography James Taylor – guitar ("All I Want", "California", "Carey", "A Case of You") Russ Kunkel – drums ("Carey", "California", "A Case of You") Stephen Stills – bass and guitar ("Carey") Sneaky Pete Kleinow – pedal steel guitar ("California", "This Flight Tonight") Charts Certifications