[7] It also reached the Top 20 in the UK and was voted the best album of the year for 1974 in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.

Her previous offering, For the Roses, was released in November 1972 to critical and commercial success, and Mitchell decided to spend the whole of the next year writing and recording a new album that revealed her growing interest in new sounds—particularly jazz.

She performed in April in a benefit concert at the Sir George Williams University Auditorium and then appeared live again in August, twice at The Corral Club, accompanied by Neil Young.

Mitchell and engineer Henry Lewy called in a number of top L.A. musicians to perform on the album including members of the Crusaders, Tom Scott's L.A. Express, cameos from Robbie Robertson, David Crosby and Graham Nash and even a twist of comedy from Cheech & Chong.

[23][24] In a July 1979 interview with Cameron Crowe for Rolling Stone, Mitchell recounted playing the newly completed Court and Spark to Bob Dylan, during which he fell asleep.

[25] Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks recalled taking LSD to the album: "I was with my producer, at his house, with a set of speakers that were taller than that fireplace, and I was in a safe place.