#281 Harry Nilsson, 'Nilsson Schmilsson' (1971)
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The first time I heard Harry Nilsson was on the ‘Forrest Gump’ soundtrack. The song was ‘Everybody’s Talkin’’ and it was originally from the film, ‘Midnight Cowboy.’ That’s pretty much all I knew about him. I was expecting to hear an album full of songs like that. Instead, what I got was one of the greatest new album discoveries for me on the challenge to date. Starting with the playfully upbeat ‘Gotta Get Up.’ I immediately recognised this song from the Netflix show, ‘Russian Doll.’ In fact, the song is so central to the TV series that it’s a character in itself. At the time I remember thinking that it was a Paul McCartney song I had never heard. As the album progresses, it continues to get better. ‘Down,’ sounds like a bar tune drunkenly plodded on a slightly out of tune piano but it was the next song that made me stop and think to myself “OOOH! Is THIS who he is?!” The familiar intro of ‘Without You,’ aka ‘Ken Lee,’ the American Idol audition that would go viral. Nilsson never sang the original (that was Badfinger), but he did song the classic version, the one that Mariah Carey’s hit was based on. That song segues into ‘Coconut,’ the song which was famously featured in Quentin Tarantino’s breakout hit, ‘Reservoir Dogs.’ The drunk pianist is back for a great cover of ‘Let The Good Times Roll,’ and that goes into ‘Jump Into The Fire,’ one of the greatest jam songs I have ever heard.
The album was nominated for ‘Album Of The Year’ at the 1973 Grammys and won the Grammy for ‘Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for the iconic ‘Without You.’ The album features one of England’s best-known session bass players, Herbie Flowers (McCartney, Bowie, Harrison, Elton John, and most famously, the iconic bassline on Lou Reed’s ‘Walk On The Wildside’). Also on the record playing bass is Klaus Voormann, The Beatles associate and cohort from their Hamburg days. Elton John’s arranger, Paul Buckmaster was responsible for the beautiful strings on ‘Without You.’ Blows my mind to know that before this, I had never listened to this record.
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