Day 297: Harry Nilsson – A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night
The days are really flying by, how am I almost at 300 already? Feels like I just started. There’s not much left until I reach my target of a full year, although who knows, I might just keep going after. One thing that I’m enjoying is going through the discographies of bands or artists who I’ve fallen in love with during this project, so tonight I’ll be listening to my fourth album by Harry Nilsson.
Album cover courtesy of RCA
After releasing the smash hit record Nilsson Schmilsson, which was a more traditional album that leaned on his reputation as the fifth Beatle, Harry Nilsson decided to take his career in a bit of a different direction with a more theatrical humorous album called Son of Schmilsson. His producer Richard Perry didn’t understand his creative vision and why he was going so rogue after finally finding success, and he said that Nilsson ignored every single thing he was told when recording it. When he told Perry that he wanted to record a crooner album of 20th century standards, Richard Perry bowed out and said he won’t be involved.
A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night was released in 1973, about a full decade before recording the Great American Songbook became popular again. It was recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and arranged by Frank Sinatra’s arranger, Gordon Jenkins. His new producer was Derek Wyn Taylor, who had previously been the press officer of the Beatles.
I don’t know what it is about Harry Nilsson that I love so much. I’ve ranked his albums 8.5 and 9 so far, so he’s far from being the highest ranking artist on my website, but there’s something about his stuff that makes me want to return to it all the time. I used to think it was his songwriting, but after listening to him singing songs he didn’t write on A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night, there’s clearly much more to him than his pen.
It’s a very gentle album, and comparably entirely serious, as opposed to its predecessor which was crammed full of humour. He’s singing romantic songs like "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now" and "As Time Goes By" with a lot of touching earnestness, which is a harsh contrast to his previous albums, but a nice one nonetheless. Despite the lush instrumentation, it’s pared back in the sense that he hasn’t written the songs and they lack his trademark humour – there’s nothing between the audience and him, other than his voice and his interpretation of classic songs.
I just watched the documentary Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)? where I found out that his penchant for self-destruction went far beyond just drugs and alcohol, but he also irreparably blew out his voice – it would have been fixable, but he didn’t follow medical advice and the issue became permanent. Maybe the reason why he wanted so badly to record this was to have this recording of just his voice taking centre-stage, even at the expense of his professional relationships, was because he saw something like that coming.
It’s a beautiful album all around, surprisingly very emotional to listen to. He has such a gorgeous voice. I enjoyed very much, it’s a 9/10.