Shifting Scenes From the Nilsson Years

Harry Nilsson fit into the wild and woolly world of late ‘60s pop music like a lamb among wildebeests.

While the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Doors and others were pushing pop’s form and content in various extremes, Nilsson came along singing utterly charming three-minute odes to school desks, puppies and passenger trains in a stunningly beautiful tenor.

The New York-born, San Fernando Valley-reared former bank accountant first gained notice in music circles as a writer of endearingly bouncy pop (the Monkees recorded his “Cuddly Toy” in 1968), then as a vocal interpreter with his hit version of Fred Neil’s “Everybody’s Talkin”’ from “Midnight Cowboy” and his Grammy-winning performance of Badfinger’s “Without You.”

He traveled near the middle of the road at the height of his popularity in 1971-72, but frequently veered off on intriguing tangents, such as “Nilsson Sings Newman,” a 1970 album devoted to songs of Randy Newman long before much of the world had any inkling who Newman was.

In 1974, he enlisted one of his rock heroes, John Lennon, to produce his “Pussy Cats” album, although the big-league collaboration did little to reclaim the chart power Nilsson had wielded a few years earlier.

After Lennon was murdered in 1980, Nilsson put his music on the back burner--though it had been moving there well enough on its own--to campaign for stricter gun control laws and later against drinking and driving. He died in 1994 after a heart attack, at age 52. (Fans will gather in Glendale on July 7-9 at Harryfest 2000. Info: https://www.harryfest.com.)

“Harry Nilsson: All-Time Greatest Hits,” a single CD, and “Personal Best: The Harry Nilsson Anthology,” a two-CD set, cover the full scope of Nilsson’s career, but these two reissued albums offer revealing snapshots of two key periods in his life--the first at the very dawn of his stardom, the second when fame and fortune were wreaking their full blessings and curses on him.

**** “Nilsson Sings Newman,” Buddha Records.

Southland audiences have a chance to get acquainted--or reacquainted--with the music of Newman in the semiautobiographical new musical “The Education of Randy Newman” opening tonight at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa.

Nilsson tried to do the same for a mostly unsuspecting world 30 years ago when he issued this collection of 10 early Newman tunes.

It came out on the heels of Nilsson’s first chart hit, “Everybody’s Talkin’,” and was an odd career choice by any measure.

Newman, though highly respected among pop cognoscenti from the moment of his 1968 album debut, was nonetheless still a cult figure in 1969 when this project began.

Nilsson himself had barely begun to have an impact in pop music but was a big fan of Newman and had previously recorded Newman’s “Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear” on his “Harry” album. He not only got Newman’s permission to do an album of his songs, but also talked Newman into playing piano for these sessions.

Nilsson’s emotionally pure vocals provided the ideal conduit for the songs Nilsson chose. Most came from the sunny side of Newman’s musical street, though even in what Newman dubbed his “nice guy” songs, the characteristic Newman bite can be felt.

In place of the lush orchestrations Newman had built for the same songs in his versions, Nilsson crafted cathedrals of vocal overdubs--all his own--that remain as wondrous today as they sounded in 1970.

The five bonus tracks in this 30th anniversary reissue include four alternate versions of songs that wound up on the album, plus “Snow,” a Newman obscurity cut from Nilsson’s album for reasons unknown, given the way it dovetails so perfectly with the collection’s tone.

In a note with the reissue, Newman calls Nilsson “a virtuoso singer [who] could do so many things as a vocalist that I couldn’t do (like hold a note) that I considered myself very fortunate. I have never received a greater compliment than having him do this album.”

** 1/2 “Pussy Cats,” Buddha Records.

Nilsson was in a very different place personally and professionally in 1974 when he teamed up for this album with his then-new pal Lennon, another musician he deeply admired.

Lennon was living in Los Angeles during his famous separation from Yoko Ono, and he and Nilsson were notorious for their drinking and partying around town.

Though they formed a strong mutual admiration society, neither was in the frame of mind to focus fully or objectively on music, which is clear in this scattershot outing that nonetheless produced some exquisite moments for Nilsson as singer and songwriter.

All the details of what he and Lennon were going through were known at the time only to those involved, so in one sense this album also serves as a fascinating document of the hedonistic excess in which the two were engaged.

The four bonus tracks with this reissue primarily underscore the indulgences Nilsson and Lennon allowed themselves in the studio.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).