Remembering When Harry Nilsson Sabotaged His Career Momentum and Delivered a Classic at the Same Time in 1973

Some artists try to coordinate their musical moves with what they believe their audience will most want to hear. Other artists will do whatever their muse tells them, even if it means that they’re actually damaging their commercial potential.

Harry Nilsson certainly landed in the latter of those two categories. And he proved it most obviously with his decision to record an album of standards at a time when pop music fans expected anything but that from him.

Wild About Harry

Harry Nilsson took his shot for the pop/rock brass ring with his 1971 album Nilsson Schmilsson. Mostly a cult artist of sorts whose critical acclaim generally outweighed his chart success to that point, Nilsson hooked up with producer Richard Perry and an all-star cast of musicians to deliver a thrilling LP that captured his mercurial talents at their most accessible.

One can easily imagine an alternate history where Nilsson followed that album with more albums along the same lines. But he just didn’t have that in him to play that game. Evidence of that came when “You’re Breakin’ My Heart”, the first single following up that massive hit album, featured an f-bomb in the refrain.

But at least the album that contained that song (Son Of Schmilsson) stayed in the pop-rock vein. For his next project, Nilsson made a 180-degree move away from everything that was popular at the time. He recorded an album consisting of nothing but songs from the Great American Songbook.

Way Before the Trend

A Little Touch Of Schmilsson In The Night, the standards album Nilsson released in 1973, originated with the name that tune-type games Nilsson used to play with Derek Taylor, the famed music publicist. They’d try to stump each other with old jazz standards. Eventually, Nilsson decided that they should record an entire album of such songs.

These albums were hardly en vogue at the time, certainly not like they would become decades later when veteran rock artists (Rod Stewart, most notably) started releasing them on the regular. Understandably, most thought that Nilsson was squandering the considerable momentum he’d built with this choice.

Richard Perry felt that for sure, which is why he refused to work with Nilsson on the project. Instead, Derek Taylor signed on to produce. And Nilsson also gained legitimacy for his project by securing the involvement of Gordon Jenkins, the arranger and conductor known for working with pre-rock greats like Frank Sinatra.

‘Night’ Music

Nilsson’s restless creativity reared its head even while relying on these oft-sung songs. A Little Touch Of Schmilsson In The Night ingeniously segues from one song to another. Jenkins conjures the melodies of other classics in the margins of the songs actually being sung. This move recalls how Nilsson would combine several different Beatles songs into one track in his pre-fame days.

Occasionally, Harry Nilsson toys with the lyrics of songs like “It Had To Be You”. But he caresses the melodies with earnest tenderness, his gorgeous voice tripping effortlessly from one note to the next. One of the first of its kind, the LP set a benchmark that most of the future rock-stars-do-standards albums couldn’t hope to match.

After his previous two albums had made it to the upper reaches of the US LP chart, A Little Touch Of Schmilsson In The Night didn’t bother the Top 40. The doubters seemed correct at the time. But the way this album is revered by many today proves that Harry Nilsson’s counterintuitive instincts have been vindicated many times over.

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