(I'm loving this LP so please prepare for positive opinions.) Another almost forgotten gem. Harry Nilsson (1941-94) had his most successful days in the seventies with albums like "Schmilson", "Son Of Schmilson" and the John Lennon collaboration "Pussy Cats". He started his carreer as singer/songwriter in the early sixties, writing for and working with artists as Little Richard and Phil Spector and also recorded a bunch of singles for Tower label 1964-66. His first LP - "Spotlight On Nilsson" (Tower T-5095) ) - was mainly a compilation of those A:s and B:s, so it's fair to say this is the actual debute album. May be the public acclaim came later, but to my ears it was his best - a true masterpiece and one he never topped. Obviously inspired by contemporary Beatles works - a cover of "She's Leaving Home" about a month after the Sgt. Pepper release and a version of "You Can't Do That" containing quotes from a large number of other Lennon/McCartney songs. Six of the cuts are covers and six self penned - including classics as "Ten Little Indians" and "1941". In many ways it's a perfect album. His vocals are outstanding, sincere and attractive, covering a large register. Production (Rick Jarrard) and arrangements (Perry Botkin, George Tipton) are rather advanced with partly heavy orchestration and fits like gloves to the melodies. The audio on this UK press is very nice - soft, yet clear - with all certainty a separate mix using the US mono tapes (RCA Victor LPM-3874). It was a hit in Canada, but didn't raise much attention in US or UK. However The Beatles became big fans and Lennon is reported having listened to the album for 36 hours non-stop. Both John and Paul also named him their favorite American artist in a 1968 interveiw. Early UK had black label as shown here, thick vinyl and laminated cover. (SYSÖ*)
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