A BEATLES' HARD-DIE'S SITE


Received: Harry Nilsson & The Beatles

We received this text from our friend Willard at For The Love Of Harry . A cool contribution to show the strict Nilsson/Beatles relationship through his recordings, that we are please to report here.

Lennon & Nilsson 1974, March of Dime Benefit, Central Park, NY

Of the OFFICIAL ones, here are some Beatle related thoughts.

Pandemonium Shadow Show (1967 RCA debut).
Derek Taylor bought a box of them and gave them to the Beatles because of Harry's "You Can't Do That." Lennon reportedly took acid to the LP for days. After that, John & Paul mentioned Nilsson as their favorite singer AND favorite band at the Apple Press Conference.

Son of Schmilsson (1972) features Ringo and George Harrison.

Son of Dracula (1974) is the soundtrack to the movie starring Ringo and Harry

Pussy Cats (1975) was produced by John Lennon
Not his best album as Nilsson's voice ruptured because of all the cocaine and partying the two were doing.

Every Man Has A Woman (1984)
A Yoko Ono covers album. Harry contributed 3 tracks

UNOFFICIAL...

Harry Does Yoko
Harry's demos for Every Man Has a Woman (with 4 or 5 songs that didn't make the album). These are demos and are really for fans only.

There are a bunch of little connections (like Ringo's "Harry's Song" from last year) or Ringo's Handgun promos for Harry (Stop & Smell The Roses bonus track) and the Lennon demo of "Only You" (with Harry in the background) from Lennon's Anthology Box. They were all really close in the 70s and so there are dozens and dozens of musical connections.
You can find links to all this stuff on the right side of our
blog

2 comments:

Johnny Bacardi said...

I think Willard is a hell of a guy, but I have to disagree with him about Pussy Cats; true, Harry's not in good voice but the songs are all outstanding, John's production is top notch (especially if you, like me, favor that midrange-heavy, muddy mix sound he preferred in the mid-70's), and his ragged vocals (plus the hard-party atmosphere of the sessions) make it a raggedy minor masterpiece. In my opinion.

display said...

Actually... I was a little surprised to see this correspondence posted (we've been talking with the Beatles Virtual Museum for the past few days and this was a response to a question about the connections between The Beatles and Harry for possible future posts). Otherwise, I would have been a bit more diplomatic and complete about my thoughts on Pussy Cats... and a little more inclusive about the numerous Beatles/Nilsson connections. No big deal. It IS my opinion that it's not Harry's "best," as I prefer Harry's original songs to rock n roll chestnuts and Harry's golden harmonies to his strained chops on Pussy Cats. But, that said... I enjoy even Harry's worst releases, so what do I know?

Good to see you Johnny, and thanks again to your latest contribution to For The Love of Harry. I also noticed the Virtual Museum is now taking on The Rolling Stones at http://rollingsite.blogspot.com/. Cool. Keep up the good work.
W