“Nilsson Schmilsson” is the album that changed Harry Nilsson’s career.

Until now, he was mostly a peripheral artist, working unique ground somewhere off center of standard rock and roll. He mostly wrote songs that walked a line between show tunes and confessional pop, a recording artist with no interest in being a performer.

With this album, he made a conscious move toward the mainstream, but as usual, he did it in an unconventional manner. Nobody would call “Coconut” an ordinary pop song, and his cover of a Badfinger song proved to be inspirational and a genuine work of art. “Jump Into the Fire” was his first foray into straightforward rock and roll, and yet the song’s arrangement is anything but ordinary. It’s a weird record, in the best sense of the word.

Featured tracks include:

Gotta Get Up

Driving Along

Early in the Morning

The Moonbeam Song

Down

Without You – Badfinger

Without You – Harry Nilsson

Coconut

Let the Good Times Roll

Jump Into the Fire

I’ll Never Leave You

November 1971 - Billboard Charted #3