Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night [Extra tracks, Original recording remastered]

Harry Nilsson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 23, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 1973
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000EQ47WM
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,829 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Harry Nilsson wrote hits for other people (including the Monkees, Three Dog Night, and the Modern Folk Quartet) yet had his biggest hits with covers of other folks' material (Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'," Badfinger's "Without You"). So it makes a perverse kind of sense that his most enduringly popular album is a collection of pre-World War II standards. With Sinatra arranger Gordon Jenkins on hand for traffic control, Nilsson wraps his lungs around such time-honored classics as "Makin' Whoopee!," "It Had to be You," and "As Time Goes By." Although Aerial Ballet and Nilsson Schmilsson are his finest outings, this album is extremely enjoyable on its own terms. --Dan Epstein

Product Description

Harry Nilsson, A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An incomplete masterpiece, July 31, 2000

By 

R. Claster "Bob Claster" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night (Audio CD)

This album, featuring brilliant performances by both singer Harry Nilsson and arranger Gordon Jenkins, was (for some reason) hacked up and only about 65% of it was released. As the entire album was conceived as a whole, with links bridging the songs, this was a real shame.

However, the full album has recently been restored and released under the title "As Time Goes By: The Complete Schmilsson in the Night," and so you should absolutely avoid "A Little Touch" and make sure to get "As Time Goes By." You won't be sorry.

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply brilliant, and now expanded and better sounding than ever, May 25, 2006

By 

David Pearlman "sound fanatic" (Arlington, MA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night (Audio CD)

When this album was released in the early '70s--a collection of songs that were already decades old, carefully arranged by Sinatra's best ballad arranger Gorden Jenkins--it wasn't clear if this was intended as a loving tribute or an ironic statement. Coming from the hippest (and most talented) musician-come-practical joker in the room, and appearing years before this type of record would be popularized by people like Linda Ronstadt, it just seemed this album couldn't be serious.

Or could it?

Well, the truth is, it doesn't matter. Because context becomes irrelevant over time, and what's left is the music. And, what beautiful music it is. Tremendously well-chosen standards from throughout the first half of the 20th century, tremendously well orchestrated by a master, and sung with passion AND precision by a man of great vocal talent. Who cares what anyone was thinking? All you ever need to know is on the record.

Time has only been kind to this album, and to these ears it has dated not a whit in the more than quarter century since it was released. Perhaps because it was never of its time in the first place. Lush romantic music from a happier, simpler time--something we all need.

This remastered adds several four bonus tracks that were recorded during the same sessions but not included on the original album. These tracks fit in well with those from the album as originally issued. The sound of this remaster is also DRAMATICALLY better than the original US CD issue.

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Must Remember This..., May 29, 2006

By 

James R. Morris Jr. "Vertigocat" (Asheboro, NC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night (Audio CD)

The remastered release of Harry Nilsson's Touch is cause for celebration. In a time when American Idols reign supreme, and faded pop singers try to resurrect ailing careers singing standards, yielding excruciating results, this CD reminds us that Mr. Nilsson was perhaps the first rocker to successfully record an album of standards. Along with Willie Nelson's 1978 Stardust, these two lps introduced an entire generation to its own musical heritage. But Mr. Nilsson's lp was first, and finest.
I purchased it back then (1973) and was transported by its romantic lyricism. Like many Beatles generation's kids, I was not enamored with the 70's music. Disco was on the horizon, jazz was becoming fusion, and country was becoming pop with a southern accent. The only place to go was to the past. And Mr. Nilsson must have known this. He didn't undertake this project to resurrect his own career, as he was on top at the time. It was a risky move; some warned of career suicide. The results, both commercially and critically, thankfully proved otherwise.
The album itself is composed mainly of prewar, (WW11 that is,) standards written by the likes of Gus Kahn, Herman Hupfield, and Irving Berlin. The lesser known jewels "Lazy Moon" and "Lullaby In Ragtime" glimmer just as much as the more familiar "Always", "Making Whopee", and "As Time Goes By". Mr. Nilsson employs a respectful approach, preventing a degeneration into camp, a la Tiny Tim. The renditions are joyous, and full of vitality, but not overdelivered (unlike so much of the bellowing we hear today). His vocals caress each lyric, and being who he is, Mr. Nilsson avoids the solemnity that often mars so many of these projects, while simultaneously rejecting the whimsey that was beginning to stereotype him.
Much of the credit for the album has to go to Gordon Jenkins for his arrangements and direction of the 39 piece orchestra. For many of us, the past sounds like Gordon Jenkins: sumptious, elegant, and full of grace. This lp stands alongside Mr. Jenkins best work, including the lp "Where Are You".
For me, Touch served as a launching pad, albeit into the past, and led me down a path where I discovered those singers and artists before the Beatles, and before Elvis. Jo Stafford, Jeri Southern,and Hoagy Carmichael became favorites; then I happened upon jazz, where the standards, particularly since Mr. Nilsson's lp, seem to be valued and constantly reinterpreted. I like to think Touch had something to do with that. Finally, I have come to rest where all paths in popular music inevitably lead- to Frank Sinatra's doorstep. And waiting in the wings- much to my surprise- with Mr.Sinatra, was Gordon Jenkins and the aforementioned "Where Are You". Mr. Sinatra's seminal 1957 lp emanates with much of the same sense of longing and sweet sadness that haunts Mr. Nilsson's. My musical route, circuitous as it was, and some 30 years in the making, had come full circle. And now, a few years later, the lp that started it all-Touch- has finally been remastered and released, sending me back in time once more...This is all I ask, this is all I need...