Nilsson Sings Newman

This minimalist album consists of songs sung by Harry Nilsson and accompanied by Randy Newman at the piano. Other instruments are rarely used. It should be noted that by 1970, Harry Nilsson was already fairly known as a great singer and prolific songwriter. Still, he chose to record an etire album with somebody else’s songs. Some songs have been recorded by Randy Newman before or later in his career, some he had written for this project specifically.

The album did poorly comercially, but gained critic’s respect. It was awarded “Record of the year” by Stereo review magazine.

After Nilsson died, a tribute album was put together under the name of “For the Love of Harry: Everybody sings Nilsson”. It featured Newman’s cover of the Nilsson original “Remember” – so Newman returned the favor after all. This is remarkeable, since Newman otherwise only recorded his own songs (with the exception of “Every Man a King” on “Good Old Boys”.