Tribute albums are difficult things to pull off at the best of times, so it's no surprise that not quite everything works on this 23-track set. Part of the problem is that Harry Nilsson wrote some amazing songs in his time -- but he also wrote some that were not quite so amazing. Another part of the problem is that some of these songs don't lend themselves easily to interpretation -- thus we have Fred Schneider destroying "Coconut" with a loud, crunchy treatment, and LaVern Baker turning "Jump into the Fire" into a wimpy R&B outing. On the other hand, "Spaceman" is even more interestingly quirky in the hands of the Roches and Mark Johnson, Aimee Mann brings out the sweet side of "One," Adrian Belew does a fine "Me and My Arrow," and Steve Forbert turns in a supremely cute take on "The Moonbeam Song." Overall a nice project (with money going to the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence), though it does not replace the original Nilsson performances by a long chalk.
For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson
Various Artists
Share on
For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson Review
by Steven McDonald
Track Listing
Sample | Title/Composer | Performer | Time | Stream | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Randy Newman | 02:22 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
2 | Marc Cohn | 03:55 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
3 | Aimee Mann | 03:01 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
4 | Fred Schneider | 05:06 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
5 | Joe Ely | 03:58 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
6 | Stevie Nicks / Ringo Starr | 03:25 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
7 | Gerry Beckley / Robert Lamm / Carl Wilson | 04:28 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
8 | LaVern Baker | 03:36 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
9 | Steve Forbert | 03:30 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
10 | Peter Wolf & The Houseparty / Peter Wolf | 01:53 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
11 | Jennifer Trynin | 02:55 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
12 | Al Kooper | 04:42 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
13 | Victoria Williams | 03:20 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
14 | Marshall Crenshaw | 03:31 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
15 | Brian Wilson | 02:30 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
16 | Jellyfish | 02:42 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
17 | Bill Lloyd | 02:25 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
18 | Ron Sexsmith | 02:06 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
19 | Adrian Belew | 03:12 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
20 | Richard Barone | 02:40 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
21 | Mark Johnson / The Roches | 03:41 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
22 | John Cowan | 03:56 | SpotifyAmazon | ||||
23 | Jimmy Webb | 04:02 | SpotifyAmazon |