Harry Nilsson's THE RCA ALBUMS COLLECTION Commemorates Decade Of Recording From 1967 To 1977
By: Kelsey Denette May. 14, 2013
The profound musical gifts of Harry Nilsson, an artist whose fans ranged from all four Beatles to the Monkees, Randy Newman, Keith Moon, Jimmy Webb, and dozens more, are on full display in THE RCA ALBUMS COLLECTION. This deluxe 17-CD box set will be available everywhere July 30 through RCA/Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.THE RCA ALBUMS COLLECTION will be a must-have for Nilsson devotees, and a seductive lure for those whose awareness is limited to his Grammy Award-winning versions of Badfinger's "Without You" (#1) and Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'" (a #6 hit from the soundtrack to Midnight Cowboy, 1969). Then there are the notable covers of his own songs by Three Dog Night ("One"), the Monkees ("Cuddly Toy"), the Yardbirds ("Ten Little Indians"), and Blood, Sweat & Tears ("Without Her"). Others will recall the duo of hits that appeared alongside "Without You" on 1971's Nilsson Schmilsson album, "Coconut" (#8) and "Jump Into The Fire." Finally, the playful "Me And My Arrow" (from the soundtrack of his animated film The Point!) and "Girlfriend" (theme of the early '70s sitcom The Courtship Of Eddie's Father) have their own coterie of admirers.THE RCA ALBUMS COLLECTION presents the definitive 14 albums in Nilsson's RCA Records U.S. discography, from his 1967 debut Pandemonium Shadow Show (among whose high points are his takes on the Beatles' "You Can't Do That" and "She's Leaving Home") to his final album for the label in 1977, Knnillssonn. Bonus material on those albums add up to 65 tracks, of which 26 are previously unreleased. Adding to the box set's historical provenance are three newly-compiled CDs, Nilsson Sessions 1967-1968, Nilsson Sessions 1968-1971, and Nilsson Sessions 1971-1974, containing a total of 58 tracks, exactly half of which (29 tracks) are previously unreleased.
The 17 CDs contained in HARRY NILSSON - THE RCA ALBUMS COLLECTION are as follows:
-- CD 1: Pandemonium Shadow Show (1967)
-- CD 2: Aerial Ballet (1968)
-- CD 3: HARRY (1969)
-- CD 4: Nilsson Sings Newman (1970)
-- CD 5: The Point! (1971)
-- CD 6: Aerial Pandemonium Ballet (1971)
-- CD 7: Nilsson Schmilsson (1971)
-- CD 8: Son Of Schmilsson (1972)
-- CD 9: A Little Touch Of Schmilsson In The Night (1973)
-- CD 10: Pussy Cats (1974)
-- CD 11: Duit On MON Dei (1975)
-- CD 12: Sandman (1976)
-- CD 13: . . . That's The Way It Is (1976)
-- CD 14: KNNILLSSONN (1977)
-- CD 15: NILSSON Sessions 1967-1968
-- CD 16: NILSSON Sessions 1968-1971
-- CD 17: NILSSON Sessions 1971-1974
THE RCA ALBUMS COLLECTION is the newest entry in Legacy's critically acclaimed and commercially successful Complete Album Collections series, introduced in 2011. The album catalogues of rock, pop, jazz, fusion, country, R&B, and classical artists from the Sony Music archives have been handsomely reissued in the series. In every case, each album in the box set is packaged in a replica mini-LP sleeve reproducing that LP's original front and back cover artwork. Where applicable, the albums in each box include the bonus tracks that have been released on the various expanded CD editions over the years. Booklets are included with each box set, containing new liner notes essays and complete discographical information, including sources for all bonus material.
In the case of Harry Nilsson's THE RCA ALBUMS COLLECTION, extensive summaries of every album have been written by Andrew Sandoval, who compiled and produced the box set with Rob Santos of Legacy Recordings. Sandoval has previously worked on multiple reissue projects on Nilsson.Within THE RCA ALBUMS COLLECTION, every one of Nilsson's 14 original albums is expanded with bonus material, starting with the first two, Pandemonium Shadow Show (1967) and Aerial Ballet (1968). On each of those, the full album sequence is presented in stereo, and then reprised in monaural sound. This marks the mono debuts of both programs in the digital era, and the first time they have been available in mono since their original releases 45-46 years ago, respectively. Aerial Ballet also adds a radio spot ad for the album as a bonus track, and with only a handful of exceptions, radio spots are then included for nearly every album in the box set.
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