A Little Touch of Schmilsson In My Past

I’ll never forget my twelfth birthday party. Not because of the gifts I received or the cake my mother made for me – which, for the record, was probably a German chocolate cake. Rather, I remember it because that was when my Aunt Ruth (who always arrived late, but called first to say she was “on her way” well after she should have left her home) showed up not just with my present. She also brought along an album called A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night by Harry Nilsson.

This album of standards had instantly become her favorite album at the time. Nilsson covered songs such as It Had to Be You, As Time Goes By and Aunt Ruth’s favorite track, Makin’ Whoopee! I have no recollection why that song was so special to her. But that’s just one of many things Il’l never understand about my mother’s sister.

That was fifty years ago and I haven’t given the album much thought for quite some time. Until I saw that singer/songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff, who specializes in folk and Americana, was touring and playing Nilsson’s A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night live in a series of concerts. He’s performing on Wednesday at Walt Disney Concert Hall and then on April 1st at David Geffen Hall. Though he’s performing with an orchestra, he’s not performing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic nor the New York Philharmonic, the two orchestras who call those venues home.

What prompted an artist who wasn’t born until five years after the album’s release to celebrate A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night? I can’t speak for Rateliff, but I know what made Harry Nilsson a compelling artist – thanks to my aunt.

If you know Nilsson at all it might be for the song Everybody’s Talkin’ which appeared on his 1968 album Aerial Ballet. It was later featured rather famously in the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy starring Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles and Brenda Vaccaro.

He first coined the Schmilsson name with his 1971 album Nilsson Schmilsson. He received a Grammy Award nomination for Album of the Year for the album that introduced the song Coconut to the world. (Fans of Reservoir Dogs will know this one!)

Long before sequels were standard industry fare, Nilsson released Son of Schmilsson in the summer of 1972. It was a bold move because Nilsson Schmilsson was still on the charts and doing well. This album featured contributions from Peter Frampton, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Perhaps you’ve heard Spaceman from this album.

Less than a year later came A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night. Long before Linda Ronstadt, Rod Stewart and Bob Dylan recorded albums of classic songs, Nilsson created a great album that set the standard for those and many other artists. It didn’t hurt that he called on Frank Sinatra’s great arranger Gordon Jenkins to make it sound like it was from another era and completely fresh at the same time. Who arranges Irving Berlin’s Always by first playing a few bars from Over the Rainbow? Or uses music from As Time Goes By as a prelude for Makin’ Whoopee!?

From his opening vocals on Lazy Moon he had me glued to the speakers. I had never heard the song, but there was something about Nilsson’s vocals that instantly drew me in. It wasn’t just his tenor voice, but there was something bordering on the ethereal in his singing. Perhaps it was his 3-1/2 octave range that first grabbed me. Just listen to the way his voice goes just slightly up in the first verse of For Me and My Gal.

Certainly an evening of songs Nilsson wrote would be compelling. He was a great songwriter. But Rateliff is doing A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night. As he says on the website for this event, “The courage of Nilsson to release an album of standards…at the height of his fame is wild to contemplate. And to create something so beautiful that takes listeners on an emotional journey through love and loss is what I’m excited for audiences to experience.”

He also told Relix in 2020, “The artistic side of that is what’s interesting to me. It’s about continuing to do something that’s true to yourself—even if the audience won’t necessarily be happy about it.” He went on to say he’s always wanted to perform this album.

Now Rateliff is doing just that. If Rateliff’s audiences prove to be happy with this choice of his, I hope they’ll go back and discover what made Harry Nilsson such a unique artist.

Both Nilsson and my Aunt Ruth have long since passed away. I’m not even close to being twelve years old. But as Nilsson sang in the penultimate song on A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night:

Wandering rainbows, leave a bit of color for my heart to own
Stars in the sky, make my wish come true before the night has flown
And let the music play as long as there’s a song to sing
And I will stay younger than spring

(from This Is All I Ask, written by Gordon Jenkins)

To watch Harry Nilsson perform songs from this album in a 1973 filmed performance, please go here.

Photo: The cover of A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night (Courtesy Sony Music Entertainment)