"Without You" by Harry Nillson

After recently watching a documentary on Harry Nillson,  I decided to get his 1971 album  "Nillson Schmillson" as a way to connect with his music. Quite the eclectic assemblage of songs, some original, some covers, all from a great artist, composer, wonderful singer, and, by famous accounts by his famous friends, quite the party animal, but the one that stands out for me is his amazing track "Without You" which won him the Grammy for Best Pop Male Vocal for 1972.

From a beautifully sung opening verse to a chorus that soars to incredible vocals heights, I must admit I have spent time in the car on the way to gigs recently listening to that track repeatedly, and I shake my head in amazement at the end of every listening. Powerful falls short in describing such a performance, and to think this guy rarely performed live; what a shame. The orchestral score is wonderful, and thats Jim Keltner channelling his inner-Ringo on drums. An amazing track.

The guilt? It's in the lyrics, of course, because everyone's been in a love gone bad and thought to themselves "I can't live, if living is without you" (go on, admit it).

Sure, "Coconut" is the best one-chord song ever written, his vocals on "Everybody's Talkin'" are pop-folk at its finest, but the entire production of "Without You" is so steeped in Guilty Pleasure that I just might have to make this the G.P. anthem. So go ahead and give a guilt-free listen, because though we couldn't admit to our friends that we liked this back in 1972, we can now sit back and marvel in its simplicity and greatness.

Cheers, Harry.

"Just When I Needed You Most" by Randy VanWarmer

By popular demand (thanks AKB..!),

Guilty Pleasures: The Music Edition is back.

Lets ease back into this, shall we?

When researching songs for this blog, I usually go to YouTube with a certain song in mind, but it seems that I always find something else that makes me go "Oh yeah, THAT one!' Then I listen to the song, have a few flash backs, sing-along with the great chorus, then immediately start thinking of which one of my musical associates should cover it. This song was no exception.

The Wikipedia page for Randy VanWarmer tells us that sometimes good guys do find success. Though thought of as a one hit wonder because of this song, VanWarmer was an accomplished and successful singer/song writer whose songs were covered by Dolly Parton, Alabama, Smokie Robinson,  The Oak Ridge Boys, and Charley Pride. And if that isn't enough to make you a fan, his last album was a tribute to the great song writer Stephen Foster! When VanWarmer passed at a young age of 48 due to leukemia, he had his ashes sent up in space. I think we would have liked this guy...

There are plenty of wonderfully crafted songs from the 70s that have been lost in the world of Adult Contemporary,  and none are more deserving of a second-chance listen than "Just When I Needed You Most" by Randy VanWarmer.

Regards,

KO

ps: Extremely high honorable mention goes to Dolly Parton for doing this song live on Jay Leno's show with Allison Krauss and band, with Dolly on autoharp!