| Aerial Ballet | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | July 1968 | |||
| Recorded | September 1967 - March 1968 | |||
| Studio | RCA Victor's Music Center of the World, Hollywood, California | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 29:02 | |||
| Label | RCA Victor | |||
| Producer | Rick Jarrard | |||
| Nilsson chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Aerial Ballet | ||||
| ||||
| 1980 Pickwick reissue cover | ||||
 | ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [2] |
| The Essential Rock Discography | 6/10[3] |
| Rolling Stone | (mixed)[4] |
Aerial Ballet is the third studio album by American musician Harry Nilsson, released in July 1968.
Overview
Aerial Ballet was Nilsson's second album for RCA Victor, and was titled after the highwire circus act of his grandparents. It consists almost entirely of songs written by him, including "One", which later became a Number Five hit for Three Dog Night.[5] The title of the album has been cited by Joey Kramer as the inspiration for Aerosmith's name and wings motif.[6]
The most familiar track from Aerial Ballet is its one cover song, Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'". It was released as a single in North America in 1968, and reached the top forty in Canada—but initially flopped in the US. However, the song was subsequently selected for use in the Oscar-winning film Midnight Cowboy and became one of Nilsson's biggest hits as a performer, hitting the US top ten in 1969.[7] Another song, "Little Cowboy", later featured in The Courtship of Eddie's Father, was written by Nilsson's mother.
The original opening number for Aerial Ballet was "Daddy's Song", but this track was removed (apparently without Nilsson's awareness) after the first copies were issued, because The Monkees had recorded a cover version to be featured in their film Head, and had paid $35,000 for exclusive rights to the song. Recent reissues restore "Daddy's Song" (with the Monkees' contract long expired) to its rightful place in the lineup.
When Nilsson visited the Beatles in London during 1968, John Lennon played Nilsson "Revolution" and selections from the (then-upcoming) White Album, and Nilsson, in turn, played to Lennon (who had spent thirty-six hours listening to Nilsson's previous album, Pandemonium Shadow Show) a demo cut of this record.
The album was reissued in 1980 on Pickwick (ACL-7075). It had a different cover featuring a biplane in a field, with the pilot standing in the foreground smoking a cigarette in a holder. It had a printed stamp in the upper right corner announcing "Grammy Award Winner, Best Contemporary Male Vocalist, Everybody's Talkin'". The song order was different, and both "Daddy's Song" and "Bath" were missing.
Track listing
All tracks are written by Harry Nilsson, except where noted
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Daddy's Song*" | 2:41 |
| 2. | "Good Old Desk" | 2:22 |
| 3. | "Don't Leave Me" | 2:18 |
| 4. | "Mr. Richland's Favorite Song" | 2:12 |
| 5. | "Little Cowboy" | 1:22 |
| 6. | "Together" | 2:08 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7. | "Everybody's Talkin'" | Fred Neil | 2:41 |
| 8. | "I Said Goodbye to Me" | 2:13 | |
| 9. | "Little Cowboy (Reprise)" | 0:52 | |
| 10. | "Mr. Tinker" | 2:41 | |
| 11. | "One" | 2:50 | |
| 12. | "The Wailing of the Willow" | Harry Nilsson, Ian Freebairn-Smith | 2:00 |
| 13. | "Bath" | 2:24 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 14. | "Sister Marie" | 3:01 |
| 15. | "Miss Butter's Lament" | 2:20 |
| 16. | "Girlfriend" | 1:50 |
- excluded from initial British copies
Personnel
Credits per Allmusic:[8]
- Harry Nilsson – vocals
- Dennis Budimir – guitar
- Al Casey – guitar
- Michael Melvoin – harpsichord, organ, piano
- Larry Knechtel – bass, piano
- Lyle Ritz – bass
- Jim Gordon – drums
- Milt Holland – bells, mallets, tabla, timpani
- Carroll Lewis – trumpet, flugelhorn
- Ollie Mitchell – trumpet
- Anthony Terran – trumpet, flugelhorn
- Robert Enevoldsen – baritone horn, trombone
- Dick Hyde – baritone horn, bass trombone
- Robert Knight – baritone horn, bass trombone
- Richard Taylor "Dick" Nash – baritone horn, trombone
- George Roberts – baritone horn
- David Duke – French horn, tuba
- James R. Horn – flute
- Bob Hardaway – woodwinds
- Plas Johnson – woodwinds
- John Lowe – woodwinds
- John Rotella – woodwinds
- Leonard Atkins – violin
- Arnold Belnick – violin
- James Getzoff – violin
- Alfred Lustgarten – violin
- Leonard Malarsky – violin
- Wilbert Nuttycombe – violin
- Jerome Reisler – violin
- Charlotte Soy – violin
- Darrel Terwilliger – violin
- William Weiss – violin
- Tibor Zelig – violin
- Jesse Ehrlich – cello
- Ray Kelly – cello
- Jacqueline Lustgarten – cello
Production and technical personnel
- George Tipton – arrangements
- Rick Jarrard – producer
- Brian Christian – engineer
- Grover Helsley – engineer
- Allen Zentz – engineer
- Hank McGill – engineer
- Pat Ieraci – technician
- Dick Hendler – artwork, cover illustration
References
- 1 2 Pitchfork Staff (August 22, 2017). "The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s". Pitchfork. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
But the more low-key aspects of Aerial Ballet reflect the soft rock that would become increasingly popular in the next few years...Nilsson's unusual yet direct approach to making music: embedding lyrical gut-punches into catchy folk-pop riffs...
- ↑ Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "Aerial Ballet – Harry Nilsson | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2014-03-25.
- ↑ Strong, Martin C. (2006). The Essential Rock Discography. Edinburgh, UK: Canongate. p. 758. ISBN 978-1-84195-827-9.
- ↑ Hansen, Barret (14 September 1968). "Records". Rolling Stone. San Francisco.
- ↑ Staff. "Chart History". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media, LLC. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
- ↑ "Interview with Steven Tyler". AeroNewsDaily. March 13, 2008. Archived from the original on May 14, 2008. Retrieved August 22, 2016.
- ↑ "Harry Nilsson Chart History". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media, LLC. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
- ↑ "Aerial Ballet – Harry Nilsson | Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
External links