Icon: Harry Nilsson

It’s easy enough to see why the Beatles were enamored of Nilsson. His debut album was a one-man show of love of the Fab Four in its Sgt. Pepper’s mode. There’s the circus barker, the French horns, the production values, the harkening back to the kind of music hall tunes McCartney favored ("1941"), the crafty songwriting and the strong harmonies. The topper is a deft mash-up of Beatles tunes in "You Can’t Do That." But there’s also his faithful rendition of "She’s Leaving Home," his classical, shades-of-"Yesterday" tune, "Without Her." His rave-up of "River Deep, Mountain High" sounds out of place. But I, for one, am glad it’s there.

Early in his music career, around 1965, Nilsson sold three of his songs to producer Phil Spector, who cut two of them with the Ronettes. But, as a composer, he didn’t have his first hit song until "One," which Three Dog Night took into the Top Ten in 1969. A year before, Nilsson included it on this follow-up to Pandemonium. It’s a real sequel, another sampling of his wide, wide world of musical influences, with a definite lean towards older sounds. Amid the pleasant period pieces, "Everybody’s Talkin’," his solid reading of Fred Neil’s paean to paranoia, stands out, and it shocks. It’s a hit record!

With a hit record under his belt, Nilsson’s voice suddenly became more firm — both his singing and writing voices. He continued to echo Tin Pan Alley, to sound unapologetically out of time (he set "Nobody Cares About the Railroads Anymore" in 1944, did his Jolson in "Marchin’ Down Broadway" and saluted "Mr. Bojangles"), and he couldn’t resist another Beatles cover (the Paulish "Mother Nature’s Son"). But he also touched on contemporary concerns in songs like "Mornin’ Glory Story" and "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City," which he wrote for Midnight Cowboy, only to lose out to "Everybody’s Talkin’." Both were Ratso-worthy.

This is a gorgeous album, a testament to Nilsson doing not what might be commercial, but what might be different — and fun. Having written all the songs for Harry, except the last track, a tune by Randy Newman ("Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear"), and for The Point!, Nilsson decided to do an entire album of another composer’s tunes. He picked Newman, and the result was a masterpiece, combining Newman’s dry, sardonic, yet deeply romantic views of life with Nilsson’s sweet voice and orchestral vocal harmonies — all done by Nilsson himself. Newman handled piano chores and joined critics in raving about the album. "He was such a great singer," Newman wrote, "…and he could do so many things as a vocalist that I couldn’t do (like hold a note)…I have never received a greater compliment than having him do this album." It remains a gift to all music lovers.

Although he’d scored with "Me and My Arrow" and "Everybody’s Talkin’," Nilsson wanted a standalone hit, one not tied into a movie or TV show. He wrote a stack of new tunes and enlisted, as producer, a fellow Brooklynite, Richard Perry, who, like Nilsson, leaned more towards pop than rock, and whose credits included Barbra Streisand. They struck a good balance in Nilsson Schmilsson, and were rewarded with three hit singles of wildly varying colors: the dramatic Badfinger tune, "Without You," which hit the top of the pop charts and got him a Grammy; the novelty smash "Coconut," and the then-requisite self-indulgent, seven-minute rock workout ("Jump Into the Fire").

For those who want a compilation of Nilsson’s work, there are plenty from which to choose. The only one to even consider is Personal Best. Nilsson did make the track selections, but whether or not they’re the "best" is open to debate. There are two tracks from Pussy Cats, "Don’t Forget Me" and "Many Rivers to Cross," when neither Nilsson nor his pal John Lennon was at his own personal best. But the two-disk set provides all the hits and the best of his misses. It’s a thorough look and listen at the astoundingly wide musical swath that Harry Edward Nelson III cut in his prolific first decade.