The Puppy Song/ Harry Nilsson

-

We write so often about the musicians who influenced DC. The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Buffalo Springfield, rock and blues atists. But actions speaks more than words, and it seems that Harry Nilsson was probably the artist who influenced the most David Cassidy and his music in the 70s.

Today we remember Harry Nilsson. Me at least. He died on January 15, 1994. I think that a lot of people have forgotten him, but in the 60s, both John Lennon and Paul McCartney regarded him as their fav American artist. I love 'Everybody's Talking'. Wrote in 1966 by Fred Neil, and recorded by Harry Nilsson in 1968. The song got Grammy after it was featured in the film 'Midnight Cowboy'. Of course I didn't see that film in the 70s, much later, one of the saddest I've ever seen in my life. I love the song and Harry's voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kznTMxOsxo

John Lennon and Paul McCartney invited Harry to London and Paul asked Harry Nilsson to write a song for Mary Hopkin. The demo was ready the next day. The Puppy Song. Both, Mary and Harry recorded it, but it was David who had his number one single with that song. The double A-single (with Daydreamer) was Nr 1 in the UK for 3 weeks in November 1973, and it was also among ten biggest sellers of that amazing (in the music history) year.

David  Cassidy performed The Puppy Song while on the World Tour in 1974

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdj54_laZaY

David chose himself Rick Jarrad as the producer of his first own (without Wes) solo album. The title of it was the opening line of The Puppy Song, 'Dreams Are Nuthin' More Than Wishes'. DC regarded two Harry Nilsson's album produced by Rick Jarrad as masterpieces.

DC: 'I was a huge Nilsson fan and got to know him very well, eventually singing and writing with him a few years later. I had all Harry's demos because I was such a fan' (David Cassidy : Could It Be Forever?, 2007)

This is just amazing what David did with 'This Could Be the Night', a Harry Nilsson's song (with Phil Spector's help) wrote in the 60s. Let's listen to the original, The Modern Folk Quarter (with Henry Diltz, who btw. recorded that song himself too, in the 80s)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrgCkAHfE94

And a cover, but so completely different, amazing, one in a kind, the DC's version, so exciting, sensual..you know

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sgero04Twc

It's not everything, because on 'Gettin' It In The Street' we have another DC's masterpiece, I love and adore his version of Nilsson's 'The Story of Rock and Roll'. 

Harry Edward Nilsson III (June 15, 1941 - January 15, 1994)

Comments

  1. Valerie1/15/23, 9:50 PM

    I love to read your blogs. Thank you for sharing this. I happen to agree with your assessment. In all honesty, I would never have been able to tell this was the same song. The way the song was sung and arranged is absolutely wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Weronika1/15/23, 10:12 PM

      Thank you Valerie. I know that DC wanted to be an actor, like his father, and he became a recording artist by accident, it wasn't planned, but in my opinion he was a very good actor and one in a kind singer. He should have recorded more, nearly everything what he recorded is truly outstanding.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kay Lenz, an Actress

-
Image
Don't get me wrong, I'm not writing today's blog just to gossip about DC's private life, it's because I always admired that amazing woman, Kay Ann Lenz. She had birthday yesterday. 3 years younger than David, a few years older than a typical DC's fan.  In the 70s I heard quite a lot about Kay Lenz . She was very popular in Poland, like the rest of the cast of 'Rich Man, Poor Man'. That tv series was shown in my country I think in 1978, and everybody watched it, also a lot was written about the cast. So one day I read that Kay's husband was a former teen idol, David Cassidy. There was also a pic and I thought that it was just wonderful, I thought they were the most beautiful couple in the world. There was something very moving about Kay. I thought she was different than typical American actress. Such beautiful eyes, but her beauty wasn't an ordinary kind, not for everybody so to speak. When I was a teen I couldn't put in words what I thought a
Read more

They Said I Changed A Lot..

-
Image
Let's first listen to something which was not released, why they didn't want David singing that song is a great mystery for me. Listening to his young, sincere, innocent and magical voice is one in a kind moving experience. You can just imagine David sitting next to you, with his guitar...and.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PbghG6czuw&t=6s Amazing. And of course we believe in David Cassidy and love songs. When I became a real DC's fan in 2018, there was something I used to discuss a lot with my English friend B. How David Cassidy kept changing. A completely different person in each decade. Or even more often. It was something difficult to understand for me. The many faces of David. Each album different from the previous one, different style and even his voice.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4gvxt1WgaA B. thought there was nothing unusual about how David was changing, and I simply didn't follow his career from the beginning, I didn't grow with him, I didn&#
Read more

'I Just Hated Being In The Show..'

-
Image
Last week someone posted a screenshot of the article from May 1974, unfortunately without the date or the name of the paper. Written by a popular journalist Roderick Gilchrist, I think it was Daily Express. We can read that this interview took place at London Weekend Television's Building, on the day before the DC's last concert in Manchester.  And David said, "I feel like the door to the cage has just been opened. And, any minute now I'm going to be able to fly right away from my prison. I can't tell you how happy that makes me feel because I'll be free again.." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG0hjhwKx5s His prison..Of course there have been other teen idols in the history of pop culture, but somehow for those from the 70s it was like someone put a curse on them. Nothing David Cassidy recorded later in life hasn't changed a bit that first opinion some people had of him and his music. My FB friend, Laurie Eby has written, "I researched 'New Y
Read more