Pussy Cats | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | August 19, 1974 | |||
Recorded | March–May 1974 | |||
Studio | Burbank Studios, Los Angeles, California; Record Plant, New York, New York | |||
Genre | Pop, rock | |||
Length | 37:08 | |||
Label | RCA Victor | |||
Producer | John Lennon | |||
Harry Nilsson chronology | ||||
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Singles from Pussy Cats | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Christgau's Record Guide | A− [2] |
The Essential Rock Discography | 6/10 [3] |
Pitchfork | 7.8/10 [4] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [5] |
Pussy Cats is the tenth album by American singer Harry Nilsson, released by RCA Records in 1974. It was produced by John Lennon during his "Lost Weekend" period. The album title was inspired by the bad press Nilsson and Lennon were getting at the time for being drunk and rowdy in Los Angeles. They also included an inside joke on the cover – children's letter blocks "D" and "S" on either side of a rug under a table − to spell out "drugs under the table" as a rebus.
The album was started in Los Angeles, but Lennon ultimately finished producing it in New York, [6] where he could better control the sessions. During the recording sessions, Nilsson ruptured one of his vocal cords but chose to keep this from Lennon. He forced himself to push through the sessions, which caused even more damage, that some (including The Monkees' Micky Dolenz [7] ) say he never quite recovered from. The vocal strain is most evident on "Old Forgotten Soldier" (where he is noticeably off-key on some lines of the song, despite his slow and low bluesy vocals) and "Loop de Loop", on the latter of which Nilsson's vocals are heavily masked by backing vocals, which take the lead role towards the end.
The album's intended original title, Strange Pussies, was rejected by RCA Records and modified to Pussy Cats. [7] Among the many musicians on Pussy Cats are Ringo Starr, Keith Moon and Jim Keltner, who all play drums on the closing track, "Rock Around the Clock". Other contributors include Jesse Ed Davis, Klaus Voormann, and Bobby Keys.
A quadrophonic version was released on record and eight-track tape. The songs were treated to special mixes for that issue of the album.
Half of the album's original ten tracks were covers while the rest were written by Nilsson (with Lennon co-writing "Mucho Mungo/Mt. Elga").
After the first night of recording, March 28, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder popped into the studio unexpectedly. [8] Bootleg recordings from the session were later released as the album A Toot and a Snore in '74 . It is the only known instance of Lennon and McCartney recording together since the break-up of the Beatles.
The album was released August 19, 1974, in the US and August 30, 1974, in the UK.
Longtime Beatles publicist Derek Taylor, who produced A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night , wrote the liner notes for the original Pussy Cats pressing. In it, he referred to the album's notorious recording background and quipped, "Harry, and John [...] have been living a vampire turntable recently but have sucked no blood except each other's and not so much of that, [...] Anyway, the cross-transfusion works, so what the hell." [7] Lennon was annoyed that the Mast Albert Choir was listed in the credits as "Masked Albert Choir".
The album got a generally positive reception, peaking at #60 on the US Billboard album charts. [7] Nilsson's subsequent RCA releases would chart far lower.
In June 1999, a commemorative 25th-anniversary edition of Pussy Cats was released.
In October 2006, a track-by-track cover of the album was released by indie rock band The Walkmen. Several covers of the song "Don't Forget Me" have appeared, including Marshall Crenshaw's treatment on the 1995 Nilsson tribute For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson , Neil Diamond's version closing out his Dreams album, alt-country artist Neko Case's March 2009 version on her ANTI- label release, Middle Cyclone , and Mamie Minch's contribution to 2014's tribute to Nilsson by various indie artists This Is the Town: A Tribute to Nilsson, Vol. 1.
Lana Del Rey references "Don't Forget Me" directly in the lyrics of her song "Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd" released in December 2022. In an interview with Billie Eilish for Interview , Del Rey said that she was compelled to write a song inspired by Nilsson's track, but using her own metaphors. [9]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Many Rivers to Cross" | Jimmy Cliff | 4:56 |
2. | "Subterranean Homesick Blues" | Bob Dylan | 3:17 |
3. | "Don't Forget Me" | Harry Nilsson | 3:37 |
4. | "All My Life" | Nilsson | 3:11 |
5. | "Old Forgotten Soldier" | Nilsson | 4:14 |
6. | "Save the Last Dance for Me" | Doc Pomus, Mort Shuman | 4:25 |
7. | "Mucho Mungo/Mt. Elga" | John Lennon, Nilsson | 3:43 |
8. | "Loop de Loop" (featuring the Masked Alberts Kids Chorale) | Ted Vann | 2:40 |
9. | "Black Sails" | Nilsson | 3:15 |
10. | "Rock Around the Clock" | Jimmy DeKnight, Max C. Freedman | 3:12 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
11. | "Down by the Sea" | Nilsson | 5:37 |
12. | "The Flying Saucer Song" | Nilsson | 6:30 |
13. | "Turn Out the Light" | Nilsson | 2:32 |
14. | "Save the Last Dance for Me" (alternate version) | Pomus, Shuman | 4:26 |
Production and technical personnel
Chart (1974) | Peak position |
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Australian Albums (Kent Music Report) [10] | 45 |
US Billboard 200 [11] | 60 |
Harry Edward Nilsson III, sometimes credited as Nilsson, was an American singer-songwriter who reached the peak of his success in the early 1970s. His work is characterized by pioneering vocal overdub experiments, a return to the Great American Songbook, and fusions of Caribbean sounds. Nilsson was one of the few major pop-rock recording artists to achieve significant commercial success without performing major public concerts or touring regularly.
Ringo is the third studio album by English musician Ringo Starr, released in 1973 on Apple Records. It peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified platinum by the RIAA. In Canada, it reached No. 1 on the RPM national albums chart.
A Toot and a Snore in '74 is a bootleg album consisting of the only known recording session in which John Lennon and Paul McCartney played together after the break-up of the Beatles in 1970. First mentioned by Lennon in a 1975 interview, more details were brought to light in May Pang's 1983 book, Loving John, and it gained wider prominence when McCartney made reference to the session in a 1997 interview. Talking with Australian writer Sean Sennett in his Soho office, McCartney said the "session was hazy... for a number of reasons".
Nilsson Schmilsson is the seventh studio album by American singer Harry Nilsson, released by RCA Records on November 11, 1971. It was Nilsson's most commercially successful work, producing three of his best-known songs. Among these was the number 1 hit "Without You", written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans of the group Badfinger. The album was the first of two Nilsson albums recorded in London and produced by Richard Perry.
Son of Schmilsson is the eighth album by American singer Harry Nilsson, released in 1972 by RCA Records.
"Rock and Roll Music" is a song by American musician and songwriter Chuck Berry, written and recorded by Berry in May 1957. It has been widely covered and is one of Berry's most popular and enduring compositions.
Duit on Mon Dei is the eleventh album by Harry Nilsson. The original title for this album was God's Greatest Hits but management at RCA Records didn't approve. The title is a punning spelling of "Do It On Monday," playing on the British Monarchy's motto Dieu et mon droit. The pun was originally used on the cover of Ringo Starr's 1973 album Ringo.
Flash Harry is the fifteenth studio album by Harry Nilsson. Originally the album was not given a worldwide release and was issued only in the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France, Spain, The Netherlands, Australia, and Scandinavia. It was not issued in the United States until August 2013. Upon release it received little promotion from Mercury, with no proper single from the album.
Goodnight Vienna is the fourth studio album by Ringo Starr. It was recorded in the summer of 1974 in Los Angeles, and released later that year. Goodnight Vienna followed the commercially successful predecessor Ringo, and Starr used many of the same players, including Billy Preston, Klaus Voormann, Robbie Robertson, Harry Nilsson, and producer Richard Perry.
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Stop and Smell the Roses is the eighth studio album by English rock musician Ringo Starr. Released in October 1981, it followed the twin commercial failures of Ringo the 4th (1977) and Bad Boy (1978). The album includes the hit single "Wrack My Brain", written and produced by George Harrison, but otherwise failed to find commercial success. It also includes contributions from Paul McCartney, Harry Nilsson, Ronnie Wood and Stephen Stills.
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"Snookeroo" is a song written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin and released by Ringo Starr on his 1974 album Goodnight Vienna.
"Pussy Cats" Starring the Walkmen is a studio album by the American rock band the Walkmen, released on October 24, 2006, by Record Collection. The album is a song-for-song cover of the 1974 Harry Nilsson album Pussy Cats which was produced by John Lennon.
Photograph: The Very Best of Ringo Starr is a career-spanning best-of compilation album by Ringo Starr and is the first such album since the releases of 1975's Blast from Your Past and 1989's Starr Struck: Best of Ringo Starr, Vol. 2. The album was released in the UK on 27 August 2007, and in the US on 28 August.
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A Sideman's Journey is the first solo album by German musician and artist Klaus Voormann, released in July 2009. Voormann is best known as the creator of the cover art for The Beatles' album Revolver as well as for being a much-in-demand session musician during the 1970s. He played bass on a large number of well-known albums by ex-Beatles John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr − including All Things Must Pass, Imagine and The Concert for Bangladesh − and by artists such as Harry Nilsson, Doris Troy, Lou Reed, Gary Wright, Carly Simon and Randy Newman. Before then, Voormann had been a member of the 1960s pop group Manfred Mann. A Sideman's Journey is notable for including performances by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Yusuf Islam, among others.
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