For The Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson

Tribute albums are difficult things to pull off at the best of times, so it's no surprise that not quite everything works on this 23-track set. Part of the problem is that Harry Nilsson wrote some amazing songs in his time -- but he also wrote some that were not quite so amazing. Another part of the problem is that some of these songs don't lend themselves easily to interpretation -- thus we have Fred Schneider destroying "Coconut" with a loud, crunchy treatment, and LaVern Baker turning "Jump into the Fire" into a wimpy R&B outing. On the other hand, "Spaceman" is even more interestingly quirky in the hands of the Roches and Mark Johnson, Aimee Mann brings out the sweet side of "One," Adrian Belew does a fine "Me and My Arrow," and Steve Forbert turns in a supremely cute take on "The Moonbeam Song." Overall a nice project (with money going to the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence), though it does not replace the original Nilsson performances by a long chalk. --AllMusic Guide He was so great he can make Jimmy Webb and Steve Forbert sound interesting, Aimee Mann and Marc Cohn sound enduring, Jennifer Trynin and Ron Sexsmith sound like you should know who they are. He was so great Fred Schneider ain't funnier and the Roches ain't spacier. He was so great you'll play one of these things from beginning to end--twice, even more, for the fun of it. B+ --Robert Christgau