Nilsson 1967 Rarity "Leggenda"

As a longtime Nilsson fan (particularly of the early baroque pop era), I was delighted when I first heard "Leggenda" on the Sessions 1967-1968 disc of the RCA Albums Collection.



Although recorded in 1967, and sounding very much like an Aerial Ballet track, the song never got a release until 1972, where it was the B-side to the Italian version of "Without You."

Stranger still, the song is sung entirely in Italian and wasn't written by Nilsson himself. Discogs credits Adriano Tomassini, Alberto Morina and Giulio D'Ercole as writers (none of them have had much of careers on their own from what I can tell).

Discogs link.

Does anybody know the story behind this one?

 

No Nilsson expert out there?

 

According to Leggenda (Song) at the Harry Nilsson Web Pages ,

"When Harry decided to release an Italian-language version of "Without You" ("Per Chi") in Italy, he found out that he was required to include an Italian song on the single. Therefore, he recorded "Leggenda" for the B-side.."

 

That information has to be wrong. It's well documented it was recorded much earlier than that now. There's quite a few songs in Italian from 1967 on the RCA box set. I can only assume it was for the Italian market but just never came out until years later. It certainly has a George Tipton style arrangement. It's too bad it wasn't recorded with American lyrics. I'd like to hear that.

 

That's what I'm thinking too... it looks like he recorded an Italian version of "Cuddly Toy" around the same time that was released as a split single with some other people. Maybe it was intended as a B-side?

Discogs for single release.

 

In the RCA albums box, on the Aerial Pandemonium Ballet disc, there are Italian versions of:

It's Been So Long
Sleep Late, My Lady Friend
Without Her
Cuddly Toy
You Can't Do That

Perhaps it was actually "Without Her" and not "Without You" that needed a b-side and has confused people over the years.

 

Well... probably wasn't "Without Her" that needed a b-side since "Leggenda" was in fact the b-side to "Without Her." I'm thinking it was probably just something in the can and easy to throw on the other side at the time.

 

The two Harry Nilsson titles that have intrigued me for years are "The Boy From Sugarloaf" and "Her Eyes," both copyrighted in November of 1969, right when he was at the height of his genius. No recordings of them by him or anyone else have yet to see the light of day. I would love to even view them as sheet music if that exists. (Click HERE and HERE).

 

Haven't even heard of those! Would love to hear them if they even exist still