''Aerial Ballet'' is the third studio

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by American musician

Harry Nilsson Harry Edward Nilsson III (June 15, 1941 – January 15, 1994), 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 experi ...

, released in July 1968.

Overview

''Aerial Ballet'' was Nilsson's second

for

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...

, and was titled after the highwire circus act of his grandparents. It consists almost entirely of songs written by him, including "

One 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

", which later became a Number Five hit for

Three Dog Night Three Dog Night is an American rock band formed in 1967, founded by vocalists Chuck Negron, Cory Wells, and Danny Hutton. This lineup was soon augmented by Jimmy Greenspoon (keyboards), Joe Schermie (bass), Michael Allsup (guitar), and Floyd Sn ...

. The title of the album has been cited by Joey Kramer as the inspiration for

Aerosmith Aerosmith is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Boston in 1970. The group consists of lead vocalist Steven Tyler, bassist Tom Hamilton (musician), Tom Hamilton, drummer Joey Kramer, and guitarists Joe Perry (musician), Joe Perry and B ...

's name. The most familiar track from ''Aerial Ballet'' is its one cover song,

Fred Neil Fred Neil (born Frederick Ralph Morlock Jr.; March 16, 1936 – July 7, 2001) was an American folk singer-songwriter active in the 1960s and early 1970s. He is mainly known through other people's recordings of his material – particularl ...

's "Everybody's Talkin. It was released as a single in North America in 1968, and reached the top forty in Canada—but initially flopped in the US. However, the song was subsequently selected for use in the

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

-winning film ''

Midnight Cowboy ''Midnight Cowboy'' is a 1969 American drama film directed by John Schlesinger, adapted by Waldo Salt from the 1965 novel by James Leo Herlihy. The film stars Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, with supporting roles played by Sylvia Miles, J ...

'' and became one of Nilsson's biggest hits as a performer, hitting the US top ten in 1969. The original opening number for ''Aerial Ballet'' was "Daddy's Song", but this track was removed (apparently without Nilsson's awareness) after the first copies were issued, because

The Monkees The Monkees were an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. The band consisted of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones (musician), Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork. Spurred by the success of ''The Monkees (TV series), Th ...

had recorded a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

to be featured in their film ''

Head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple ani ...

'', and had paid $35,000 for exclusive rights to the song. Recent reissues restore "Daddy's Song" (with the Monkees' contract long expired) to its rightful place in the lineup. When Nilsson visited

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

in London during 1968,

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...

played Nilsson "Revolution" and selections from the (then-upcoming) White Album, and Nilsson, in turn, played to Lennon (who had spent thirty-six hours listening to Nilsson's previous album, '' Pandemonium Shadow Show'') a demo cut of this record. The album was reissued in 1980 on Pickwick (ACL-7075). It had a different cover featuring a biplane in a field, with the pilot standing in the foreground smoking a cigarette in a holder. It had a printed stamp in the upper right corner announcing "Grammy Award Winner, Best Contemporary Male Vocalist, Everybody's Talkin. The song order was different, and both "Daddy's Song" and "Bath" were missing.

Track listing

*excluded from initial British copies

Personnel

Credits per Allmusic: * Harry Nilsson –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

Dennis Budimir Dennis Matthew Budimir (June 20, 1938 – January 10, 2023) was an American jazz and rock guitarist. He was considered to be a member of the Wrecking Crew. Biography Budimir learned to play piano and guitar in his youth and first played profe ...

–

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

* Al Casey – guitar * Michael Melvoin –

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

Larry Knechtel Lawrence William Knechtel (August 4, 1940 – August 20, 2009) was an American keyboard player and bassist who was a member of the Wrecking Crew, a collection of Los Angeles–based session musicians who worked with such renowned artists as Sim ...

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

, piano * Lyle Ritz – bass * Jim Gordon –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Milt Holland Milton Holland (born Milton Olshansky; February 7, 1917 – November 4, 2005) was an American drummer, percussionist, ethnomusicologist and writer in the Los Angeles music scene. He pioneered the use of African, South American, and Indian perc ...

–

bell A bell /ˈbɛl/ () is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be m ...

s, mallets,

tabla A ''tabla'' is a pair of hand drums from the Indian subcontinent. Since the 18th century, it has been the principal percussion instrument in Hindustani classical music, where it may be played solo, as an accompaniment with other instruments a ...

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion instrument, percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a Membranophone, membrane called a drumhead, ...

* Carroll Lewis –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet, but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though ...

* Ollie Mitchell – trumpet * Anthony Terran – trumpet, flugelhorn * Robert Enevoldsen –

baritone horn The baritone horn, sometimes called baritone, is 3 or 4 valved tenor-voiced brass instrument in the saxhorn family.Robert Donington, "The Instruments of Music", (pp. 113ff ''The Family of Bugles'') 2nd ed., Methuen, London, 1962 It is a pist ...

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

* Dick Hyde – baritone horn,

bass trombone The bass trombone (, ) is the bass instrument in the trombone family of brass instruments. Modern instruments are pitched in the same B♭ as the tenor trombone but with a larger bore, bell and mouthpiece to facilitate low register playing, and u ...

* Robert Knight – baritone horn, bass trombone * Richard Taylor "Dick" Nash – baritone horn, trombone * George Roberts – baritone horn * David Duke –

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

tuba The tuba (; ) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in th ...

* James R. Horn –

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

* Bob Hardaway – woodwinds *

Plas Johnson Plas John Johnson Jr. () (born July 21, 1931) is an American soul-jazz and hard bop tenor saxophonist, probably most widely known as the tenor saxophone soloist on Henry Mancini’s " The Pink Panther Theme". He also performs on alto and bar ...

– woodwinds * John Lowe – woodwinds * John Rotella – woodwinds * Leonard Atkins –

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

* Arnold Belnick – violin * James Getzoff – violin * Alfred Lustgarten – violin * Leonard Malarsky – violin * Wilbert Nuttycombe – violin * Jerome Reisler – violin * Charlotte Soy – violin * Darrel Terwilliger – violin * William Weiss – violin * Tibor Zelig – violin * Jesse Ehrlich –

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

* Ray Kelly – cello * Jacqueline Lustgarten – cello Production and technical personnel *

George Tipton George Aliceson Tipton (January 23, 1932 – February 12, 2016) was an American composer, musical arranger, and conductor, who is well known for his work in television and for his collaborations with singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson. Among ...

– arrangements * Rick Jarrard – producer * Brian Christian – engineer * Grover Helsley – engineer * Allen Zentz – engineer * Hank McGill – engineer * Pat Ieraci – technician * Dick Hendler – artwork, cover illustration

References

External links

Aerial Ballet at The Harry Nilsson Web Pages
{{Authority control Harry Nilsson albums 1968 albums RCA Records albums Albums produced by Rick Jarrard Albums arranged by George Tipton