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This is a good overview of the British singer/songwriter/actor's recorded efforts although I remember seeing him perform an excellent version of Dylan's "It's All Over Now,Baby Blue" on Hullabaloo that I would have liked to have seen included here. As good as many of the songs are, Mr.Harrison's liner notes should be read as you listen.The combined effect is like having a conversation with this talented, charming, self-deprecating performer. If you haven't written your memoirs yet, Mr. Harrison,you should. I think they would be very entertaining.
(customer review)
Life is a Dream
Sign of the Queen
Suzanne
Museum
Mrs. Williams’ Rose
Go Ask Your Man
Windmills of Your Mind
Life is a Dream
Santa Monica Pier
So Long, Marianne
In Your Childhood
Leich On The Beach
Dress Rehearsal Rag
I Shall Remember
Highway in the Wind
The Great Electric Experiment is Over
Mountains and marianne
Blue Island
Poor Cow
The Last Thing on My Mind
Nathan laFraneer
Another Song to You
Don’t We All Get Lonely Sometimes
Tin Wedding
Another Virgin Spring
Sparrow
California Weekend
Mike Brewer/Tom Shipley
Leonard Cohen
Donovan Leich
Geoffrey Stevens
Bob Lind
Marilyn & Alan Bergman/ Michel leGrand
Jimmy Smith/Bobby Ray
Noel Harrison
Leonard Cohen
David Cohen
Noel Harrison
Leonard Cohen
Noel Harrison/Harvey Jason
Arlo Guthrie
Noel Harrison
Gordon Lightfoot
Luiz Henrique/Jacqueline Sharpe
Donovan Leich
Tom Paxton
Joni Mitchell
Noel Harrison
Baker Knight
Noel Harrison
Baker Knight
Benny Gallagher/Graham Lyle
Noel harrison
 

If you know "Windmills Of Your Mind" (of course you do), you already know Noel Harrison. He performed the now-famous Bergman/Bergman/LeGrand composition for the classic 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair. The sweeping ballad won an Oscar® for Best Original Song and became a huge hit, remaining in heavy rotation to this day.
Son of actor Rex Harrison, Noel started playing professionally at age 20, taking gigs at restaurants, cabarets and private parties. He spent the early '60s performing at bars and nightclubs all over Europe. He soon had a surprise hit for London with "A Young Girl," and a costarring role on the T.V. series The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. A new contract followed with Reprise, for whom Harrison cut three more songwriter-oriented albums in the late '60s. Folky soft rock on the surface, this material often leans into psych with its daring orchestrations.
The songs on this Rhino Handmade release are selected from those three Reprise albums: Collage (1967), Santa Monica Pier (1968), and The Great Electric Experiment Is Over (1969). Utilizing star producers and players from the peak-era L.A. session scene, Harrison recorded songs written by himself and others: Donovan, Leonard Cohen, Arlo Guthrie, Gordon Lightfoot, Tom Paxton, Joni Mitchell, and Judy Collins (some of Harrison's versions were released first). Included are the previously unreleased "Mountains And Marianne," "The Last Thing On My Mind," and "Don't We All Get Lonely Sometimes." With the original Thomas Crown soundtrack now out of print, "Windmills Of Your Mind" makes its only CD appearance here. This release also features liner notes written by Harrison himself.

Life Is A Dream is available as an individually numbered limited edition of 2,500 copies.

Available from "RHINO HANDMADE"
Catalogue Number:
RHM2 7848
$19.98