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Song of the Day #3,635: ‘I’ll Be Home’ – Harry Nilsson

Before I get to my random SOTD, let me wish a Happy Father’s Day to my dear father and to all fathers across the land.

Harry Nilsson was a moderately successful singer-songwriter with five studio albums under his belt in 1970, when he decided to record an album of songs written by Randy Newman.

At the time, Newman was a prolific writer of songs for other people but had released only one album — a major flop — under his own name. He was nothing close to a household name, which made Nilsson Sings Newman a bizarre detour for the ascendant Nilsson.

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Song of the Day #3,633: ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’ – Gail Sophicha

I want to dedicate a full week to ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane,’ but I’ve run out of official releases, so today I leave you with a cover version by 8-year-old Thai YouTuber Gail Sophicha.

One last fun fact about this song: In the late 80s, New Order released a song called ‘Run’ which they later remixed for a 12″ single titled ‘Run 2.’ Either John Denver or his publishing company (depending on which source you read) believed ‘Run 2’ closely resembled ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’ in parts. They successfully sued, preventing the re-release of the single and earning Denver songwriting credit on the track.

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Song of the Day #3,632: ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’ – John Denver

John Denver made the interesting decision to release a greatest hits album just four years into his solo career. To be fair, he had released seven studio albums by that time, including one just a few months earlier, but he wasn’t exactly a hit machine. Only three of his songs had reached Billboard’s top ten.

Denver re-recorded more than half of the songs, believing he had grown as an artist and a singer over the years and owed these tracks a revisit. One of those new recordings was ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane.’

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Song of the Day #3,631: ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’ – John Denver

Peter, Paul and Mary scored their only #1 hit with ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’ in 1969, but John Denver released his own version that year as well. Nestled on Side B of his sophomore album Rhymes & Reasons, it was one of only three original compositions on the record.

This version of the song was recently used for the opening of an episode of Barry, a dark HBO comedy starring Bill Hader as a hitman trying to succeed in Hollywood. That scene reminded me of how much I love this song and led to this theme week, so you can either thank or blame Bill Hader.

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