This 1971 Hit Proved That Harry Nilsson Could Rock as Well as He Could Croon

One of the hallmarks of a great musician is the ability to pivot away from what they do best and show another side of themselves. Harry Nilsson achieved this goal with a thumping single from his classic 1971 album Nilsson Schmilsson.

Everyone knew that Nilsson could do the angelic ballad thing. But with “Jump Into The Fire”, he served up a frenzied rocker with an abandon that few knew he had in him.

Harry’s Quest

Harry Nilsson went into the making of Nilsson Schmilsson a bit tired of being just the critical darling whose music also charmed much more well-known rock stars. His big break came a few years earlier when John Lennon and Paul McCartney talked up his skills to anyone who would listen. That put him on the map for many listeners who didn’t know much about him to that point.

Nilsson’s career in the 60s was interesting in how his mainstream successes never quite combined all his skills. “Everybody’s Talkin’”, his smash hit in 1969, was a cover. Meanwhile, Three Dog Night took “One”, a song that Nilsson had written and first performed, to the Top 5 that same year.

Heading into Nilsson Schmilsson, he wanted that smash LP, both in terms of critical acclaim and sales, that had eluded him to that point. He hired Richard Perry to produce and headed to London to record the LP with the cream of the crop of session musicians. On “Jump Into The Fire”, Nilsson expanded his musical horizons in thrillingly intense fashion.

A Fearless “Jump”

On the track, Nilsson put his trust in some fantastic musicians on what turned out to be a wild 10-minute jam session, edited down to just under seven minutes on the album and under four minutes for a single release. Jim Gordon provides the tom-heavy rhythmic pulse on drums, Chris Spedding and Klaus Voorman deliver insistent rhythm guitar, John Uribe adds the stinging lead fills, and Jimmy Webb helps Nilsson fill in the gaps on keyboards.

But the showstopper was Herbie Flowers on bass. At one point during the song, Flowers begins to detune his instrument, as if the whole enterprise is about to break down into shambles. It’s the perfectly idiosyncratic touch on a track where Nilsson periodically uncorks unhinged screams.

“Without You”, the first single from Nilsson Schmilsson, gave fans the balladic Harry that they knew well. But “Jump Into The Fire” followed that up and showed just what he could do as a rocker. The song made it to No. 27 on the pop charts, not bad considering the single version excised much of the instrumental excess that made the full track so special.

Behind the Lyrics of “Jump Into The Fire”

The lyrics for “Jump Into The Fire” start off aspirational. “You can climb a mountain,” Nilsson promises. “You can swim the sea.” But then they take a brazen turn. “You can jump into the fire,” he sings. “But you’ll never be free.”

That’s when we find out that Nilsson seems to be referencing a relationship that isn’t doing either person any good. “You can shake me up,” he belts. “Or I can bring you down.” On paper, the refrain of “We can make each other happy” sounds benign enough. But Nilsson’s unhinged wailing makes it dangerous, almost sinister.

Martin Scorsese unlocked the frantic nature of the song when he used it in a key segment of Goodfellas. With “Jump Into The Fire”, Harry Nilsson leaned into the darkness that could be found hanging around at the edges of even his prettiest songs. And he came away with a cathartic thriller.

(Photo by Stan Meagher/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)