Song of the Day 5/26: Nilsson, “Jump Into the Fire”

I didn’t even have to finish reading the headline about actor Ray Liotta’s death at age 67 for this song to start playing in my head. As any Scorsese fan knows, this is the tune that accompanies Henry Hill’s paranoid drive while a police helicopter shadows him, and it does an effective job of heightening that paranoia for the audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITbnvTAbUg0

The single version, cut down to 3:36, peaked at No. 27, a relative disappointment after its predecessor, “Without You,” climbed to No. 1. The album version tops seven minutes, and if you listen long enough, after Jim Gordon’s drum solo (at 4:52 of the video) bassist Herbie Flowers audibly detunes his instrument. He later explained that he did it as a gag, assuming the recording was well past the point where it would be faded out on the record. Also, though you can barely hear it under Richard Perry’s production, that’s Jimmy Webb on the piano.

Several acts have covered the song over the years, including Chris Cornell and Robin Zander of Cheap Trick. The LCD Sound System used to feature it during encores.