Kevin Bronson on June 14th, 2016

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Harry Nilsson would have turned 75 tomorrow and the influence of the mercurial singer-writer continues to be part pop music’s fabric today. In honor of the anniversary of Nilsson’s birth, Claire McKeown, the honey-voiced singer who helms the indie folk-gospel outfit Honey Child, shares this stripped-down version of “The Moonbeam Song,” from his landmark album “Nilsson Schmilsson,” which itself is 45 years old this month. Says McKeown: “Harry is so dear to me, and one of the biggest influences to my vocal delivery in Honey Child. … We recorded this during our tracking of Honey Child’s debut last November.” With Ethan Walker engineering, the song was originally recorded in one take, as the man himself liked to do it. A thin veneer of vocoder and Moog was added later.

||| Stream: “The Moonbeam Song”

||| Live: Honey Child performs June 27 at the Satellite on the final night of Steady Holiday’s residency.

||| Also: To celebrate Nilsson, the Harry Nilsson 75 Birthday Sing-Along will be held tonight at Molly Malones. Part of the nation “National Harry in the Hall” campaign, the show features Anny Celsi, Adam Marsland, Alan Boyd, Carl Sealove, Carolyn Soyars, Chris Price, Cynthia Carle, Danette Christine, Dave Soyars, Jason Luckett, LuAnn Olson, Marc Platt, Michael Tyler, Mike Randle, Milo Binder, Nick Vincent, Paul Zimmelman, Randell Kirsch, The Regal Peaches, Rick Hromadka, Sarah Kramer, Simon Glickman, Stephen Kalinich, Steve Stanley, Teresa Cowles, Triumph of the Egg, The Walker Brigade, Zak Nilsson and more.