Noel Harrison

The Windmills of Your Mind.com 

Various compilations

During his career, Noel recorded a number of songs for films and live shows he appeared in, as well as tracks for a variety of different compilations.

Old Wine/New Skins (2007 folk compilation)

In 2007, Noel recorded the track O Pleasant and Delightful for the compilation album Old Wine/New Skins. 

The album featured a number of new versions of classic English folk songs and was released alongside a book called The Folk Handbook: Working With Songs From The English Tradition.

The album is available to download or buy from Amazon.

The Murder in China Basin (1999 film soundtrack)

Noel starred as an eccentric musician who gets murdered in this 1999 film.

He wrote the tracks Fade to Blue and It's My Lucky Day specially for China Basin. He is also credited on two instrumental tracks, but the legendary musician Vandyke Parks is also credited as his piano "ghost".

The beautifully haunting Fade to Blue and catchy My Lucky Day proved he could still knock out a decent performance for a film soundtrack more than 30 years after The Windmills of Your Mind.

The album is available on iTunes. For more on the film go to the Film section.

Lotusland: A musical Comedy (1995 musical comedy)

Noel only performed one song in the musical comedy by singer and writer Ian Whitcomb. The project was based on a book of the same name also written by Whitcomb.

Noel's song Don't Let Down The Family Tree is an odd, music-hall style track, written and performed in an old-fashioned, bawdy style, harking back to some of the novelty tracks he recorded as B-sides at the very beginning of his career. The track is available on iTunes, but is really for serious collectors only.

Spring Thing (1969 television soundtrack)

The soundtrack to an hour-long TV special Noel hosted with singer-songwriter Bobbie Gentry.

Guests on the show included Shirley Bassey and Goldie Hawn.

For more information, go to the programme's dedicated page.

The Thomas Crown Affair (1968 film soundtrack)

The most famous soundtrack Noel ever recorded a song for was of course the 1968 Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway film The Thomas Crown Affair. The Windmills of Your Mind is the only song of Noel's on the record, but the album also features an instrumental version of the track.

For more on the song, go to the Windmills of Your Mind page. 

King Arthur and the Round Table (1961)

Noel Harrison features in the story of King Arthur in a spoken-word record which was designed for children.

It is a curious, and quite rare, record which was released first as a single in England then as the b-side to an album in America.

Noel plays King Arthur in the classic story and sings one song during the short piece, which only lasts about 15 minutes.

When the story was released in America as the b-side to Treasure Island, Noel was wrongly credited as playing Merlin, the role actually played by Jeremy Hawk.

Arthur's Song (listen)

Noel Harrison Introduces Paddy Roberts at the Blue Angel (1961)

As the title suggests, Noel introduces comedy singer Paddy Roberts at the Blue Angel club.

Noel's only recorded contribution to the album is welcoming Paddy onto the stage.

The record was made at the same club Noel recorded his own At The Blue Angel album.

Listen to Noel introduce Paddy.