Yes Mistress

The essence of Jimmy Webb’s artistry is exemplified in an unlikely place on this five-disc set, which collects all of his 1970s studio albums plus a 1972 live concert and an assortment of outtakes. It’s the last of those outtakes, a duet with Harry Nilsson on Boudleaux & Felice Bryant’s “Love Hurts”, that reveals the truth.
Webb had recorded the classic ballad for his 1972 album Letters, then cut this subsequent take with Nilsson in London but decided not to use it. In the liner notes here, Webb explains he and Nilsson were “smashed out of our minds” when they cut the track, and confesses he nixed it because he felt Nilsson’s vocal was too melodramatic: “Somewhat hypocritically perhaps, I felt he was too far gone…”