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One of the most curious Leonard Nimoy performances as Spock wasn’t for television or film; it was on multiple musical albums.
For nearly fifty years of his celebrated career, actor and filmmaker Leonard Nimoy was primarily associated with his iconic role as Mister Spock, the chief science officer of the U.S.S. Enterprise on Star Trek. Reprising the role in a series of feature films, guest appearances and cameos, Nimoy’s history with Spock would also extend to everything from video games to audiobooks. However, perhaps the strangest performance Nimoy gave as spoke over the course of his career was an entirely different sort of audio performance, appearing as Spock on not one but two musical albums.
For decades — including during Star Trek‘s initial run during the 1960s — it was relatively commonplace for popular actors and television personalities to have their own solo albums, often trading on the success of their more visible roles. Burt Reynolds would put out at country album in the early 1970s, and Kojak star and one-time James Bond supervillain Telly Savalas put out five albums that performed surprisingly well in the United Kingdom and Australia. Even Nimoy’s Star Trek co-star William Shatner would put out his own solo album in 1968, The Transformed Man, featuring spoken word renditions of several popular songs at the time, juxtaposed with poetry readings and excerpts from famous plays. However, Nimoy would enjoy much more success than Shatner in the recording industry.
Nimoy’s musical career began in June 1967 with the release of Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock’s Music From Outer Space, featuring Nimoy costumed as Spock on the album cover in a publicity photo holding a model of the Enterprise. Featuring a mix of instrumental tracks — coincidentally including the Mission: Impossible theme two years before Nimoy joined the main cast of the television series following Star Trek‘s cancellation — the album also featured tracks of Nimoy in-character as Spock delivering spoken word performances and singing science-fiction themed songs before closing out the album on an oddly morose note as Spock encounters a desolate, lifeless planet he realizes is Earth.
Nimoy’s debut album broke onto the US Billboard Top 100, peaking at #83, with a follow-up album picked up. Released less than a year later, 1968’s Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy brought more separation between the actor and his pointy-eared alter ego. The first side of the vinyl record featured Nimoy reprising his role as Spock in songs and spoken word segments exploring his dual heritage, including the observation of human nature titled “Highly Illogical.” The second side featured Nimoy as himself, singing songs like “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins,” with the album following its predecessor’s success by peaking at #97 on the US Billboard charts.
Nimoy would put out three additional musical albums following Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy, but never again while overtly in-character as Spock. By 1968’s The Way I Feel, Nimoy’s third studio album, he began co-writing his own songs, with his song “Maiden Wine” from his fourth album The Touch of Leonard Nimoy, being incorporated into the episode “Plato’s Stepchildren” during the final season of Star Trek. Available to stream on several major music platforms, including Apple Music, Nimoy’s discography stands as a curious mix of novelty capitalizing on Nimoy’s Star Trek prominence and an effort for the actor to branch into a surprisingly prolific musical career that spanned five studio albums. While Nimoy outgrew Spock’s presence on his records, the Vulcan’s return to the big screen less than a decade after Nimoy’s final album would cement his place in pop culture forever.
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