Musical Montage: Leonard Nimoy “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins”

Back in 1967, Leonard Nimoy was in the midst of shooting the second season of Star Trek but, on the side, he had recorded his second album, Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy, following up the album Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock’s Music from Outer Space that was done in character as Spock.  Going on the forgotten 60’s variety show Malibu U, Nimoy sang his musical homage to JRR Tolkein’s The Hobbit with “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins”.  The song basically recounts the entire story of Bilbo’s adventures with the dwarves and it was released as a single after it’s appearance on TV but didn’t really do anything chart wise.  Nimoy actually put out three more albums over the course of his career, the latter of which were covers of folk songs and pop songs like Proud Mary or I Walk the Line.  The segment from Malibu U featuring the song has survived and thrived on the internet and is now the official “music video” of the song, check it out below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGF5ROpjRAU