Himself is the debut album by Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan, released in the United Kingdom by MAM Records in August 1971, following the top 10 success of its single "Nothing Rhymed".

Mills also aided O'Sullivan with his songwriting, which incorporates an observational style and word play, the usage of the latter being influenced by Spike Milligan.

It received a warm reception from critics, and O'Sullivan became noted for his satirical lyrics and eye-catching, atypical dress style, which included a cloth cap and short trousers.

The album was released with a revised track list in the United States in 1972, this time boasting the hit single "Alone Again (Naturally)".

A remastered edition of the original version of Himself was released by the Salvo label in 2011 as part of the Gilbert O'Sullivan - A Singer & His Songs collection.

Born in Waterford, Ireland in 1946, Raymond Edward O'Sullivan began playing the piano after moving to Swindon, England around the age of seven.

[13] Gilbert O'Sullivan's original intention was to record the album with just piano and voice, but Mills persuaded him to use full instrumentation and string arrangements.

[4][17] Examples of word play in the album's lyrics include "Have yourself A-tomic bomb" in "January Git" and "Bonaparte shandy" substituting for "Napoléon brandy" in "Nothing Rhymed".

[18] It tells the story of "our Linda" and her unwanted pregnancy with the baby of the titular twit ("She thinks his name was Ronald or was it Sid or Len").

[18] Melody Maker's Michael Watts has written that song reflects "working class bewilderment" at the "negativity of the middle-class young".

[12] The gatefold features a collage showing O'Sullivan at a wheel of an elongated Hispano Suiza with Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan and Clara Bow among the passengers.

[31] He performed "If I Don't Get You (Back Again)", "Susan Van Heusen", "January Git", "Nothing Rhymed", "Permissive Twit" and "Bye-Bye" from the album, as well as his 1969 single "Mr. Moody's Garden" and "We Will", in an edition of BBC In Concert broadcast 18 December 1971.

[32] A revised version of Himself was released in the United States in 1972, adding the non-album singles "Alone Again (Naturally)" and "We Will" and omitting "Susan Van Heusen" and "Doing the Best I Can".

[35] A remastered version of Himself was released by the Salvo label in November 2011 as part of an extensive reissue programme titled Gilbert O'Sullivan - A Singer & His Songs.

Michael Watts of Melody Maker considered O'Sullivan to be totally unlike his stablemates Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck, adding: "He's got talent, for a start, which reaches beyond their superficialities of glam and glossy presentation."

"[11] Andrew Tyler of Disc felt that "the songs, like the man, are 100 per cent originals," but was less taken by the production style, adding that "to coat the music he offers with a stale, sticky candy covering is a giant boob".

[39] The NME's Tony Norman considered Gilbert's melodies to be "among the strongest you can hear today," and praised his ability to get inside a real situation and "capture the whole mood of the moment in his jumping selection of words.

Billboard considered it a "dynamic package,"[40] while Robert Christgau, writing for Creem, characterised O'Sullivan as "uneven" but "a complete original."

[41] John Mendelsohn of Rolling Stone was more critical, writing that O'Sullivan's singing "wears rather poorly" and commenting: "I doubt anyone could characterize him as a great melodist with a straight face."

"[42] Following the US success of "Alone Again (Naturally)", the album was reviewed again in Rolling Stone, this time by James Isaacs, who said that although Sullivan "had a proclivity for becoming mired in the overbearing scores and especially in his own verbosity and Gaelic sentimentality," the hit single had "brought a tear to my eye on more than one occasion.

"[43] Among retrospective reviews, Allmusic's J. Scott McClintock commented that "Gilbert O'Sullivan could be as good as Ray Davies at painting touching pictures of the ordinary," and considered the album "essential to any lover of Beatles-tinged Brit-pop, and any fan of the mundane made profound.

"[37] Reviewing the 2011 reissue, Oregano Rathbone of Record Collector rated the album five stars out of five and compared its melodies to "White Album-era McCartney at the pinnacle of his game" and its lyrics to "Alan Bennett displaying an unmatched daring with scansion.