harry nilsson: "without you", singer/songwriter

7/27/2019 HARRY NILSSON: "WITHOUT YOU", SINGER/SONGWRITER

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(This is part of a series of blogs Ive been doing on some of the groups and on some of the

perhaps lesser-known songwriters and players behind some of rocks classic artists and songs)-

so far: Glen Campbell, Paul Revere & The Raiders, Johnny Rivers, The Rascals, Rick Nelson, Del

Shannon, Badfinger, Bob Marley, etc.)

HARRY NILSSON: WITHOUT YOU, SINGER/SONGWRITER

Harry Nilsson, singer/songwriter, had quite the life; several hits and albums, and

was friends with The Beatles. He had hits with Everybodys Talking (69),


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Without You(71) and Coconut (72). He also wrote One, a hit for Three Dog

Night.

He also had many ups and downs, perhaps fitting for someone whose

grandparents were circus performers and whose father left when he was two. Hegot work at an early age, as a bank clerk, because he was self-trained on

computers, but wrote songs at night.

He struggled for several song writing years, until he released his first real album,

Pandemonium Side Show, in 1966. It contained a cover of The Beatles song You

Cant Do That and other re-created sounds that impressed The Beatles and they

proclaimed him as their favorite American artist, which helped raise his profile. In

1968, Nilsson released his 2ndalbum,Ariel Ballet, with a song by Fred Neil,

Everybodys Talkin, that became a hit from the movie Midnight Cowboy with

Dustin Hoffman and John Voigt.

Nilsson worked for Phil Spector and wrote One ( is the loneliest number) for

Three Dog Night and songs for The Monkees and their film, Head, directed by Jack

Nicholson. He had another hit with IGuess the Lord Must Live in NYC, originally

written for Midnight Cowboy. In 1970, Nilsson dedicated a whole album to a little

known songwriter at the time, Randy Newman, Nilsson Sings Newman.

He next did the soundtrack to a childrens animation feature, The Point, about a

child that doesnt fit in withthe song, Me and My Arrow. But in 1971, Nilsson

had a #1 with his version of Beatles-produced band, Badfingers (see my previous

article on Badfinger) classic song, Without You, on his album Nilsson Schmilsson

which also had the hits, Coconut and Jump in The Fire.

But Nilsson, despite his success, was always trying different directions, and who

rarely performed live, then turned to covers of 20s,30s, and 40s songwriters

like Irving Berlin, with fascinating renditions of As Time Goes By and It Had to

be You, etc., with a full orchestra, on his A Touch of Schmilsson in The Night

album.

Then in 1973, during John Lennon infamous long weekend, when separated

from Yoko, Lennon produced Nilssons Pussy CatsLP. The result is an interesting


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combination of original songs and old rock covers like Rock around The Clock,

Jimmy Cliffs Many Rivers To Cross and Dylans Subterranean Homesick

Blues, with drinking buddies, Ringo and The Whos Keith Moon on drums and

Jesse Ed Davis on guitar. But When John Lennon was killed in 1980, Nilsson took

it particularly hard, and he and his song writing was never the same.

The flat Nilsson had in London, near the Beatles Apple headquarters, which he

rented out to other musicians, was also tragically the location, where both Mama

Cass Elliot in 74, and later Keith Moon in 78, died. And Nilsson found out in 1990

that his financial advisor had stolen all the money he had made from his

recordings and he only had $300 in the bank. He would die in 1994 of heart

failure and a 2-Cd retrospective of his work was released in 1995.

So Harry Nilsson, singer/songwriter, had quite the life; a close friend of The

Beatles and an eclectic writer of some great songs and albums which are highly

recommended.

See Harry Nilsson do Badfingers Without You:

http://youtu.be/_bQGRRolrg0

Harry Nilssons RETROSPECTIVE 2CD SET of his songs: and hits:

& Harry Nilssons 1974 Album PUSSYCATS, produced by John Lennon, with

Ringo, Keith Moon, Jesse Ed Davis, etc.- a combination of original songs & classic

rock n roll covers
http://youtu.be/_bQGRRolrg0http://youtu.be/_bQGRRolrg0http://youtu.be/_bQGRRolrg0


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Above: Harry Nilssons RETROSPECTIVE 2CD SET of his songs and hits

Harry Nilssons 1974 Album, PUSSYCATS, produced by John Lennon, with Ringo,

Keith Moon, Jesse Ed Davis-a combination of original songs & rock n roll covers


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harry nilsson: "without you", singer/songwriter

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