Harry Nilsson

No, I can’t forget this evening

Or your face as you were leaving

But I guess that’s just the way the story goes

Welcome to another Musical Tree! What happens when you are a relatively unknown singer / songwriter and The Beatles proclaim that you are their favorite artist? Get ready to learn about the fascinating life of one of America’s greatest songwriters, Mr. Harry Nilsson!

Harry Nilsson was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1941. From the start Harry’s life wasn’t easy. When he was just three years old his father suddenly walked out on his family, leaving his mother to raise him and his sister. His mother told him that his father had been killed in the war, something that Harry later discovered was untrue. In a song Harry wrote as an adult titled “1941”, the hurt still is evident in the following lyrics: 

Well, in 1941, a happy father had a son
And by 1944, the father walked right out the door

Harry’s mother did all she could to provide a good home, but as a single mother it was tough. The family eventually moved in with relatives and as a young teen Harry was expected to help contribute to the household by working at part-time jobs while in school. During a particularly rough stretch when Harry was 15, he held up a liquor store to help pay the rent. By the time Harry was 17 he was working as a caddie at a local golf course but was fired after getting into a fight with another caddie. When his uncle told him he had to leave the house immediately Harry headed to Los Angeles. 

Harry landed a job at Paramount Theater in LA, at the time the fourth biggest movie theater in the US. Harry worked his way up to assistant manager and, when Paramount began hosting live rock and roll shows, Harry began learning piano chords from the various musicians that performed there. The Paramount closed in the early 1960’s but by that time Harry’s piano skills had improved immensely. He had also begun writing and performing songs during the day while working nights at his new job in the computer department at a bank.

Harry’s early musical influences were Ray Charles and The Everly Brothers. Together with friend Jerry Smith he began performing at small bars around Los Angeles. At one of these performances the audience laughed at Harry, which caused him so much shame that once his career took off he refused to play live.

When performing a song in his early days, if he couldn’t remember the lyrics Harry would just make up his own—which inspired him to begin writing his own songs. By 1963 he had his first success, co-writing a song with John Marascalco for Little Richard. Little Richard, upon hearing Harry sing, reportedly said “My you sing good for a White Boy!”

Harry continued working on his singing and songwriting and in 1964 became friends with musician and composer George Tipton who agreed to finance the recording of four of Harry’s songs. This led to Harry being signed by a subsidiary of Capital Records and the release of Harry’s first album in 1966, titled Spotlight on Nilsson, which sold poorly and received no critical reception. 

However other artists were noticing Harry. Artists such as Glen Campbell, Fred Astaire, and The Yardbirds were recording his songs. Harry signed with RCA Records in 1966 and the following year released the album Pandemonium Shadow Show which, despite not selling well, was a critical success. Critics were especially impressed by Harry’s voice and Harry, utilizing multi-track recording techniques, sang all of the backing vocals in different octaves and layered them on top of the main vocal. The result was so good that one critic, while praising the album, thought it was a shame that the backup vocalists were not credited on the record. Obviously completely unaware that all of the voices were Harry!

Impressed with the album also was the Beatles publicist Derek Taylor and so much so that he bought a boxful of Harry’s album to distribute to his friends. Eventually the album made its way to the Beatles themselves, who loved it. One of the reasons the Beatles loved it was that Harry recorded a version of the Beatles song “You Can’t Do That”. Harry also referenced 18 other Beatle songs in this cover, making it the first mash-up recording ever!

In 1968 John Lennon and Paul McCartney were holding a press conference to announce Apple Records. During the press conference John was asked who his favorite artist was – he replied “Nilsson”. Paul was then asked who his favorite musical group was and he also replied “Nilsson”. Harry’s life would never be the same again. 

That’s not to say that Harry’s career wasn’t progressing before the shout out from John and Paul. 1n 1967 the Monkees recorded one of Harry’s songs – “Cuddly Toy” – which helped spark a friendship with Mickey Dolenz that continued for the rest of Harry’s life.

By this point Harry felt comfortable enough that he finally quit his job at the bank. When Harry had signed his record deal with RCA, he had requested an office, which was provided to him. After being hailed by the Beatles, Harry’s phone was ringing non-stop. Callers were amazed that Harry himself was answering the phone, turning down offer after offer to play concerts. Hilariously, when asked “When was the last time you played live?” Harry would answer “I haven’t.” and when asked “Where are you playing next?” he would respond “I’m not.” John and Paul were among those that called and they invited Harry to come to London to hang out and watch them record, resulting in lifelong friendships between Harry and each of the Beatles. 

Harry released his second album, titled Aerial Ballet, in 1968 and it featured two songs that would begin to define Harry’s career. 

One of those songs was the Harry composition titled “One”, which was inspired by the busy signal Harry heard when trying to make a long distance call (beep beep beep beep). A year later “One” would be covered by Three Dog Night and would become a top 5 smash in the US. 

The other song was a cover of a song by a songwriter named Fred Neil. This song was hardly noticed when the album was released, but a year later it was featured in a hit movie that further skyrocketed Harry’s career. The film Midnight Cowboy, starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, would win three Oscars, including Best Picture. It is the only X-Rated movie ever to win Best Picture and it featured Harry’s cover of Fred Neil’s song “Everybody’s Talkin’”. 

I’m going where the sun keeps shining, through the pouring rain

Going where the weather suits my clothes

Banking off of the northeast winds, sailing on a summer breeze

And skipping over the ocean, like a stone

Those lyrics give me a sense of melancholy, a sense of foreboding. Despite the optimism, you just know that he isn’t going to find that place where the sun keeps shining. Coupled with Harry’s haunting voice, this song reaches out and grabs you. Indeed, “Everybody’s Talkin” would garner Harry his first Grammy award. 

Around this time Harry was commissioned to write the theme song for a new television show that was far different than what was on TV at that time. The result was “Girlfriend”, which the rest of us know as “Best Friend”, The TV show was The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, a groundbreaking show that was about a single father raising a very inquisitive son.

Harry also recorded an album of cover songs from one artist, who was unknown at the time. Harry was very impressed by this artist’s work and decided to devote an entire album covering his songs. The result did not sell well, but it helped launch the career of another great American songwriter, Randy Newman.

Harry’s greatest success would come in late 1971 with the release of Nilsson Schmilsson (one of my favorite album titles ever). Nilsson Schmilsson would feature three hit singles, all of which were markedly different from one another. 

The first was a cover of a song written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans from the English band Badfinger (coincidentally, Badfinger was on the Beatles Apple Records label). The song “Without You” is perhaps one of Harry’s best-known songs and features one of the best vocal performances ever captured, a vocal that was recorded in just one (!) take. When Harry’s voice soars at the end of the song it is hard to imagine many other singers that could attain that majesty. This performance earned Harry his second Grammy. 

The second single is a rocker titled “Jump Into The Fire”, a clear departure from much of what Harry had been recording up to that point. Featuring Jim Gordon from “Derek and the Dominos” on drums, the song was also used in a key scene in the 1990 Martin Scorcese film “Good Fellas”. After Jim Gordon’s drum solo late in the song, bass player Herbie Flowers began detuning his bass as the song went on, thinking that the song was just going to fade out. Harry loved it and kept it in the song. 

The third single was a Calypso tune featuring four characters, with each character sung in a different voice by Harry. The resulting song, called “Coconut”, is a fun song with the memorable chorus of Put de lime in de coconut, and drink em both up. The entire song is played using just one chord, a C7.

Nilsson Schmilsson won Harry a Grammy for the song “Without You” and was nominated for album of the year. It was by far the most commercially successful album of his career. Harry went back into the studio – remember that he refused to tour – and with Nilsson Schmillson still on the charts, released his next album, titled Son of Schmilsson.

Harry began ignoring his producers’ advice. While the album charted well, it signaled a new direction that alienated a lot of his fans. Harry was going through a divorce and songs like “You’re Breakin My Heart”, with the lyrics You’re breakin my heart, You’re tearin it apart, so fuck you did little for radio airplay. The song “Spaceman” <insert song> was a Top 40 hit but by and large the album was a disappointment. 

Harry’s reputation as a someone who liked to have a good time was now reaching legendary status. With friends like Mickey Dolenz, Jimmy Webb, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and members of Monty Python, Harry’s partying habits started to overtake his life. A friend pointed out that when Harry showed up at your door, you knew that you were in it for the long haul. Another friend remarked that one time when he told his wife that he was going out with Harry, she replied “great, then I’ll see you in three days”.

In 1973 Yoko Ono and John Lennon separated, and John headed for Los Angeles. Ringo Starr was there and together with Harry the three of them called themselves the Hollywood Vampires. They spent the next two years in a state of drunken debauchery that Hollywood has not seen since then. While John referred to this time as his “lost weekend”, to Harry it was just business as usual. The low point came when the three of them were at the club Troubadour. Drunk, belligerent, and harassing the main act on stage, The Smothers Brothers, the three were unceremoniously tossed out of the club by security. 

Not surprisingly, eventually Harry and John Lennon went into the studio together to make an album. With an all-star lineup of musicians, this should have been an album for the ages. Unfortunately, fueled by drugs and alcohol, the album titled Pussy Cats fell far short of expectations and did not sell at all. To make matters worse, during a late-night session John and Harry decided to have a contest to see who could scream the loudest, resulting in Harry rupturing one of his vocal chords. Frustrated by declining sales, RCA was considering dropping Harry from their label. To help out their pal, both John and Ringo tagged along with Harry to his meeting with RCA execs, threatening to sign Harry to Apple Records. RCA relented and did not terminate Harry’s contract. 

Harry’s next couple of albums were unremarkable. However by 1977 his voice was back and he released what he would later say was one of his favorite albums, titled Knnillsson. RCA agreed and promised to throw a huge marketing campaign behind the record when it was released. Fate had other ideas. Just before the release date Elvis Presley died and RCA instead put all of their efforts into meeting the demand for Elvis’ music, leaving Harry on the sidelines. Harry soon left RCA Records.

For the rest of Harry’s career he shifted his focus and concentrated on contributing to films. He contributed music to films such as Popeye, When Harry Met Sally, The Fisher King, and Me, Myself, and I. Harry wrote 5 songs for the hit film You’ve Got Mail. The song “I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City” is featured twice, one version sung by Harry, the other sung by Sinead O’Connor.

After John Lennon was assassinated in 1980, Harry stopped recording and devoted his time to fighting gun violence. He joined The Coalition To Stop Gun Violence and even made public appearances – a rarity for him – to appear at fundraisers advocating gun control.

As the 1980s faded into the 1990s, Harry was sporadically busy with music, but also enjoying time with his family from his third marriage. However, the years of hard partying were beginning to impact his health. Harry suffered a heart attack on Valentine’s Day in 1993. After surviving Harry began pressing RCA to release an anthology of his work while he started working on a new album. He finished the vocal tracks but the album was still unfinished.

On January 15, 1994, Harry Nilsson died of heart failure as he slept next to his wife. He was just 52 years old. It would be 26 years before the album he had been working on was finally released, titled Losst and Found. But in typical Harry fashion the story doesn’t end just yet. 

As news of Harry’s death started to spread, Los Angeles was hit with one of the biggest earthquakes the city had ever experienced. January 17, 1994 was the infamous Northridge Earthquake, measuring 6.7 on the richer scale. Jimmy Webb recalls the irony of hearing about Harry’s death in the middle of the earthquake, thinking that it was all caused by Harry. Perhaps Monty Python’s Eric Idle said it best when he said that at Harry’s funeral there were still aftershocks from the earthquake, causing Harry’s coffin to shake. Idle stood up and quipped “Harry just got to heaven and found out that the bar is closed”. 

At the gravesite ceremony George Harrison said that we should sing one of Harry’s songs. What song? George started singing “You’re breakin my heart, You’re tearin it apart, so fuck you,,,”. Laughing and crying, the rest of the funeral party joined in. 

In 2012 Rolling Stone named Harry #62 on the list of the 100 greatest songwriters of all time. Harry’s impact is still felt today with his incredible voice along with the great songs he wrote. When you look at the arc of Harry’s life, starting with a rough childhood, self-taught on the piano, to being praised by the greatest band in the world, it is quite remarkable. But I guess that’s just the way the story goes. 

I hope you enjoyed this edition of The Musical Tree. Feel free to leave suggestions for future articles in the comments. Don’t forget to subscribe to be notified via email when there is a new post. 

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Playlists of the songs featured in this blog can be found below:

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