Harry Nilsson

Considered by many to be one of the USA’s finest songwriters, Harry Nilsson was included in Rolling Stone magazine’s 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. A less well known fact is that he recorded the first example of a ‘mash up’, way back in 1967!

Nilsson was born in Brooklyn, to a poor family. He moved to L.A. to try to make a better life, and it was here that he became fascinated with pop songwriting and harmony. “Cuddly Toy”, a Nilsson song, was recorded by The Monkees on their 1967 LP Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. His song “Everybody’s Talkin’ became well known via its inclusion in the 1969 movie Midnight Cowboy. But Nilsson’s greatest fame—other than his notorious drinking binges with John Lennon—came after the 1973 LP Nilsson Schmilsson. As well as the yearning, poignant “Without you” (a Badfinger song), there is the pulsing “Jump into the fire” and the delicious whimsy of “Coconut”. Harry Edward Nilsson III; gone too soon.