Harry Nilsson Anyone?

[Mark Kaufman]

I'm a big admirer of Harry Nilsson's work. Just discovered a nice, fat online bio here, for anyone interested:http://www.harrynilsson.com/page-one-la ... t-1.htmlWe all mostly remember him for his hits like "Everybody's Talkin' At Me", "Without You", "Coconut", "Spaceman"...and of course The Point...but he has a lot of other stuff that's really worth checking out. Listen to this early song off his first album:Without HerI guess I'm street teaming for the dead. Oh well...RIP Harry.

[tomaragon]

Lime in the Coconut

[Mark Kaufman]

Now, lemme get this straight...

[davekershaw]

One of the best voices in Pop,along with Lennon.Much missed!





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Now you've got me going!





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Absolutely beautiful!

[robbylane]

My Favorite HN song: "I can't live....if livin' is without you". When I was a kid, I had an old phonograph. My uncle gave me a grocery bag (paper or plastic? Paper!) full of used 45's. One of the records was by Nilsson, and on Side A was a song called "Me and My Arrow". Great Pop tune. "Everywhere we go, everyone knows...it's me and my Arrow".

[heinsite]

yep, "me and my arrow" was the one that i was gunna say was "forgotten" here, but alas, not! very good songwriter indeed. yeah, and the without you tune made him famous in my book, if that was the only tune he ever penned....

[tomaragon]

Nov 5, 2009, 8:41pm, heinsite wrote:yep, "me and my arrow" was the one that i was gunna say was "forgotten" here, but alas, not! very good songwriter indeed. yeah, and the without you tune made him famous in my book, if that was the only tune he ever penned....I used to think the same thing until I bought a Badfinger compilation and discovered they wrote the song originally.I was only familiar with Harry's version and assumed he wrote it.I still prefer his version over Badfinger's.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Badfinger originsFirst recorded by the rock group Badfinger, the song was composed by two of its members. Pete Ham had written a song originally titled "If It's Love" but it had lacked a strong chorus. Tom Evans had written a song during this same period but he was disappointed with the verse section, so the duo fused their respective pieces together. The protagonist of this ballad lets a lover know that he "can't live if living is without you." Both Ham and Evans said they did not consider the song to have much potential at the time Badfinger recorded it, and the track was slotted to close Side A of their 1970 No Dice album. Badfinger's recording of the song, which is more brusque than its successors' versions, was never released as a single. In parallel to the song lyrics, both Ham and Evans later committed suicide.Harry Nilsson versionHarry Nilsson, at the time best known for his hit "Everybody's Talkin'" and for composing such hits as Three Dog Night's "One," heard Badfinger's recording of "Without You" at a party, and mistook it for a Beatles song. After realizing it was not, he decided to cover the song for his album Nilsson Schmilsson in 1971; it stayed at number 1 on the U.S. pop chart for four weeks, from February 13 to March 11, 1972. The song also spent five weeks atop the U.S. adult contemporary chart. In the UK, the song spent five weeks at number 1 on the British pop chart, beginning on March 11, and sold almost 800,000 copies.The single was produced by Richard Perry, who later explained, "It was a different record for its time. It was a big ballad with a heavy backbeat, and although many artists have cut songs like it since, no one was doing it then." Gary Wright, then known as a member of the British group Spooky Tooth, and later a successful solo artist in his own right, played piano on the recording.Nilsson's version of "Living is Without You" was also used as the opening tune to 1979's Porridge feature film.While Nilsson rarely performed live, he did perform the song with Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas in September 1992 , and also performed the song with the house band, Liverpool, at various Beatlefest fan conventions.

[davekershaw]

Nov 5, 2009, 10:24pm, tomaragon wrote:I used to think the same thing until I bought a Badfinger compilation and discovered they wrote the song originally.I was only familiar with Harry's version and assumed he wrote it.I still prefer his version over Badfinger's.You beat me to it Tom!Badfinger were one of my favourite bands.They had a great sound, especially guitar.Nilsson's version is terrific; very powerful. Completely different to the original.Must say I really do like Badfingers version too. Understated and less dramatic; also very poignant, given what happened later to Pete Ham and Tom Evans.I think they are so different, they can almost be judged as different songs, instead of compared.Whatd'ya know! Here 'tis.

[tomaragon]

Dave:Thanks for posting that clip........... Badfinger had some very classic songs that still hold up and have stood the test of time for sure.

[heinsite]

thanks Tom and Dave for that--great knowledge, most not surprising i didn't know...i loved badfinger, and it was too bad about the suicides...i have one disagreement (minor) with davey...i think each version is pretty close to one another--the finger boys just had it either in a diff key or couldn't reach the chorus hook...but to me the same basic tune and no real surprises. however, that said, all my roughs are demo'd and produced and usually sung by others, so even when i hear those, i can "hear" it as me....and that might be getting in the way of how different you are hearing the versions...or better said, maybe how different I'M hearing them...great posts to all..wh