N – is for Nilsson – Early Promise Realised

Saturday 4th June

Ah, Harry Nilsson, who remembers him.  Who could forget him?

I first heard the name Nilsson, thinking it must be Nealson, when the Beatles were asked in ’68 or so who they liked musically at the moment, and I think it was John who said he liked Nilsson, and the others all agreed “Nilsson is really cool.”  But who was he?  And where were his records; I couldn’t find them in HMV Oxford Street even.  Then came the film Midnight Cowboy, and the haunting song “Everybody’s Talkin” (written by Fred Neill) and as the credits came up, there was that name again ‘Nilsson’, it was Nilsson singing so wonderfully.  And it was always just Nilsson that he seemed to be referred as.  Well his records slowly started appearing and they were magical; a beautiful clear voice and a great choice of eccentric songs, though he did cover a few Beatles numbers and ‘River Deep and Mountain High’, the Ike and Tina Turner blockbuster.  But even on covers Harry (that was his name) added something unique.  He even recorded a whole album of Randy Newman songs.  Then he made an album narrating a children’s story he had written about a boy Oblio, who didn’t have a point; he speaks and sings and though the story is silly the album ‘The Point’ is simply amazing.  But it was with (possibly) his best and certainly biggest selling record “Nillson Schmilsson” that all that early promise was fully realized.

At the time I thought it was THE perfect album; it had everything, a handful of Nilsson originals, a couple of real rockers “Let the good times roll” a great drum solo even, a comedy song “Coconut” and a couple of ballads.  The crowning moment is “Without You” a song originally written by a member of Badfinger who later committed suicide, and it is the ultimate song of loss and yearning, which soon became a major hit and is still played on the radio quite a lot.  And an even sadder song closes the record ‘I’ll Never Leave You’ where Nilsson’s voice just goes off into another Universe.  So, there Harry was, a star at last, one of the best voices in Pop music and the whole world there for him to take; what could possibly go wrong?

See original image