Harry Nilsson | Artist

Harry Edward Nilsson III, known simply as "Nilsson", was an American singer-songwriter born 1941 in Brooklyn, New York. A prolific songwriter, he achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s with hit songs such as "One", "Everybody's Talkin'", "Without You" and "The Point". His work is characterized by pioneering vocal overdub experiments, returns to the Great American Songbook, and fusions of Caribbean sounds. He was voted No. 62 in Rolling Stone's 2015 list of the "100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time", where he was described as "a pioneer of the Los Angeles studio sound, a crucial bridge between the baroque psych-pop of the late Sixties and the more personal singer-songwriter era of the Seventies". Nilsson spent much of his later years living in London. He was such a close friend and drinking buddy with John Lennon, he was sometimes referred to as the "Fifth Beatle". Starting out, Nilsson wrote songs for Phil Spector, Little Richard and The Monkees. He gained the support of composer and arranger George Tipton who funded his first recordings which led to his debut album Pandemonium Shadow Show on RCA Victor. Straight away he attracted critical praise for his singing, songwriting and arrangements. Upon hearing the album, Lennon and McCartney tried to get Nilsson signed to their newly formed Apple label. The follow-up album, 1968's superb Aerial Ballet, was both a critical and commercial success. Over the four years between 1968-72 Nilsson would record a succession of masterpiece albums, starting with Aeriel Ballet, then followed Harry, Nilsson Sings Newman, The Point!, Nilsson Schmilsson, and Son of Schmilsson. By this point Nilsson was a worldwide star, but he was never able to recapture the brilliance of these early works over the remainder of his career, which ended with his untimely death in 1994 at the age of 52. Nilsson was one of the few major pop-rock recording artists of his era to achieve significant commercial success without ever performing major public concerts or undertaking regular tours. His disregard for commercialism in favour of artistic satisfaction is a hallmark of his work.

Artist Website: harrynilsson.com

Featured Albums: Harry Nilsson

Related Artists: Nilsson, John Lennon