Nilsson, Harry Edward, III

(b. 15 June 1941 in New York City; d. 15 January 1994 in Agoura Hills, California), one of the most original and quixotic singer-composers of the 1960s and 1970s.

Nilsson was the son of Harry E. Nilsson, Jr., and Betty Nilsson, a homemaker. His father abandoned the family in 1944. Nilsson spent most of his early childhood living in an apartment at 762 Jefferson Avenue in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn with his mother and half sister, his maternal grandparents, two uncles, an aunt, and a cousin. His mother introduced him to songwriting, penning “Marchin’ Down Broadway” and “Little Cowboy,” which Nilsson later recorded.

In 1952 Betty Nilsson, Harry, and his half sister traveled by bus to San Bernardino, California, to live with relatives and then settled for four years in Colton, California. Their home life was chaotic. Nilsson had a total of six stepfathers; his mother drank heavily and left a trail of bad checks before returning east in June 1957 with her children to live with a sister and brother-in-law on Long Island, New York. Nilsson briefly prospered, making the high school basketball and baseball teams. In 1957 Betty and her daughter again left for Los Angeles. Nilsson stayed behind with his aunt and uncle to finish school, but after being fired from his job as a caddy in the summer of 1957, he decided to drop out of school and hitchhiked to California to rejoin his mother. Unfortunately, she was in prison, so Nilsson took a job at the Paramount Theater in Los Angeles while living with another aunt and uncle. During this period he listened intently to such entertainers as the Everly Brothers, Ray Charles, the Coasters, and the duo Jan and Dean.

After the Paramount Theater closed, Nilsson talked his way into a job as night supervisor in a bank’s computer department, despite his lack of a high school diploma. In 1966 Nilsson and Diane Clatworthy had a son. Nilsson also visited his father in Florida, where the elder Nilsson was a baseball scout for the Cincinnati Reds.

Nilsson cut a few singles, wrote commercial jingles, and authored three songs for the legendary producer Phil Spector. In 1967 the pop group the Monkees recorded his first hit, “Cuddly Toy”; he then signed with RCA Records as a songwriter. That year Nilsson’s initial RCA album, Pandemonium Shadow Show (1967), sold poorly. The Beatles changed his life by claiming that Nilsson was their favorite American singer, which was exceptional praise for an unknown artist.

Nilsson, whose light-colored hair and complexion led to the nickname “the White Rat,” complicated his rise to success by refusing to perform in concerts. In early 1968 he traveled to London, where he befriended the Beatles and sat in on their White Album sessions. In the same year he wrote the entire score for the legendary psychedelic film Sfydoo, which improbably starred Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, and Groucho Marx in his last role. Nilsson’s next individual album, Aerial Ballet (1968), included a Fred Neil composition, “Everybody’s Talkin’.” Nilsson’s version was selected for the soundtrack of the Oscar-winning hit movie Midnight Cowboy (1969), which propelled the single to number six on the Billboard charts and led to Nilsson’s Grammy Award for best male contemporary vocal performance that same year. His next album, Harry (1969), was commercially successful and featured the song “I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City,” which had been rejected for the Midnight Cowboy album.

Now established, Nilsson followed up with Nilsson Sings Newman (1970), composed of tunes by Randy Newman. A lovely blend of romance and irony, the album demonstrated perfect compatibility between singer and songwriter. In 1971 came an animated musical television special, The Point, which was later produced on Broadway. In 1971 Nilsson issued his best-selling album Nilsson Schmilsson; its emotional centerpiece was “Without You,” a song written by a Beatles spin-off group, Badfinger. “Without You” became an international hit, won a Grammy in 1971, and demonstrated the extraordinary range of Nilsson’s three-octave voice. The cover photograph showed a bearded Nilsson lighting a cigarette with his thumb, a joke borrowed from his idol, Stan Laurel, of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy. Nilsson followed this triumph with his less successful album Son of Schmilsson in 1972, which featured Nilsson’s bathroom humor. The next year he worked first on a project with the Beatles’ drummer, Ringo Starr, which resulted in a soundtrack for a dismal horror movie, Son of Dracula (1974). Nilsson next recorded his classic album A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night (1973). Featuring Nilsson’s brilliant interpretations of classic Tin Pan Alley songs and arranged by the legendary Gordon Jenkins, best known for his work with Frank Sinatra, the album was an artistic triumph, though it generated tepid sales. Nilsson appeared on the cover of Time on 12 February 1973.

Nilsson’s friendship with John Lennon proved mutually self-destructive. The pair made drunken scenes in Hollywood, disrupting a comeback concert for the Smothers Brothers at the Troubadour. Worried about bad press, RCA reneged on a $5 million contract for Nilsson, but Lennon used his influence to make the company honor it. Nilsson and Lennon then collaborated on an underrated album, Pussy Cats (1974). During the recording sessions, Nilsson ruptured a vocal cord. He hid his bleeding and pain, fearful that Lennon might cancel the production. The album was hardly the sensation expected of a Beatles’ album. Nilsson’s next collections, Duit on Mon Dei (1975) and the highly commercial… That’s the Way It Is (1976), sold poorly. His personal life improved in 1977 when he married Una O’Keefe, whom he had met in Rumplemeyer’s Ice Cream Parlor; they had six children.

Nilsson’s last original album for RCA was Knnillssonn (1977), which he considered his best effort ever. The company antagonized him by issuing a Greatest Hits collection without his permission in 1978, and he sought successfully to leave the company. His last album of the decade was the soundtrack for the movie Popeye (1980). Nilsson recorded rarely during the 1980s. A 1980 album, Flash Harry, was issued only in Europe and Japan.

The assassination of John Lennon in 1980 inspired Nilson to join the National Coalition to Ban Handguns (now known as the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence) and to lobby Congress to ban access to firearms. He formed Hawkeye Entertainment, a production company; later a company officer embezzled millions of dollars, which were never recovered. After being diagnosed with diabetes, Nilsson suffered a massive heart attack on Valentine’s Day in 1993. He died of a second heart attack almost a year later.

Nilsson’s quixotic career makes his influence indistinct. His extraordinary vocal range and multiple talents were unique. His impact on John Lennon is clear, but Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles albums indicate the influence of Nilsson’s original ballad compositions. Nilsson’s albums anticipated the intersections of rock, classical pop, and movie themes, which became standard in the 1990s. His compositions commonly appear on soundtracks today.

There is little critical appraisal to date of Nilsson. Dawn Eden’s article “One Last Touch of Nilsson” appeared in Goldmine 20 (29 Apr. 1994). Andrea Sheridan wrote a personal remembrance of Nilsson, which appeared in the Beatles fanzine Good Day Sunshine, no. 73 (spring 1994). Most of his albums are available on compact discs. Obituaries are in the New York Times (16 Jan. 1994) and Manchester Guardian (17 Jan. 1994).

Graham Russell Hodges