Thursday music corner: US singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson (b. New York, 1941 - d. Los Angeles, 1994) was famed amongst music aficionados for the skill of his compositions and musical innovation, but struggled both with commercial success in the ruthless pop business, and with personal demons manifesting in the alcoholism that ultimately shortened his life. Famously, his two biggest hits, Everybody's Talkin' (1969) and Without You (1971) were covers of other artists' work rather than Nilsson originals. A friend of several Beatles, Nilsson was a prolific artist throughout the 1960s and '70s. Eight of his singles and three of his albums reached the US top 40.
Nilsson's start in the music business was greatly assisted by the Beatles' press representative, Derek Taylor:
Taylor, who first became enamoured with Nilsson after hearing his song 1941 on a car radio, concluded, “Nilsson is the best contemporary soloist in the world. He is it. He is the something else The Beatles are. He is The One.” To prove his belief, he bought 25 copies of Nilsson’s RCA debut album and despatched them to his favourite industry people, including all four Beatles. At which point, the world sat up and slowly began to notice.
Nevertheless (I'm In Love With You) is Nilsson's cover of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby's 1931 song originally recorded by Jack Denny, which became widely recorded in the 1950s, with versions by the McGuire Sisters, the Mills Brothers, Paul Weston, Ray Anthony, Ralph Flanagan, Frankie Laine and Frank Sinatra. Nilsson's version appeared on his 1973 album A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night, an album of old standards covers that reached the top 20 in the UK and Australia, and reached number 46 in the US. Nilsson's version of Herman Hupfeld's As Time Goes By was released as the album's single, and performed modestly in the US, Canadian and Australian charts.
Harry Nilsson - Nevertheless (I’m In Love With You) (1973)
No comments:
Post a Comment