Harry Nilsson

Harry Nilsson was an American singer-songwriter who reached the peak of his success in the early 1970s. He was known for pioneering vocal overdub experiments, covering classic American songs, and fusing Caribbean sounds into his music.

Harry Nilsson moved to Los Angeles as a teenager to escape his family’s poor financial situation. While working as a computer programmer, he grew interested in musical composition and close-harmony singing, and began having his songs recorded by other artists like the Monkees.

Harry Nilsson created the first remix album, Aerial Pandemonium Ballet, in 1971, and recorded the first mashup song (,You Can’t Do That,) in 1967. His most commercially successful album, Nilsson Schmilsson, produced the international top 10 hits ,Without You, and ,Coconut,.

During a 1968 press conference, The Beatles were asked what their favorite American group was and answered ,Nilsson,. Nilsson soon formed close friendships with John Lennon and Ringo Starr, joining them in the Hollywood Vampires drinking club. He and Lennon also produced one collaborative album, Pussy Cats, in 1974.

After 1977, Nilsson left RCA and his record output diminished. In response to John Lennon’s 1980 murder, he took a hiatus from the music industry to campaign for gun control. Nilsson died of a heart attack in 1994 while in the midst of recording what became his last album, Losst and Founnd.

The craft of Nilsson’s songs and the defiant attitude he projected remain touchstones for later generations of indie rock musicians. He was voted No. 62 in Rolling Stone’s 2015 list of the ,100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, and was described as ,a pioneer of the Los Angeles studio sound, and ,a crucial bridge, between 1960s psychedelia and the 1970s singer-songwriter era.

The RIAA certified Nilsson Schmilsson and Son of Schmilsson as gold records, indicating over 500,000 units sold each. Nilsson also earned two Grammy Awards, for his songs ,Everybody’s Talkin’, and ,Without You,.