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When the theatre closed in 1960, he applied for a job at a bank, falsely claiming he was a high school graduate on his application (he completed only ninth grade). ĭue to his family's poor financial situation, Nilsson worked from an early age, including a job at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles. In addition to his half-brother and a half-sister through his mother, he also had three half-sisters and one half-brother through his father. His uncle, a mechanic in San Bernardino, California, helped Nilsson improve his vocal and musical abilities. His younger brother Drake was left with family or friends during their moves between California and New York, sometimes living with a succession of relatives and stepfathers. He grew up with his mother Bette and his younger half-sister. Nilsson's ' Daddy's Song' also refers to this period in Nilsson's childhood. An autobiographical reference to this is found in the opening to Nilsson's song '1941':Īnd by 1944, the father walked right out the door His father, Harry Edward Nilsson Jr., abandoned the family when Harry was three years old. While his grandmother played piano, his grandfather Charlie Martin supported the family in a tiny railroad apartment on Jefferson Avenue in Brooklyn. His maternal grandparents were the cornerstone of his young life. His paternal great-grandfather, born a Swede who would later emigrate to and become naturalized in the United States, created an act known as an 'aerial ballet' (which is the title of one of Nilsson's albums).

Nilsson was born in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York City on June 15, 1941. He earned Grammy Awards for two of his recordings Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Male in 1970 for 'Everybody's Talkin'' (a song previously written and recorded by Fred Neil) and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male in 1973 for 'Without You'. The RIAA certified Nilsson Schmilsson and Son of Schmilsson (1972) as gold records, indicating over 500,000 units sold each. 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' and 'a crucial bridge' between 1960s psychedelia and the 1970s singer-songwriter era. The craft of Nilsson's songs and defiant attitude he projected remain touchstones for later generations of indie rock musicians. In 1994, Nilsson died of a heart attack while in the midst of recording what became his last album, Losst and Founnd (2019). For the rest of his life, he recorded only sporadically. In response to Lennon's 1980 murder, he took a hiatus from the music industry to campaign for gun control. After 1977, Nilsson left RCA, and his record output diminished. They produced one collaborative album, Pussy Cats (1974). In the 1970s, Nilsson, Lennon and Starr were members of the Hollywood Vampires drinking club, embroiling themselves in a number of widely publicized, alcohol-fueled incidents. Sometimes called ' the American Beatle', he soon formed close friendships with John Lennon and Ringo Starr. ĭuring a 1968 press conference, the Beatles were asked what their favorite American group was and answered 'Nilsson'. A version of Nilsson's ' One', released by Three Dog Night in 1969, also reached the U.S. His other top 10 hit, ' Everybody's Talkin'' (1968), was featured prominently in the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy. His most commercially successful album, Nilsson Schmilsson (1971), produced the international top 10 singles ' Without You' and ' Coconut'. He created the first remix album ( Aerial Pandemonium Ballet, 1971) and recorded the first mashup song (' You Can't Do That', 1967). In 1967, he debuted on RCA Victor with the LP Pandemonium Shadow Show, followed by a variety of releases that include a collaboration with Randy Newman ( Nilsson Sings Newman, 1970) and the original children's story The Point! (1971). While working as a computer programmer at a bank, he grew interested in musical composition and close-harmony singing, and was successful in having some of his songs recorded by various artists such as the Monkees. īorn in Brooklyn, Nilsson moved to Los Angeles as a teenager to escape his family's poor financial situation. A tenor with a 3 + 1⁄ 2 octave range, Nilsson was one of the few major pop-rock recording artists to achieve significant commercial success without ever performing major public concerts or undertaking regular tours. His work is characterized by pioneering vocal overdub experiments, returns to the Great American Songbook, and fusions of Caribbean sounds. Harry Edward Nilsson III (J– January 15, 1994), sometimes credited as Nilsson, was an American singer-songwriter who reached the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s.

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