Put the Lime in the Coconut with Harry Nilsson

An American singer and songwriter Harry Nilsson achieved his fame in the early 70s. The singles he’s most known for are “Everybody’s Talkin’”, “Without You”, and “Coconut”. He has also written songs for rock groups. Nilsson wrote the song “One” made popular by The Three Dog Night. Nilsson was also popular with The Beatles especially Paul McCartney and John Lennon. The Monkees had a success with Nilsson’s song “Cuddly Toy” and band member Mickey Dolenz remained his closest friend till his death in 1994.

His Top Ten hit “Everybody's Talkin'” from 1968 was featured in the 1969 film “Midnight Cowboy”.

His most notable album was his seventh album Nilsson Schmilsson which included both of his greatest hits “Without You” and “Coconut” came out in 1971. It also included a screaming rock and roll type of song “Jump into the Fire”. This album became Nilsson's most commercially successful and included three of his best-known songs.

“Without You” became a number one hit and was written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans of the group Badfinger. He won the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance.

Two other songs on the album, these written by Nilsson also became hits - “Coconut” and “Jump Into the Fire”.

Harry Nilsson quickly released Son of Schmilsson in 1972 and even though it did not have the success of the last album it had the singles “You're Breakin' My Heart” and “Spaceman”.

In 1973 he came out with A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night. This album included classic 20th century standards sung by Nilsson. Among the songs were “As Time Goes By”, “For Me and My Gal”, and “It Had to be You”.. This recording session was also filmed as a TV special by the BBC in the U.K. Nilsson sang in front of an orchestra performing a selection of pop standards.

In 1974 Nilsson released his tenth album Pussy Cats. The album was produced by John Lennon. The title of the album was inspired by the bad press that Nilsson and Lennon received getting drunk and rowdy in Los Angeles, California. Among the many musicians on the album are drummers Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, and Jim Keltner, who all play together on the closing track “Rock Around the Clock”. The singles released were “Many Rivers to Cross”, “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, “Don't Forget Me”, and “Save the Last Dance for Me”.

…That's the Way It Is the thirteenth album came out in 1976 and except for two original songs consisted of cover tunes. Among them “That is All” written by George Harrison, America's “I Need You”, Randy Newman's “Sail Way” and The Heartbeats “A Thousand Miles Away”. There is also a duet with singer Lynda Laurence “Baby I'm Yours”.

His fourteenth album was Knnillssonn in 1977 and was his final album for RCA Records. Shortly after the album was released Elvis Presley died suddenly and this resulted in a complete overhaul of RCA's release schedules and promotion plans. Singles from this album are “All I Think About Is You”, “Who Done It?”, and “Lean On Me”.

Flash Harry his fifteenth album came out in 1979. It featured Nilsson's own recording of “Old Dirt Road”, co-written and performed with John Lennon on Lennon's album Walls and Bridges in 1974 before Lennon's six-year hiatus.

In 1980 Nilsson composed the songs to the film “Popeye” He wrote all the original songs and co-produced the music with producer Bruce Robb.

Among his best songs are “You’re Breakin' My Heart”, “The Moonbeam Song”, “Don’t Forget Me” and “Let the Good Times Roll”. He was such an incredible and versatile singer that he has many different kinds of songs for many different musical tastes.

In the 1980s trying hard to make some kind of a comeback Harry Nilsson failed at every turn. Finally on September 1, 1992 he made his final concert appearance joining Ringo Starr and His All Star Band onstage at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tragedy struck when he suffered a massive heart attack in 1993. Having survived he began working on a compilation of all of his music. He hadn’t quite finished it when he died of heart failure on January 15, 1994. He was just 52 years old.

The 2-CD anthology Personal Best which he had been working on was released in 1995. In 2006 the documentary Who is Harry Nilsson (And Why is Everybody Talking About Him?) was shown at the Seattle International Film Festival and at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.