Richard Perry, producer of Harry Nilsson Nilsson Schmilsson has died. Perry died at age 82 on December 24, 2024.
Richard Perry Has Died
Richard Perry, producer of Harry Nilsson Nilsson Schmilsson has died. Perry died at age 82 on December 24, 2024.
Harris/Waltz Advertisement Uses "Best Friend"
On September 19, 2024, the Kamala Harris presidential campaign released a video showing clips of rival Donald Trump praising Mark Robinson a gubernatorial candidate under scrutiny for posting inflammatory comments on a pornography website. Nilsson's "Best Friend" plays throughout the short video.
Best friends ❤️ pic.twitter.com/baS5sRfzIo
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) September 19, 2024
The video was posted on X (Twitter) but later superceded by a longer TV commercial without Nilsson's song.
Herbie Flowers - "Jump Into the Fire" Bass Player - Has Died
Herbie Flowers died on September 5, 2024, at the age of 86. Flowers was a member of several groups including Blue Mink, T. Rex, and Sky. As a session musician, he played bass guitar, double bass, and tuba on recordings for artists including Elton John, David Bowie, Lou Reed, David Essex, Al Kooper, Bryan Ferry, Cat Stevens, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Harry Nilsson.
Flowers played bass on Nilsson's Nilsson Schmilsson album and created the famous "detuning bass" part in "Jump into the Fire."
The Dream Weaver Has Died
Gary Wright died at his home in Palos Verdes Estates, California, on September 4, 2023. Although best known for his solo hits "Dream Weaver" and "Love Is Alive" - and having been born and raised in the US - Wright first caught the attention of music fans as a member of the British band Spooky Tooth in the late 1960s. Wright left the band in early 1970 to begin a career as a solo artist and session musician.
In 1971 Harry Nilsson recorded "Without You" which was destined to be his biggest hit. Rick Wakeman played the piano for an early take of the song, Nilsson and his producer, Richard Perry, decided that Wakeman's track was "too busy, too complex."
So we replaced Rick Wakeman with Gary Wright and he began, just like you hear on the record, very simple. It was just right![1]
The Lost Weekend: A Love Story Released on Home Video
A Blu-Ray of The Lost Weekend: A Love Story is being released in mid-October of 2023. It is currently available for pre-order from Amazon.com. The film is also available for purchase online through Amazon Prime.
In 2014, Murakami-Wolf-Swenson sued Acme-TV and others for distributing unauthorized copies of The Point!. The defendants claimed that the film was in the public domain since it did not contain a proper copyright notice as required by law at the time that the film was first published (i.e. when it aired on ABC in 1971).
The copyright notice at the end of the film when first aired on TV read:
© "THE POINT" 1970 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
This was not a valid copyright notice. A proper copyright notice would have consisted of
For example:
© 1971 Murakami Wolf Productions
Since the film was published without a proper copyright notice, the defendants argued that the film was in the public domain.
The plaintiffs, however, contended that a video tape released in 1985 contained a proper copyright notice on the cover and that the copyright had registered at the Library of Congress in 1987.
Copyright law at the time, however, required that a copyright be registered within five years of the first publication of the work. The defendants argued that the first publication was in 1971 when the film was shown on TV.
The judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs stating that the 1987 copyright was valid since the airing of the TV show was a "public display" of the work and, therefore, was not required to display a copyright notice:
[s]ince the display of a copy does not constitute a publication of the work embodied therein, unless a copy is “publicly distributed,” and not merely displayed, no notice need be placed upon it. Thus, ... an ephemeral image, whether projected upon a theater screen, a television tube, or otherwise, does not constitute a copy, and hence a copyright notice is not required to appear upon such image.
The 1985 VHS tape, however, was publicly distributed, therefore the filing of the 1987 copyright registration did occur within five years of the work's "first publication."
The judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.