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The video was posted on X (Twitter) but later superceded by a longer TV commercial without Nilsson's song.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.
Bob Segarini Has Died
Songwriter and performer, Bob Segarini, died in his sleep on July 10, 2023. He was 77 years of age.
Patty Faralla, a press agent for RCA, introduced Segarini to Harry Nilsson in 1965.
Harry and Bob wrote a song together. Segarini's group, Family Tree, released their version of "Miss Butter's Lament" on their 1968 album Miss Butters album. Nilsson's recording of the song went unreleased until 1995 when it appeared on the Personal Best - The Harry Nilsson Anthology album.
At Patty’s apartment the first time we met, we passed an old acoustic guitar back and forth and played our songs for one another. [...] Harry is dutifully impressed when I play him a tune or two. I hand him the guitar, and he starts singing: “Well in 1941 a happy father had a son.... [...] "Holy crap," I thought, "this guy is amazing."
In 1967, Bob introduced Harry to Diane Clatworthy, the secretary of the Family Tree fan club. Diane and Harry married on December 31, 1969, in Las Vegas.
Segarini wrote a song, "He Spins Around" about his friend, Harry Nilsson. It was released as the B-side of single in 1968 then on the CD release of the Miss Butters in 2007.
Harry and Bob's relationship soured in the mid to late 1970s as Harry's lifestyle became intertwined with the Beatles, drugs, and alcohol.
The last time I saw Harry was in line at the Carnegie Deli in New York. He was in front of me in an overcoat and I recognized the back of his head somehow. He was on his way to London to hang out, record, and move into Ringo’s flat for a while. He looked world weary, but still had the old twinkle in his eye. We reminisced while his limo idled out front, caught up, and had a few laughs waiting for our medium old fashioned (pastrami) on a Kaiser with double mustard, pickle on the side. When I asked after Diane, he said that they had gotten divorced, the twinkle in his eyes dimming, with what I could only imagine was caused by leaving his wife and young son behind, of abandoning them, of becoming his father.
Harry Nilsson joined Carly Simon in London in November of 1972 to record the backing vocals for "Ballad of a Vain Man" as "You're So Vain" was called until it was renamed as the record was being mastered.[1]
Richard Perry produced the recording.
During a 1995 interview on the CBS TV show "This Morning" Mark McEwen asked Carly Simon, "How did you get Mick Jagger to sing on 'You're So Vain'?"
She replied, "I guess it was kind of chance in a way. I was in London, it was 1973, 1972 I guess, and he happened to call at the studio while I was doing the background vocals with Harry Nilsson. Mick said 'Hey, what cha doin'?' and I said 'We're doing some backup vocals on a song of mine....why don't you come down and sing with us?' [...] So Mick and Harry and I stood around the mike singing 'you're so vain' and Harry was such a gentleman - he knew the chemistry was between me and Mick; in terms of the singing, so he sort of bowed out saying 'The two of you have a real blend - you should do it yourselves.' And that's how it happened."
Cary Simon on CBS This Morning
Carly Elisabeth Simon (born June 25, 1943) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records; her 13 Top 40 U.S. hits include "Anticipation" (No. 13), "The Right Thing to Do" (No. 17), "Haven't Got Time for the Pain" (No. 14), "You Belong to Me" (No. 6), "Coming Around Again" (No. 18), and her four Gold-certified singles "You're So Vain" (No. 1), "Mockingbird" (No. 5, a duet with James Taylor), "Nobody Does It Better" (No. 2) from the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, and "Jesse" (No. 11). She has authored two memoirs and five children's books. In 1963, Simon began performing with her sister Lucy Simon in the Simon Sisters. Their debut album, Meet the Simon Sisters, featured the song "Winkin', Blinkin' and Nod", based on the poem by Eugene Field and put to music by Lucy. The song became a minor hit and reached No. 73 on the Billboard Hot 100. The duo would release two more albums: Cuddlebug (1966) and The Simon Sisters Sing for Children (1969). After Lucy left the group, Carly found great success as a solo artist with her 1971 self-titled debut album, which won her the Grammy Award for Best New Artist and spawned her first Top 10 single "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" (No. 10), which earned her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Simon's second album, Anticipation, followed later that year and became an even greater success; it spawned the successful singles "Anticipation" and "Legend in Your Own Time", earned her another Grammy nomination, and became her first album to be certified Gold by the RIAA. Simon achieved international fame with her third album, No Secrets (1972), which sat at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for five weeks and was certified Platinum. The album spawned the worldwide hit "You're So Vain", which sat at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks, and earned Simon three Grammy nominations, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The second single "The Right Thing to Do", as well as its B-side "We Have No Secrets", were also successful. Her fourth album, Hotcakes (1974), soon followed and became an instant success; it reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200, went Gold within two weeks of release, and spawned the hit singles "Mockingbird" and "Haven't Got Time for the Pain". In 1975, Simon's fifth album, Playing Possum, and the compilation, The Best of Carly Simon, both appeared; the former hit the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 chart and spawned the hit single "Attitude Dancing" (No. 21), and the latter eventually went 3× Platinum, becoming Simon's best-selling release. In 1977, Simon recorded "Nobody Does It Better" as the theme song to the Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, and it became a worldwide hit. The song garnered her another Grammy nomination, and was the No. 1 Adult Contemporary hit of 1977. Retrospectively, it has been ranked one of the greatest Bond themes. Simon began recording more songs for films in the 1980s, including "Coming Around Again" for the film Heartburn (1986). The song became a major Adult Contemporary hit, and the Coming Around Again album appeared the following year, to further critical and commercial success. The album earned Simon two Grammy nominations, went Platinum, and spawned three more Top 10 Adult Contemporary hit singles: "Give Me All Night", "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of", and "All I Want Is You". With her 1988 hit "Let the River Run", from the film Working Girl, Simon became the first artist to win a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for a song composed and written, as well as performed, entirely by a single artist. One of the most popular of the confessional singer/songwriters who emerged in the early 1970s, Simon has 24 Billboard Hot 100-charting singles and 28 Billboard Adult Contemporary charting singles. Among her various accolades, she has won two Grammy Awards (from 14 nominations), and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for "You're So Vain" in 2004. AllMusic called her "one of the quintessential singer-songwriters of the '70s". She has a contralto vocal range, and cited Odetta as a significant influence. Simon was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994. She was honored with the Boston Music Awards Lifetime Achievement in 1995, and received a Berklee College of Music Honorary Doctor of Music Degree in 1998. In 2005, Simon was nominated for a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but she has yet to claim her star. In 2012, she was honored with the Founders Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. In 2022, Simon was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Carly Simon", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
