Richard Perry, producer of Harry Nilsson's Nilsson Schmilsson has died. Perry died at age 82 on December 24, 2024.
The Harry Nilsson Web Pages
Harry Nilsson News (2024-12-24)
Richard Perry Has Died
Harry Nilsson News (2024-09-21)
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The video was posted on X (Twitter) but later superceded by a longer TV commercial without Nilsson's song.
Harry Nilsson News (2024-09-05)
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."
Harry Nilsson News (2023-09-05)
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]
- [1] Dan Matovina. Frances Glover Books (2000) "Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger"
Harry Nilsson News (2023-09-01)
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.
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Elizabeth Nilsson
Harry Nilsson's mother Elizabeth Nilsson (born "Elizabeth Martin") was known as "Bette" to the family, but later went by "Lisa."
She was born in 1920 in New York to Charles Augustus Martin and Florence Madeline Martin (nee Stotz). She had one brother, John, and a sister, Mary ("Cissy").[1]
She married Harry Edward Nilsson, Jr. on September 16, 1940.[2] Their son, Harry Nilsson was born on June 15, 1941. A second son, Drake Nilsson, was born on November 21, 1949.
On October, 10, 1961, she married George Fallon.
She died on November 21, 1979. At the time she resided in the Los Angeles, California, area where she had owned and operated a small antiques store called Lisa's Cottage.[3]
She is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park.
The photo[4] of Bette with Harry was taken on Monroe Street in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. [5]
- [1] Source: Public Records Search
- [2] "Weddings" The Morning News (Wilmington, Delaware) (1940-09-12)
- [3] Citation Needed.
- [4] Photo courtesy of Gary Nilsson.
- [5] Facebook, Drake Nilsson (2021-05-11) "Reply to post in Harry Nilsson: Gotta Get Up group"
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Today in Nilsson History
- 1998-02-15 - A play, "Nilsson!," based on the life and music of Harry Nilsson opens at the Muziektheater in Amsterdam, Holland.
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Welcome to the Harry Nilsson Web Pages
This site is dedicated to the music and memory of Harry Nilsson. From the late 1960s through the early '90s, Nilsson produced music that both challenged norms and celebrated the past - often within the same song.
On first listen, his early Pandemonium Shadow Show is just an appealing collection of bouncy pop songs, a product of the time when it was released. But, on closer listen songs like "1941" and "Without Her" feature poignant and wistful lyrics on top of their upbeat, pop melodies. To the listener in the late 1960s, the melodies and songs, such as “Freckles” sometimes invoked what would have seemed a nostalgic air, but they still sound fresh more than fifty years later.
Nilsson remained unconventional throughout his career. He never toured to support an album and he made few TV appearances. He released an album of songs which were all written by another songwriter. He recorded an album of standards in front of an orchestra. He followed up his best selling album and song with an album featuring a song pretty much guaranteed to surprise, if not offend, his new fans.
Harry ventured into movies and TV, creating a classic animated story (“The Point!”) and writing the music and songs for the once-panned, but now cult favorite, film Popeye starring Robin Williams.
In the last years of his life, after his friend John Lennon was shot and killed, Harry stepped back from music and, ironically perhaps, more into the public eye as the spokesperson for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence advocating for sensible gun laws in America.
A heart attack took Harry’s life in early 1994. Yet, his memory lives on in the hearts and minds of his friends, family, and fans. And his music lives on with Sony releasing a comprehensive collection of his works on CD and his music being featured prominently in TV and movies.