A newly-released film shows Harry Nilsson and Ringo Starr attending the premiere of Son of Dracula.
Harry Nilsson and Ringo Starr at the Son Of Dracula Premiere
The Harry Nilsson Web Pages
Harry Nilsson News (2025-02-20)
Newly-Released Film of Harry Nilsson and Ringo Starr at the Son Of Dracula Premiere
Harry Nilsson News (2024-12-24)
Richard Perry Has Died
Richard Perry, producer of Harry Nilsson's Nilsson Schmilsson has died. Perry died at age 82 on December 24, 2024.
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The video was posted on X (Twitter) but later superceded by a longer TV commercial without Nilsson's song.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"
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Album Reviews: Pussy Cats
John Lennon produced the latest album of the Beatles imitator, who is so good that he nearly fooled the group itself when he began recording several years ago. It's a hit, too. From Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" to Nilsson's own "Don't Forget Me," this is the kind of humor, energy and plain good music almost all superstar productions miss.
-- Dave Marsh (1974) [1]
Harry Nilsson has come out with yet another good album. This time it's Pussy Cats, produced by John Lennon and featuring the likes of Keith Moon (from The Who), Jim Keltner and Sneaky Pete (both of Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen), Jim Horn ("Layla" and others), Ringo Starr, Klaus Voorman and, of course, John Lennon.
...
Nilsson's inability to take himself seriously makes its appearance on "Black Sails," a song about a girl with so many veins in her leg they look lie maps ("You're so veiny/You probably think this map is about you."
The album also features a performance by the Masked Alberts Orchestra, whatever that is. On an album by a man who is know to have listed Harrison and Starr on the credits as George Harrysong and Richie Snare, well which former Beatle could be a Masked Albert? It's pure speculation, but why not? Every other ex-Beatie has popped up on one Nilsson album or another. Why not McCartney?
-- Chuck Strinz (1974) [2]
Pussy Cats is an interesting experience, to say the least. Featuring some of the era’s most defining characters, it is a peculiar feature in Nilsson and Lennon’s back catalogues. Equally as strange as Paul McCartney’s earliest solo works, you get the feeling that the excesses consumed by the period’s premier musicians were starting to take their toll by 1974. Regardless, there are highlights that make it definitely worth revisiting....
-- Arun Starkey (2021) [3]
- [1] Newsday (Suffolk Edition) (Melville, New York), Dave Marsh (1974-09-29) "Harry Nilsson: Pussy Cats (RCA Victor)"
- [2] Lincoln Daily Nebraskan (Lincoln, Nebraska), Chuck Strinz (1974-08-26) "'Pussy Cats' purrs with ex-Beatles' Help"
- [3] Far Out Magazine, Arun Starkey (2021-08-19) "'Pussy Cats': Harry Nilsson and John Lennon’s ode to excess" (https:/
/ )faroutmagazine. co. uk/ pussy- cats- harry- nilsson- john- lennon- ode- to- excess/
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Today in Nilsson History
- 1974-04-19 - The Son of Dracula premiere is held in Atlanta, Georgia.
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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.