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The video was posted on X (Twitter) but later superceded by a longer TV commercial without Nilsson's song.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"
Featured Article of the Day
The Story Behind the Photo of Anne Murray and the Hollywood Vampires
On November 21, 1973, Richard Creamer took this famous photo of John Lennon, Anne Murray, Harry Nilsson, Alice Cooper, and Mickey Dolenz at the Troubadour. It is a part of the Michael Ochs Archives.[1]
In 1973, in an attempt to subvert her squeaky-clean image, Murray hired Shep Gordon as her manager. Gordon was Alice Cooper's manager at the time.
What I was looking for from Shep was to create a buzz in the business, and everybody who was anybody came on The Midnight Special.
-- Anne Murray[2]
It was at a time when hip meant everything, and the last thing The Midnight Special wanted was a straight laced singer from Canada. So I booked her at the Troubadour, and this is all cool, but nobody’s gonna give a shit.
-- Shep Gordon[3]
Gordon visited the loft at the Rainbow Bar and Grill where Alice Cooper and his drinking buddies, who called themselves the "Hollywood Vampires," met in Los Angeles.
I went to the Rainbow Room that night and I literally got down on my hands and knees, I said “Guys, you gotta help me. I’m representing this girl Anne Murray, I booked her at the Troubadour and if I could get you guys up there for a picture with her, I’ll do anything for you.”
-- Shep Gordon[4]
That picture has had more mileage than any other picture that I have ever had taken of me in my career. Rolling Stone wanted to interview me, and I was the “it girl” for just a few weeks.
-- Anne Murray[5]
You can't measure in money what that has done for me. It got printed everywhere Time, Rolling Stone, Creem. People see that and say, "Yeah, man, she must be hip, she must not be so wholesome after all." I don't know how Shep got them there and I don't want to know how.
-- Anne Murray[6]
They look like a bunch of reprobates. And there I am, Miss Innocence, right in the middle of these guys who were totally all three sheets to the wind.
-- Anne Murray[7]
At the time the famous photo was taken, Murray invited Nilsson ("My favorite male vocalist of all time. No contest.") to a recording session. "I wanted to meet him and he didn't even know where he was. He was so out of it. I was so disappointed." Later, in 1993, Murray "tried to get him to tape something for the Junos when I was inducted into the Hall of Fame, and he didn't even know who I was - or who he was, I don't think."[8]
- [1] Getty (https:/
/ )www. gettyimages. com/ detail/ news- photo/ drinking- buddies- known- as- the- hollywood- vampires- l- r- j. . . - [2] "Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon" (2013)
- [3] "Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon" (2013)
- [4] "Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon" (2013)
- [5] "Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon" (2013)
- [6] Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan), Marci McDonald (1974-05-12) "Barefoot Girl Next Door Becomes a Funky Rocker"
- [7] The Gazette (Montreal, Canada), Bernard Perusse (2008-01-03) "Duets to Dream On"
- [8] The Gazette (Montreal, Canada), Bernard Perusse (2008-01-03) "Duets to Dream On"
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Today in Nilsson History
- 1974-03-13 - Harry Nilsson attends the AFI's tribute dinner for actor James Cagney.
- 2023-03-13 - Drummer Jim Gordon dies at age 77.
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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.