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The video was posted on X (Twitter) but later superceded by a longer TV commercial without Nilsson's song.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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Tonight Show
Harry Nilsson wrote "Tonight Song" as a possible new theme for the Tonight Show when Jay Leno became the host.
On the June 15, 1998, episode of The Tonight Show Ringo Starr was Jay Leno's first guest.
My (soon to be) wife and I visited Los Angeles to attend Harryfest 1998. Before we left Florida, a friend got us tickets to view a taping of The Tonight Show. She got us VIP passes for the taping on June 15. A few days later, she called back to tell us that she had just learned that Ringo Starr was scheduled to be a guest that day.
Harry was Ringo's best friend. We were going to LA to meet other Nilsson fans. And the show was being taped on Harry's birthday. It seemed too perfect, so I asked my friend if we could arrange to give something to Ringo.
She called back to say that we could leave a package, wrapped in clear plastic, with a guard at the NBC gate.
Monday morning, we gathered up some Nilsson-related stuff to put in the package. As we were about to wrap up the package, I noticed that Curtis Armstrong was wearing a promotional Duit on Mon Dei button. I pretty much just looked at him and he handed us the button, We put in on top in the package with a note reading "Dear Ringo. Please wear this button on the show. If you don't, we want it back."
We left to drive to the NBC Studios. I missed the Burbank exit and we arrived late. I illegally parked on the street near the studio (along with dozens of other illegally parked cars) and we went to the VIP guest entrance. I didn't have time to drop the package off at security, so I gave it to an NBC page and expected it to disappear.
We entered the studio and were seated up high in the VIP area. When Ringo was introduced, he walked out. He was wearing a button. Bracha remarked that it looked too big to be our button. I reminded her that Ringo is small. Then we looked up at the monitor and could clearly see that he was wearing the button that we had given him.
Jay Leno talked with him and Ringo stayed in the guest's chair during the commercial break. Bracha stood, waved, and pointed to her chest - which got Ringo's attention (he married a Bond girl, you know). Ringo looked our way and realized that we were telling him that we had given him the Nilsson button. He smiled and gave us a thumbs up gesture.
-- Roger Smith
Ringo Starr on The Tonight Show
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Today in Nilsson History
- 1987-03-26 - Hawkeye Entertainment announces that its IPO raised $3.5 million.
- 2022-03-26 - LCD Soundsystem's original line-up reunites, performing Harry Nilsson's "Jump into the Fire" at a party celebrating the twentieth anniversary of DFA Records
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1000 Words
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.