1962–1966: Musicianship beginnings By 1958, Nilsson followed
popular music, especially
rhythm and blues artists like
Ray Charles. He had performed while he was working at the Paramount, forming a vocal duo with his friend Jerry Smith and singing close harmonies in the style of the
Everly Brothers. The manager of a hangout Nilsson frequented gave him a plastic ukulele, which he learned to play, and he later learned to play the guitar and piano. In the 2006 documentary ''
Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)?'', Nilsson recalled that when he could not remember lyrics or parts of the melodies to popular songs, he created his own, which led to writing original songs. His uncle's singing lessons, along with Nilsson's natural talent, helped him when he got a job singing demos for songwriter
Scott Turner in 1962. Turner paid Nilsson five dollars for each track they recorded. (When Nilsson became famous, Turner decided to release these early recordings, and contacted Nilsson to work out a fair payment. Nilsson replied that he had already been paid – five dollars a track.) Nilsson's recording contract was picked up by Tower Records, which in 1966 released the first singles actually credited to him by name, as well as the debut album
Spotlight on Nilsson. None of Nilsson's Tower releases charted or gained much critical attention, although his songs were being recorded by
Glen Campbell,
Fred Astaire,
The Shangri-Las,
The Yardbirds, and others. Despite his growing success, Nilsson remained on the night shift at the bank. after meeting him through their producer
Chip Douglas), Nilsson finally felt secure enough in the music business to quit his job with the bank.
Monkees member
Micky Dolenz maintained a close friendship until Nilsson's death in 1994. Some of the albums from Derek Taylor's box eventually ended up with the Beatles themselves, who quickly became Nilsson fans. This may have been helped by the track "
You Can't Do That", in which Nilsson covered the John Lennon penned tune – and also worked references to 17 other Beatles tunes in the mix, usually by quoting snippets of Beatles lyrics in the multi-layered backing vocals. When
John Lennon and
Paul McCartney held a press conference in 1968 to announce the formation of the
Apple Corps, Lennon was asked to name his favorite American artist. He replied, "Nilsson". McCartney was then asked to name his favorite American group. He replied, "Nilsson". Nilsson was commissioned at this time to write and perform the theme song for the
ABC television series ''
The Courtship of Eddie's Father. The result, "Best Friend", was very popular, but Nilsson never released the song on record; the original version of the song (titled "Girlfriend") was recorded during the making of Aerial Ballet
but not included on that LP, and it eventually appeared on the 1995 Personal Best
anthology, and as a bonus track on a later release of Aerial Ballet''. Late in 1968,
the Monkees' notorious experimental film
Head premiered, featuring a memorable song-and-dance sequence with
Davy Jones and
Toni Basil performing Nilsson's composition "Daddy's Song". (This is followed by
Frank Zappa's cameo as "The Critic", who dismisses the 1920s-style tune as "pretty white".) The third single, "
Jump into the Fire", was raucous rock and roll, including a drum solo by
Derek and the Dominos'
Jim Gordon and a detuned bass part by
Herbie Flowers. Nilsson's record producer,
Richard Perry, referenced his lack of live performing in the book 'The Record Producers' by
BBC Books, saying "He did do the In Concert series on BBC television with Stanley Dorfman, which was very popular at the time. His show was very interesting and innovative with a lot of new technology, multiple images and things like that, but I think any artist, with very few exceptions and none that I can really think of, can immeasurably enhance his career by appearing in front of the public. At some point, the public needs to reach out and touch the artist, experience and feel them in person."
1973–1979: Maverick Nilsson's disregard for commercialism in favor of artistic satisfaction was on display in his next release,
A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night (1973). Performing a selection of
pop standards by the likes of
Irving Berlin,
Bert Kalmar, and
Harry Ruby, Nilsson sang in front of an orchestra arranged and conducted by veteran
Gordon Jenkins in sessions produced by
Derek Taylor. This musical endeavor did not do well commercially. The session was filmed, and broadcast as a television special by the
BBC in the UK. In 1973, Nilsson was back in California, and when John Lennon moved there during his separation from
Yoko Ono, the two musicians rekindled their earlier friendship. Lennon was intent upon producing Nilsson's next album, much to Nilsson's delight. However, their time together in California became known much more for
heavy drinking than it did for musical collaboration. In a widely publicized incident, the two were ejected from the
Troubadour nightclub in
West Hollywood for drunken heckling of the
Smothers Brothers. To make matters worse, at a late night party and jam session during the recording of the album, attended by Lennon, McCartney,
Danny Kortchmar, and other musicians, Nilsson ruptured a
vocal cord, but he hid the injury for fear that Lennon would call a halt to the production. The resulting album was
Pussy Cats. In an effort to clean up, Lennon, Nilsson and
Ringo Starr first rented a house together, then Lennon and Nilsson left for New York. Nilsson's voice had mostly recovered by his next release,
Duit on Mon Dei (1975), but neither it nor its follow-ups,
Sandman and ''
...That's the Way It Is (both 1976), were met with chart success. Finally, Nilsson recorded what he later considered to be his favorite album Knnillssonn (1977). With his voice strong again, and his songs exploring musical territory reminiscent of Harry
or The Point!
, Nilsson anticipated Knnillssonn'' to be a comeback album. RCA seemed to agree, and promised Nilsson a substantial marketing campaign for the album. However, the death of
Elvis Presley caused RCA to ignore everything except meeting demand for Presley's back catalog, and the promised marketing push never happened. This, combined with RCA releasing a
Nilsson Greatest Hits collection without consulting him, prompted Nilsson to leave the label. Nilsson's
Popeye compositions included several songs that were representative of Nilsson's acclaimed
Point era, such as "Everything Is Food" and "Sweethaven". The song "He Needs Me" was featured years later in the film
Punch-Drunk Love. Nilsson recorded one more album,
Flash Harry, co-produced by
Bruce Robb and
Steve Cropper, which was released in the UK but not in the US. From this point onward, Nilsson increasingly began referring to himself as a "retired musician". Nilsson was profoundly affected by the
murder of John Lennon on December 8, 1980. He joined the
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and overcame his preference for privacy to make appearances for
gun control fundraising. He began to appear at
Beatlefest conventions and he would get on stage with the Beatlefest house band "Liverpool" to sing either some of his own songs or "
Give Peace a Chance". None of Nilsson's music was used in the finished film. After a long hiatus from the studio, Nilsson started recording sporadically once again in the mid to late 1980s. Most of these recordings were commissioned songs for movies or television shows. One notable exception was his work on a Yoko Ono-Lennon tribute album,
Every Man Has a Woman (1984) (Polydor); another was a cover of "
Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" recorded for
Hal Willner's 1988
tribute album Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films. Nilsson donated his performance royalties from the song to the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. In 1990, Hawkeye floundered, and Nilsson found himself in a dire financial situation after it was discovered that his financial adviser, Cindy Sims, had embezzled all the funds he had earned as a recording artist. The Nilssons were left with $300 in the bank and a mountain of debt, while Sims was imprisoned for less than two years before her 1994 release and was not required to pay restitution. In 1991, the
Disney album
For Our Children, a compilation of children's music performed by celebrities to benefit the
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, included Nilsson's original composition "Blanket for a Sail", recorded at the Shandaliza Recording Studio in Los Angeles. Nilsson made his last concert appearance on September 1, 1992, when he joined
Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band on stage at
Caesars Palace in
Las Vegas, to sing "Without You" with
Todd Rundgren handling the high notes. Afterward, an emotional Starr embraced Nilsson on stage. After surviving that, he pressured his former label, RCA Records, to release a boxed-set retrospective of his career, and resumed recording, attempting to complete one final album. He finished the vocal tracks for the album with producer
Mark Hudson, who held onto the tapes of that session. In 1994, Nilsson died of a heart attack while in the midst of recording what became his last album,
Losst and Founnd (2019).
Posthumous releases In 1995, the 2-disc CD anthology he worked on with RCA,
Personal Best, was released. ==Personal life==