Harry Nilsson

Singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson was named as the Beatles' favourite American artist when he was still a relative unknown, but despite the acclaim of the world's most popular band, Nilsson was too idiosyncratic to attain comparable fame. Later, he became John Lennon's drinking buddy and confidante during Lennon's split from Yoko Ono, but after rupturing vocal chords during a recording session helmed by Lennon for a new album, Nilsson's career went on a permanent decline.

Nilsson worked in a bank for many years while writing songs for the Shangri-Las, the Yardbirds and the Monkees. He signed to RCA in 1966 and the following year released Pandemonium Shadow Show, a Sgt. Pepper's-inspired psychedelic pop album that really impressed Lennon and McCartney. Nilsson's fame spiked when they publicly announced this and he enjoyed a brief run of TV appearances and live shows, before deciding that he didn't like performing live and would rather concentrate on in-studio work. Nilsson would never tour again.

1968's Aerial Ballet was another critical hit and featured a Grammy-winning, Top 10 single in "Everybody's Talkin'". Another Grammy followed for "Without You", a No.1 hit from 1971's Nilsson Schmilsson, Nilsson's most commercially and critically successful album. It also featured the calypso "Coconut", which was later chosen to feature on the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack. Later, Nilsson showed his determination to stick by his artistic instincts by releasing the wholly uncommercial A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night (1973), which consisted of pop standards sung in the lounge style. When old friend Lennon briefly split from Yoko Ono, he travelled to join Nilsson in California for a month of drunken debauchery that famously involved the pair being ejected from a nightclub for heckling the performers. They headed into the studio together for Pussy Cats (1974), but Nilsson ruptured his vocal chords during recording, and hid the injury from Lennon so that the project would get finished. The resulting album was a shock for fans, though it has since become considered as a cult-favoured oddity.

Nilsson's voice struggled through his next two albums, but he was very happy with Knnillssonn (1977) and expected it to succeed. Unfortunately, Elvis died just before release, prompting RCA to put all their efforts into reviving his back-catalogue for fresh demand. Knnillssonn was buried, and Nilsson left RCA.

Nilsson went into semi-retirement after leaving RCA. He occasionally contributed to soundtrack or charity albums, and took up anti-gun campaigning after the murder of Lennon in 1980. In 1993, Nilsson took a renewed interest in music after surviving a heart attack. He returned to writing and recording, and had just put the finishing touches to his first new album in 14 years when he died of heart failure. The album has never been released. He was 52.