is a great song and Harry turned the original sparse Badfinger version (which sounds almost like a demo) into a majestic pop song with a great production.

but I completely agree with you. I kept waiting for a Eureka moment where the significance of HN's life and career became clear. And, although this was a very well made documentary, it never came. I have to say that the same thing was true of last week's Lennon doc, which, in terms of music, seemed to be full of mediocre old rock and roll and the mawkish / cringemaking stuff that wound up on "Double Fantasy".

"One"

Listen to A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night. One of my favourite albums.

Or to recommend a Nilsson song that's any good, try I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City.

"All I Think about Is You" (heard briefly towards the end of the doc) and "Remember (Christmas)" (it's lovely but not explicitly Christmassy so will work in july).

And then there's "Without Her", covered by several artists including Glen Campbell and Herb Alpert.

Nilsson Schmilsson is a superb album (cocunut aside), as are aerial ballet and Pandemonium Shadow Show.

He had an amazing voice (in his prime). Did he waste his talent in the end ? Yes.

..but I challenge anyone not to like this..

If you're going to judge a man's entire body of music from only hearing two songs, then quite frankly, your opinion has no worth.

Aerial Ballet, Pandemonium Shadow Show....Without Her, Me And My Arrow, One, even Skidoo Cast And Credits are superb.

And I've always liked Coconut. It sounds like a Bill Oddie Goodies number.

Nilsson was given the Beatles' seal of approval very early on, after they heard his You Can't Do That Medley in 1967.

That probably turned out to be a double edged-sword in the long run as more was expected from him than he could deliver.

No one can doubt that he had a fabulous voice though.

Nilsson Sings Newman

actually wrote a lot of good tunes.

a perfect combination of bitter lyrics in a catchy tune. And arguably two of Davy Jones' finest moments

Cuddly Toy

Daddy's Song

there was a short piece played last night when he'd just met his last wife which went "And I feel like it's gonna get a whole lot better, better than the night before the night I met her".

I've tried googling the lyrics but to no avail.

Any ideas anyone?

'Stop with those fuckin' drugs, they're making ya mind into mush, ya hear me?'

Poor Harry suffered a bit from Phil Spector going round the twist in 65/66. A great song of his "This Could Be The Night" was half made for the Modern Folk Quartet but never finished. And the Ronettes did two of his songs "Paradise" and the brilliant "Here I Sit" which weren't released at the time.

Harry sure was dogged by bad luck. It's just such a terrible shame that he made so much of it for himself.

But I'm grateful to this thread, as I just bought two of Harry's albums that I hadn't realised had been reissued on CD (with bonus tracks, I think). Ta !

.....for me, this long-overdue (largely excellent) film said far more about the demise from the height of the 60s counter-culture to the dire, ugly, horrible 1970s than it did about the man himself.

I am always amazed that the stark contrast between the eras never gets mentioned in such documentaries.

Where to begin?
Too much money; dreadful production, graphic design, drugs (cocaine, great for art!), clothes, hair, beards; all horrendous.

Sad because Nilsson was no 'two'-song merchant.
Check out the '67 and '68 LPs if you don't believe me.

Next time someone lazily lumps the 60s in with the 1970s just show them this.....they might as well be from different centuries.

He seemed to have a similar melodic sensibility to The Beatles. Which is probably why they were so enthusiastic to attach themselves to him. Most of the songs aren't anywhere near as effective of course, but he was a better singer, and more cultured musician than any of the four. And threw it all away. `

Without You is another illustration of how important musicianship and production, is in the effectiveness of a piece of music. So much more atmospheric and clever than the original recording. But its the "writing" of course that has, until recently, earned people small fortunes.

who really likes the childrens/concept/drug-referrencing concept(?) album "The Point"?

I really enjoyed the documentary; I think I came to Nilsson through The Monkees. When I first heard his first two albums, I was taken aback because they're not very pop or rock but there's great music there. I knew the loved-by-Beatles/wouldn't tour/party-in-LA story but was unaware of his family story, which was pretty striking. I wish they'd covered the Point! & Popeye though.

However...

As Ranger points out above, what is there to love about their LA behaviour? If ever you needed evidence as to why Paul should be your favourite Beatle, look no further than JL being a drunken, drugged up boor (while meanwhile Macca has put out Band on the Run).

Also, it's hard to watch people on documentaries like that still tacitly supporting the alcoholism that destroyed Harry's life. Eric Idle's comments at the funeral, I thought, were not very funny.

cause controversy by going against the norm...now go and actually listen to a couple of albums and come back with a more informed opinion..try "Pandemonium Sideshow" and then "Aerial Ballet", give em a few spins and then let's see how you feel. Off for a lie down. What utter rubbish!

I love Nilsson. He's got an amazing voice.

I hate having to alter an opinion, in part in case of finding I had been wrong, so I would not blame Chabsy for sticking to his prejudices. I loathe "Without You" beyond compare, knowing full well it was not even his own song, and was just as capable of being dire when performed by anyone else. (Have you heard Mariahs?) Of his own stuff, the Point has me questioning it. Jeepers, why waste even minutes of my precious time listening to something I already know I don't like. I won't, even if I did. On principle.
Having said this, there are equally many artists I love whose music is shite.
Funny old world.....

Well he lived a pretty interesting life. He made some bad decisions but some different decisions to most 'pop stars' not all of which came off. As the programme admirably showed, he impressed the world's niggest band, he moved between wildly different genres just as he moved between being a family man (how many kids did he have at the end!?) and a drunken boor.
You'd be hard-pushed to describe his life as uninteresting. He's obviously a worthy subject for a documentary and the footage and talking heads was fresh and original, at least to me.
Oh, and finally, those two songs? Brilliant.

I have no doubt he was a total twat when pissed but anyone who can produce Nilsson Sings Newman, A Little Touch Of Schmilsson In The Night, The Point and oh so many others has to get a Macca style thumbs up.
Talking of The Point, I can guarantee it'll get remade at some stage in the next ten years. Any thoughts on who'd be the special guest stars?
In the meantime...

Referring to the OP, the worst, most mawkish record of all time is Terry Jacks' Seasons in the Sun.

Carry on.

Honey by Bobby Goldsboro is that. Bloody hell.

Mike Smash played it over and over again on Radio FabFM when Tessa Smash left him

From 7:30

Eric Idle look a sight with his facelift and dyed hair. Someone really should have a word in his ear.

I've always thought Nilsson enormously underrated...The Point is great.

And as for Without You being the most mawkish? No, that must surely be Having My Baby by Paul Anka. Meretricious, sentimental tripe of the highest order (or should that be ordure?).

I'm not going to include the vid, I wouldn't do that to the massive!

with the BBC who made it look like this was a new programme when in fact it was the film Who Is Harry Nisson? And Why Is Everyone Talking About Him? with a short intro by Yentob.

Achingly beautiful songs about divorce

hummable songs about visiting brothels

haunting songs expressing love for Popeye

Grannies singing songs expressing death positively

A flawed human being granted. But a flawed human being with beauty in his soul. And despite what the doc implied, "Son Of Schmillsson" is his best album.

John Grant sings Nilsson. I'd buy it.

Was a huge Nilsson fan and I have a tape of one of his Radio 1 shows from (presumably) 1972 where he plays the track Turn On Your Radio from the album Son of Schmilsson.

Not that interesting in itself perhaps, but here's the thing. Everett would spend all week recording his Sunday afternoon radio shows and would often construct elaborate multi track jingles and recordings of himself singing which he overdubbed onto his favourite records.

It all sounds a bit odd now, but Kenny made a lovely little three part harmony section which he dubbed onto the McCartney-esque intro to Turn On Your Radio and it worked perfectly. I must dig it out and post it here.

I would strongly recommend 'For The Love Of Harry - Everybody Sings Nilsson' - a brilliant compilation including the likes of Randy Newman, Marc Cohn (great version of 'Turn on your radio'), Aimee Mann (her version of 'One' is as good as Harry's), Steve Forbert, the great Marshall Crenshaw, Jellyfish, Jimmy Webb, Brian Wilson, Al Kooper, Ringo, Ron Sexsmith and many more.

Many Rivers To Cross on Harry's Pussycats album (dismissed as "pure shit" in the OP) so appealed to producer John Lennon that he used the actual string section from Nilsson's recording on his own song No.9 Dream, the second single from the Walls & Bridges album. Both tracks appeared in 1974.

Compare the two here: