Added: 5 years ago
From: lucyhuto
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  • is it me or does this kind of music not exist anymore?...i mean, would kids these days dig this?

  • @todtubetod It's not you. It seems that today all that matters is beauty rather than talent. Sad.

  • Crazy about Nilsson, still. He's awesome. I remember as a child I just thought he was some kind of msytery miracle that was going to be around forever. His voice and tunes were just all over the place.

    He sang Everybodys Talkin, then he's singing the theme song to Eddie's Father, then The Point, then his big album and Without You.

    Just finished watching the documentary on him.

    Entertaining, very interesting, but hard to watch, especially when the self-destruction led to his voice damage. Sad!

  • Thank you for this. He was a great favourite of mine in my youth. Bought most of his albums. The albums are unfortunately long gone but the memories remain. But 40 years later seeing this I realise just what a genius he was. There is no one with such talent now or in recent years.

  • Perhaps the best white american singer. what a Fine, FINE talent.......Love to Nilsson

  • @ACRpro1000 no the best am white songer was John Fogerty - check out Born on Bayou live video - mindblower

  • so true... it's beautiful. 

  • very very nice. thanks for sharing.

  • Thank you for this post - what an amazing talent!

  • I had a dog I named Arrow...in memory of my previous dog named Bullit

  • AWESOME VIDEO!!! NEVER HAVE IT REMOVED!

  • At 2:15 I got so excited because I thought he was going to play "Puppy Song"

  • Holy Moly. Wonderful voice and ease of singing. Thank you. I want to hear more.

  • THANK YOU!!!! Love Harry - never knew I'd see this video - thanks

  • I made many Harry Nilssonn compilation cassettes for friends in those days, and many were very grateful. I had to remake some as some of them were worn out!

  • My favorite male artist of all times. I still own all of his albums. Too bad.... he passed away from a massive coronary. He was an alcoholic for years. He was John Lennon's favorite artist too. When Yoko kicked John out of the house for a while and gave him May Ping as a traveling companion.... John and Harry made the newspapers frequently being "kicked" out of bars in California.

  • It's easy to see why Nilsson and John Lennon were close friends, collaborators, and influences on each other.

    I'm grateful to forward-thinking pioneers and talents like the Smothers Brothers for bringing artists like Harry Nilsson to the attention of a tight-assed America that was in need of opening its mind back then.

  • what a nice voice-what a gift

  • In response to "thishereguitar": No, Tommy Smothers couldn't read the teleprompter. He was dyslexic. He didn't get diagnosed until his 30's after the show started.

  • thats prolly why keith moon had his problems

  • Harry was a hard core friend of Keith Moon's

  • The Point is a brilliant album, I like it better than Nilsson Smilsson... every song is perfect, especially Life Line and Think About Your Troubles.

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  • Harry was the best of the best. I still miss him. Always will.

  • Now I see how it is he became such a close friend of John Lennon.. er, how it is that John Lennon became such a close friend of Harry.

  • Holy Friggin' Mary in Heaven Above, why have I never heard this before? WHY?! Not for nothin', but I bet he could do pretty good on American Idol. HA! I'm being sarcastic, in case you can't tell. He would definitely do alright on American Idol. But as a choreographer. Or as a lighting director. Or as a hysterical screaming teenage girl audience member. But as a singer he would only be on the first week with the other comical insane no-talents... Just kidding, again...

  • Billy Joel ..

  • beautiful!

  • Jesus what a unique voice no one can sing like Harry

  • @mackles Damn right!

  • Beautiful. Thank you so much for posting this. Back then artists were encouraged to be creative. Today, if it doesn't pass corporate muster you're out of luck. It's practically a miracle when anything remotely out of the mainstream reaches us. Oh well.

  • @gorcanto SO TRUE! Everything is recorded and turned into trash today before it hits the radio

    The kids of today don't have a clue what live is.... Sir David

  • what's funny is were'nt harry and john lennon ejected from the troubadore in the seventies after heckling a smother's brothers performance....

  • WHAT A "TRUE" TALENT;... NILSSON HAD HEART, SOUL AND A GREAT MIND !

    THE BIG THREE!!...AND HE'S FROM BROOKLYN, NYC!!!!!!!

  • Now that IS the circle of life dammit.

  • Harry was one in a million. His voice was so pure and amazing.

  • Such a forgotten talent. Considering how popular he was when "Without You" came out and his album "Nilsson Schmillson." He won the big three Grammy awards that year, something very, very few people have ever done before or since. He was the first artist to get a million dollars per album, thanks to John Lennon negotiating his contract. God Bless and God rest Harry. We still love you.

  • Respond to this video... Amazing! So talented. I'm kinda' choking up right now because the no talents of today get super rich while this incredible talent really never got the credit he so richly deserved from the public or mainstream media. God bless and God rest Harry Nilsson!

  • he reminds me of Elvis

  • @MickeyLove01 That's reaching man E was the king Harry didnt do much live

  • I miss Harry

  • All good!

  • Effortless = artist. Harry simply had much more talent than folks had the capacity to recognize.

  • The Smothers Brothers had some terrific artists on their program. They were obviously big fans of the great rock musicians of the day.

  • "Without Her" was also a famous Nilsson song. Nilsson cared deeply if he was without you, her, me, my brother, and my great aunt Mildred.

  • When Tommy Smothers introduced "Hey Jude" he called it "Jude." When he introduces "Without You" in this video he calls it "Without Her." So my question is, was he, for some reason, not capable of reading a TelePrompTer? I look forward to someone answering this.

  • @thishereguitar

    Tommy is said that Nancy Sinatra recently sang "Without Her" written by Harry Nilsson. I assume that this is correct.

    You're thinking of "Without You" which was recorded by Nilsson but not written by him. It was written by Evans and Ham of Badfinger and sounded suspiciously like a Paul McCartney tune.

    Maybe he knew what he was talking about and you could use a hearing aid.

  • At the end of "Think About Your Troubles", I swear that's a harmonica, not his voice!

  • thanx so much for posting this -- i was there at this taping and really appreciate seeing it again. harry loved the smothers brothers, but he and their mother always liked Tommy best. The story of these songs is very interesting...there's a lot behind them. thanx again, glad you enjoy our work back in the day.

  • @harryheadscom you lucky bastard! :)

  • He was like Randy Newman....but with a better vocal range.

  • @Misterafyableism No he wasn't. He was like Harry Nilsson

  • Damn he's great! Listen to that voice!

    Love Harry

    He needs to be in the Hall fo sho

  • HE LEFT US WAY TOO EARLY.HE WAS A GENIUS

  • Been a Nilsonn for a looooong time. I picked up a CD in a cutout rack for $1called "For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson. It was put out '95 and produced by Al Kooper & Danny Kapilian.This song is done beautifully by Randy Newman on the album. Al does a knockout of "Salmon Falls" (my favorite Nilsson song). Other artists are Marc Cohn -"Turn on Your Radio",Ringo & Stevie Nicks - "Lay Down Your Arms", Carl Wilson et.al., - "Without Her"" and many others. 23 songs total.

  • He had such talent! I watch and listen to him on Youtube as much as I can. I miss him. R.I.P. Harry

  • both my 19 year old daughter and 15 year old son have Harry Nilsson on their iPods.  I think that says it all about Mr. Nilsson's talent and longevity. I loved him in MY youth And I love him still.

  • jesus F, TV used to be good!

  • Poli High is calling youuuuuu. What a talent. What gifts. Dang.

  • From minute 5:30 forward I have listened to this and watched him 15 times at least just sitting here. He was fascinating...Incredible voice and great sense of humor. <3

  • And thanks to the Smothers for sensitivity, politics, great music, and wonderful contributions to a magical time.

  • Good grief! After listening to Harry since the 60's, I am still amazed by what he could do with his voice... just fantastic! Listening to an record album of his was ALWAYS an adventure; you just never knew what you were going to hear next!

  • I love Harry! I was born in 1982, so he's a little before my time; however, my mom had a copy of The Point on VHS, which my brother and I watched endlessly. He continues to be one of my favorite artists. I can't get enough of that angelic voice. Just magnificent. What a brilliant man.

  • He was so Good! I miss him very much!  In Chile is very dearly known!

  • Thanks for posting this great video! In 1982, I had the good fortune to meet Harry Nilsson in Houston TX at a Beatles Convention, Very nice person to chat with. Unfortunately, by this time he had lost his immaculate voice, so he was mainly a songwriter for movies such as Popeye. We miss you, Harry..........

  • Thanks for this rare glimpse back to the playful spirit of one of the most inventive composers of songs. A deep soul for sure.

  • Ear Candy on a saturday mused...

  • Ahh, what a golden voice!

  • oh my goodness gracious. so good. 

  • Simply a god given voice..

  • @tomeeeee1 does your mother realize that her son grew up to be an unemployed thirty something weasel squeezer?

  • @tomeeeee1 Right when John Lennon said Nilsson was his favorite song writer he must have know less than you about song writing. You are a better song writer than either of them, right? Which is why you are so busy posting here. lol. You now nothing about the craft of writing music or performing it . This man is a singer's singer, a writer's writer.

  • @tomeeeee1

    idiot.

  • @tomeeeee1 HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAH­AHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHH­AHAH

    

  • yeah,

    no other white singer had what he had

  • wow great voice

  • Listen closley for the fade! Love Harry! My all time fave! Thanks for this post it is awesome!

  • I love Harry nillson. I was born TO freaking early.

  • He was dragged between New York and Los Angeles as a kid. Grew up in one of the meanest neighborhoods in New York, Brewery Row in Brooklyn. Had a promising career marred by alcoholism and eventually drank himself to death after the death of John Lennon. If only he found Recovery, but it was not meant to be...

  • what song is this? or is it like a compilation of songs?

  • This gets my vote for best video on YouTube. I knew very little about Harry Nilsson when I stumbled onto this video a couple of years ago. Now I am a huge Harry Nilsson fan, thanks to this video.

  • amazing

  • Harry is just amazing. That voice!! Sheesh!!

  • there is a new dvd about him sonn to be in stores soon

  • @frecklesdk I heard about the documentary about him and can't wait to see it!

  • @frecklesdk Thanks for the info, i've been waiting for word about the DVD release!

  • classic

    

  • TERRIFIC

  • Harry Nilsson has fallen into the catagory of "forgotten super-star". It's funny how some artists are remembered forever and others just vanish

  • I havent forgot as a matter of a fact i try to listen to him every day

  • Great comments by all. Read the wikipedia article on him, tragic. Why is it such talented people always leave us to soon? Even when his songs were being recorded by the yardbirds & fred astaire he continued to work the night shift at a bank!! Amazing.

  • I bought all the Nilsson reissues after 'Remember Christmas' and 'The Puppy Song' were used in 'You've Got Mail'. There was a girl who lived next door to us who was a fan of his and she had a cat named Schmillson!

  • One of Nilsson's most overlooked albums (but maybe one of his very best) is "Knnillssonn", which was released in 1977. By that time, his beautiful feathered voice became a little rough and he lost some of the falsetto that was a kind of trademark, but the album contains 10 wonderful tracks, most notably "All I think about is you", "Lean on me", "Who done it?", and the gorgeous "Perfect Day". Without promotion by RCA and the ever-changing music scene, this album went pretty much unnoticed.

  • he sounds like a harmonica at 4:48

  • holy drug abuse batman!

  • Whoa.

  • wikipedia: 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 and drug use than it did for musical collaboration. In a widely publicized incident, they were ejected from the Troubadour nightclub in West Hollywood for drunken heckling of the Smothers Brothers.

    Way to pay back the Smothers Brothers. Kinda funny, though!

  • HARRY IS THE BEST OF THE BEST !!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Harry Rules.....I have been a fan for over 25 years and anything i can find on youtube helps keep his memory alive.....RIP Harry

  • Neat. A performance with a songwriting seminar thrown in the middle.

  • Syncroincity, we listened to "The Point" too. Wore out our copy of it. His voice conveys something so beautiful that our souls can't help but love him. He may have had his drinking problem. But that was his life. He gave us a gift that nobody else could give. I'm grateful for the time he was here.

  • this has made my day

  • POLI HIIIIIIIIGH POLI HIIIIIIIIGH

  • "Think About Your Troubles" ended up as part of "The Point"... I grew up listening to that album and damn near wore it out. Nice to hear it here in the raw.

  • great video, its a real pleasure to see footage of nilsson way before my time

  • thank you so, so much for posting this!

  • lovvvvvvvvee eeuuuuuu haryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy­yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

  • Actually,I think he had some sort of congenital heart disease......

  • What a rare and creative talent, I love that he is just a step off the norm, but so much fun.

  • nice little insight into harry's cleverness.

    Great post.

  • you dont get to be good friends with keith moon, john lennon, alice cooper and more if you aint a genius on the precipice like nilsson. magical

  • Harry Nilsson was the king of melody and voice, none in all these years I have listend to music comes nere this wonderfull lunatic

  • my god, the way he controls his voice. fantastic! I guess there're about 5 people on earth who can sing like that.. but none of them also songwrites.

  • Yeah. Nilsson was the schmilssonist. NOBODY could schmilsson like Nilsson. Remember, One Spaceman Can't Live without the Coconut.

    Why do so many of the talentedest die so young, and yet the a-holes live so long?

  • Well, to answer your question, drugs and drinking

  • @geojoey15

    Being talented doesn't doesn't mean you aren't an asshole. Harry died young because he was an out of control alcoholic. If he'd sought treatment, he'd have been around a lot longer than he was.

  • @agopo He is one of the only singers that just break my heart! I think Freddie Mercury does it too. But, Harry just slays me!! AND, I love him for it.

  • A QUIRKY MUSICAL GENIUS

  • This man is my all time favorite songwriter. When the Beatles were asked what band was their biggest influence, they replied simply, Harry Nilsson. You can totally hear Harry's influence in the Beatles music. I love the Beatles too of course.RIP Harry.

  • 1:25 fuckin eh doggie! Fuckin eh!

  • @ryanclock85 And he seems to do all of it in a single breath. Look at Tommy looking at him, and you can tell he's in awe. I am, too.

  • What a sweet voice he had!

  • How did Harry die?

  • Heart attack, Age 53. Mostly due to his years of hard drinking and diabetes.

  • It took me years to understand the title of the album "Duit En Mon Dei." Nobody like him!

  • Harry was so talented!!

  • That's actually an understatement.

    Awesome vocal range, awesome songwriter.

    John Lennon's favorite.

  • Harry Nilsson is so fantastic... :D

  • Nilsson died in 1994 right after recording the vocal tracks to a still unreleased album i believe title was "Papa's Got A Brown New Robe"..don't know the circumstances of why it was never released..something with the family..there was enough material...maybe someday it'll come out..definitely should be in the Hall Of Fame but I don't think Harry would've cared either way....Long Live Nilsson

  • Harry should be in the Rock&Roll hall of Fame. Great video

  • its funny because he and lennon got kicked out of a club for hecking the smothers brothers

  • didn't harry die a few years back?

  • try 20 years ago

  • really, didn't know it had been that long ago..thanks

  • back in the way back 1970s I was pals with Harry's sister loraine. Don't even know if that's how you spell it. But she was fun to run with. I wonder where she is today??

  • that poli high song is fantastic

  • this was a real treat . ty

  • Now that's singing.

  • I miss you, Harry... I've been listening since the 1960s. I guess we're all getting old. Your music made me smile, cry(Without You is a difficult divorce song!), laugh. Wish you had lived longer. I was surprised you were a neighbor of mine in Yorba Linda, CA!

  • Amazing ... wow ... thank you for posting. I am a long time fan. This is why.

  • Harry Nilsson had the voice of an Angel......WOW!

  • and had fabulous tunes too.

  • Harry sang like a fucking bird =]

    and such great writing!

  • Loved seeing this video, had never seen such a young Harry. Would love to see a video of him doing Baby I'm Yours from the That's the way it is album ... lost my album over the years of moving .. and it's out of print now.

  • That's the way it is" may be out of print, but I must suggest that you down load the mp3 of the album from amazon or any other place of your choosing. Must not go without enjoying the various stages of Harrys brilliance!

  • Wow his extended notes at the end of I Guess The Lord Must Be In NYC are amazing.

  • i agree its like holy crap!

  • @twinoak170 That's because Harry WAS amazing...and VERY underrated.

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  • sends shivers, stunningly good

  • could not agree more. i watch this thing weekly for years now. moves me.

  • If there's a better live performance than Harry singing "Think About Your Troubles" here, I can't think of what it is. Sublime, perfect, without peer.

  • I wrote a comment about a year ago, and I just wanna say I'm still enjoying this video. So beautiful. Thanks for this.

  • Absolutely precious. heard Nickel Creek cover "Think About Your Troubles" a couple of years ago....made me cry.....miss Harry

  • Harry had a rainbow of a voice as a younger artist and even when he lost some of his register the way he ploughed his own furrow regardless of commercial success meant he remained his own man always. I miss your music Harry.

  • I noticed he tended to have a really interesting tremulo on some of his stronger notes too - really nice.

  • Tommy has a lovely voice, don't he? I wish he had kept singing.

  • I wish he hadn't started singing. Would've left more room for Harry. You smell bad.

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  • Nilsson was a gift...truly great singer. I love when he hits that high note in "New York City" and Smothers gives that amazed look.

  • Looking for "Little Cowboy, put your saddle in the barn. Also was that first song related to the "Moonbeam" song? What a slice of bliss...thnak you. RIP Harry.

  • little cowboy was the 1st nilsson song i ever heard. my mom sang it for me when i was a baby.

  • The Bubble Song, Polly High, and The Moonbeam Song were all from "The Point". The Point, I believe, was a collaboration of Harry Nillson and Ringo Star. About the 'Pointless Oblio'. It's one of my all time favorite albums. And was also a cartoon movie. Harry Nillson had the most beautiful voice I ever heard. He was also an incredible song writer. I feel he should be given a Grammy (postumously of course).

  • My appologies. The Moonbeam song was from Nilsson Schmilsson. I also appologize for spelling Nilsson wrong.

  • wat is the last song

  • one (is the loneliest number)

  • Thank you for giving me a smile today.

  • he never lost the Brooklyn accent to a degree. I too am from Bushwick.

  • A lesson in song writing from above. How good is this? Timeless.

    Fab post. Thanks

  • An ex-girlfriend showed me Nilsson about 10 years ago. I knew little beyond Everyone's Talkin or Jump Into the Fire at that point (was nearly murdered due to lack of knowledge of him). Even though the relationship ended badly, he's still an absolute favorite.

  • nilsson is one class act

  • John Lennon and Harry Nilsson in a club(Troubador) in 1974 yelled "Fuck the Smothers Brothers!" Does anybody know why?

  • because they were drunk off their asses, thats why. lennon also put a tampon on his head and hassled a waitress and they were both thrown out on the sidewalk by the bouncer. which is just my longwinded way of saying that they probably didn't mean what they were saying. they were just being drunken jerks, which is lame..but forgivable. by the way, this is a beautiful clip. Think about your troubles is one of my favorite Nilsson songs. thanks for posting this lucyhuto.

  • Actually, it was a kotex, not a tampon that Lennon had stuck to his head. Let's get our feminine hygiene headgear correct, shall we?