ALBUM: ‘Aerial Ballet’ (1980, reissue of 1968 album)
MVC Rating: 4.0/ $$
Harry Nilsson won a Grammy for Best Contemporary male vocalist for the song ‘Everybody Talking at Me.’ The song by Fred Neil is a strong Top 40 ballad used in the controversial (at that time) movie ‘Midnight Cowboy.’
The song feels a little like something Glenn Campbell or Joe South might have done. The other highlight, a song Nilsson wrote, is ‘One.’ I feel like I’m the only one who likes prefers the Three Dog Nights’ version.
Nilsson had a strong voice and was a good songwriter. One also might expect he would be a little more well known. After all this is the man who gave us that classic ‘Coconut’ remedy (Put the lime in the coconut drink it all up — Not on this album.)
I think Nilsson also did the definitive version of ‘Without You,’ the Bad finger song.
A few songs have Beatlesque overtones. Nilsson was a drinking buddy of John Lennon when Lennon temporarily broke up with Yoko Ono. They were wild then.