Hear Harry Nilsson’s isolated vocals on ‘Without You’
Harry Nilsson emerged from the 1960s as one of America’s most celebrated solo talents. His work spanned from beautiful balladry to experimental production antics, but the one salient presence was his powerful tenor vocals that never failed to raise the nape hairs.
Nilsson became an international sensation in 1968 when his cover of Fred Neil’s 1966 hit ‘Everybody’s Talkin’ (Echoes)’ was recorded for the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack. He consolidated this success with his first charting album, Harry, in 1969 and entered the 1970s with songwriters and labels hurling pens at him, left, right and centre.
The peak of Nilsson’s career came in 1971 with the release of his masterpiece seventh studio album, Nilsson Schmilsson. The timeless release included some of his most memorable original hits like ‘Jump into the Fire’ ‘Gotta Get Up’ and ‘Coconut’, but the jewel to the album’s crown was another cover. This time, Nilsson offered his atomic vocals to Badfinger’s ‘Without You’.
The song was credited to Badfinger band members Peter Ham and Tom Evans, who released their version in 1970. The original wasn’t released as a single and passed most people by, but fortunately, Nilsson stumbled across the track at a Laurel Canyon party in 1971, under the initial assumption that it was a Beatles hit.
Fortunately, Badfinger were signed to The Beatles’ Apple Records label at the time, so when Nilsson sent his demo cover to the label’s former head of publicity, Derek Taylor, it ended up in the right hands. The early version Nilsson submitted was somewhat understated, so producer Richard Perry persuaded Nilsson to re-record the song, this time with violent, heart-tugging delivery.
In a 2008 interview with Mojo, Perry remembers having to “force him [Nilsson] to take a shot with the rhythm section. Even while we were doing it, he’d be saying to the musicians, ‘This song’s awful.’”
Following the song’s release and seismic chart performance, rumours circulated that Nilsson’s strained, explosive delivery ruined his voice, forcing his career to the sidelines by the late 1970s. Such claims are false; in reality, Nilsson’s voice took its downward turn in the mid-1970s when, after years of compounding alcoholism and substance abuse, he and John Lennon entered a drunken screaming battle during the late Beatle’s famed “Lost Weekend” between 1973-75.
Alas, the recording of Nilsson’s ‘Without You’ did allegedly cause issues at the other end of his anatomy. According to Taylor, the laboured recording of the classic ballad left Nilsson with a temporary case of haemorrhoids. “They wanted to get more power, more power in the top notes, so they went away with it and did what was necessary,” Taylor said. “Harry burst into terrifically unpleasant haemorrhoids on that top note. Whenever I hear it I always think of haemorrhoids. It somehow doesn’t spoil it – though it should.”
Discussing the song on a separate occasion, however, Nilsson himself implied that he narrowly escaped the haemorrhoids. “I tried it in one key and nearly got haemorrhoids singing it,” he said (via Dan Matovina’s Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger). “So we changed that and decided that the keyboard part was too busy, too complex. So we replaced Rick Wakeman with Gary Wright and he began, just like you hear on the record, very simple. It was just right!”
Listen to Harry Nilsson’s powerful performance through the isolated vocals below.
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