Is Harry Nilsson hit ‘Without You’ one of the most cursed songs in music history?
The first time Harry Nilsson heard ‘Without You’, he thought it was a song by The Beatles. Encountering the sounds he would soon come to hate with the fervour of someone who knew the kind of artist he wanted to be, Nilsson’s disdain for the song is difficult not to view as some prophecy about its future and how it destroyed the lives of many around him.
Nilsson wasn’t the usual person to frequent Laurel Canyon parties. For one, he seemed more reserved than others, but in a way that exuded a sort of quiet confidence about his personality and artistic intention. He was reclusive in many ways, but he was also sociable and outgoing when it counted, though only in ways that suited him or felt most natural at the time.
Coming across ‘Without You’ for the first time gave him everything he needed to know about a track that would soon fall into his lap, sparking an unwavering frustration and overarching feeling that this song wasn’t meant for him. It wasn’t a hunch; it was something he believed deep in his bones, knowing that the kind of music he usually wrote and performed wasn’t just different; it was an entirely separate universe and something he never felt the need to entertain.
After all, this sweeping love ballad carried an overt emotional weight that wasn’t usually his game, as he usually favoured more subtle wit and charisma in unpredictable ways to test the balance between satire and authenticity. Nilsson was a masterclass in intricacy, and even when he tried to change the arrangements of ‘Without You’ to make it feel more like him, something about it never really felt entirely right.
Perhaps this instinct served as a broader hint at what was to come and how, from the moment he heard the song in Laurel Canyon, he couldn’t shake the haunt of its own commercial mundanity. Nilsson and his producer, Richard Perry, had several disagreements about the song, culminating in one almost relationship-ending tiff while attempting to establish common ground at the Dorchester Hotel, but the negative ramifications of the song would continue long after its release in ways not even Nilsson could have predicted.
The song initially belonged to Badfinger, and while Nilsson’s version brought a lot of attention to the track, its writers, Peter Ham and Tom Evans, would suffer significant financial setbacks after the label Apple Records collapsed in 1973. Overwhelmed by the financial and legal difficulties and the toll it had on his mental health, Ham hanged himself in 1975. Under a decade later, Evans did the same, hanging himself after an argument with Badfinger guitarist Joey Molland about the royalties for ‘Without You’.
As for Nilsson, the success barely yielded any benefits, and the stress and pressure enhanced his burgeoning alcoholism, triggering a downfall which he would never recover from. After years of alcohol abuse and mental health struggles, Nilsson suffered from a heart attack in 1993 before dying of heart failure in 1994. Although he was born with congenital heart problems, adjusting to fame proved strenuous, exacerbating his already fragile health.
While ‘Without You’ no doubt enhanced Nilsson’s legacy, the impact of going through with the single not only went against his artistic ethos but sparked a domino effect of professional consequences that would shadow him—and many others—for the rest of his life. It was guaranteed commercial success from the outset, of course, but it came at the cost of Nilsson’s freedom and, ultimately, his health and alienation from the industry.
