Harry Nilsson (Nelson) was born in New York but raised in Los Angeles. He began as a songwriter in the 1960s and was soon able to make his first solo album, Pandemonium Shadow Show (RCA, 1967). A bitter moralist, Nilsson displayed a bizarre sense of humour (She Sang Hymns Out Of Tune, Cuddly Toy) that was far more original than most folksingers of the era. Unfortunately, he chose to change style, turning to soft rock, and became a pop star with Aerial Ballet (RCA, 1968) and Harry (1969), thanks to Fred Neil's Everybody's Talking and I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City. He began writing music for tv and cinema, for example The Point (1971), and recorded an album of Randy Newman compositions.

Nilsson Schmilsson (1971) catapulted him to the top of the charts with Badfinger's romantic ballad Without You. But the album was a more serious affair, as Nilsson introduced his alter ego, a sardonic drunkard, and adopted a more aggressive sound. The opening diptyc of Gotta Get Up (arranged for accordion, trombone and player piano) and Driving Alone (that toys with a Beatles-ian melody) set the tone for the rest of the collection, swinging between musichall-style comedy (Coconut), fairy-tale atmospheres (Moonbeam Song) and pop grandeur (I'll Never Leave You). The other highlights were the horns-heavy jump blues of Down and especially the tribal garage jam Jump Into The Fire, that crossed Ted Nugent's Amboy Dukes and Van Morrison's Them. His velvety vocals proved to be oddly effective in crafting sheer melodrama.

Son Of Schmilsson (1972) continued the saga, highlighting the anarchic, the enfant terrible, the angry young man in Nilsson. Musically, he sounds more comfortable ripping off the past than inventing the present. The pounding trombone-driven Take 54 harks back to rhythm'n'blues and boogie woogie with the grittier spirit of black performers of the 1950s. You're Breaking My Heart is also a nod to old-fashioned jump blues. His caustic humour peaks with the grotesque choral singalong I'd Rather Be Dead.
The most "modern" number, and the album's standout, Spacemen, is typical Warren Zevon, all martial tempos and pounding instruments; and the cover of At My Front Door is quintessential Elton John. The piano ballad Remember is a pale copy of Without You.

A Little Touch (1973) was merely a set of standards. Son Of Dracula (1974), Duit On Mon Dei (1975), Sandman (1975), That's the Way It Is (1976) and Knnillssonn (1977) ended his career on a very minor note. Nilsson died of a heart attack in 1994 at the age of 52.