Bloggerhythms

I probably should have paid more attention to the late Harry Nilsson a long time ago because he was one of the more eclectic artists to ever establish himself on the pop and rock music scene. If you're like me and have mostly known Nilsson through his songs that were played on the radio a great introduction to his work is All Time Greatest Hits , a five-star compilation by the dynamic composer and singer.   If you never dig deeply into his catalog, this twenty-song release is a must have. Nilsson had eight top 40 hits, most notably "Everybody's Talkin'" (#6 on the Hot 100) in 1969 and " Without You ," a Badfinger composition he covered in 1972 for his only #1 single. Even if you're not a fan of Nilsson's music, what's indisputable is how wide-ranging his records were. When I listen to this collection I immediately think of The Beatles'  White Album , a set where they jumped from genre to genre over the ...

Once in awhile a piece of music sounds so generic that you wonder what someone else hears in it but that's what makes some people musicians while millions of us without talent work in cubicles. They hear things in songs we never will. One of those blessed with such talent was the late Harry Nilsson who obviously heard something in Badfinger's "Without You" that no one else did, not even the song's composers. The troubled British quartet released the original version of "Without You," written by the band's Tom Evans and Pete Ham, for their 1970 album, No Dice . However, their arrangement of this soon-to-be massive 1972 hit for Nilsson never got noticed by the public and it was destined to be just another deep track from a classic album.  Even Ham and Evans believed it was nothing more than album filler. Badfinger's recording is quite thin when compared to Nilsson's more melodramatic take that appeared on his 1971 Nilsson Schmilsson LP....