History Music / HarryNilsson

** He wrote and recorded an original Christmas song called "Give, Love, Joy" for the ''[[{{ComicStrip/Ziggy}} Ziggy's Gift]]'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBLWCsI4ig8 TV special]] in 1982. Six years later he contributed a few brief cover versions of holiday standards to an [[http://www.nilssonschmilsson.com/page-the-presence-of-christmas-dove-cd.html audiobook anthology]] of various stories called ''[[PunBasedTitle The Presence of Christmas]]''. It's ultra-rare and those who've heard it don't have much good to say about it. One Amazon.com review calls it "so bad it's almost embarrassing".

And all I have to do is [[RhymesWithItself rhyme well]]

* FootballFightSong: It's [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams Major League Baseball]] instead of football, but "Yo Dodger Blue" ("L.A. loves you!") on ''Losst and Found'' is otherwise a perfect example

* SelfPlagiarism: His version of "I Don't Need You" (not the original, but released before the Music/KennyRogers version) has an arrangement that blatantly copies "Without You".

* LongTitle: "Nobody Cares About the Railroads Anymore", "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City", "Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear"... all on the same album, even!

* TheirFirstTime: His early song "This Could Be The Night", recorded by The Modern Folk Quartet in 1966 (but never formally recorded by Nilsson, save for a demo he did for Music/TheMonkees, at the behest of their producer Chip Douglas, who'd been a member of The Modern Folk Quartet), is unabashedly sung from the point of view of teen boy who's certain that his girlfriend is going to finally have sex with him.

** Then there's the odd case of "Marry Me a Little". After it was cut from the original run of ''[[Theatre/CompanySondheim Company]]'', Music/StephenSondheim arranged for Nilsson to record it so he could give a copy to Judy Prince, the wife of producer Harold Prince, who'd loved the song, as a Christmas present (Nilsson even sings "Merry Christmas, Judy. Have a Happy New Year too" at the end). Despite the obviously limited quantity of the recording, a dub of the acetate eventually circulated among Nilsson fans, and a version taken from the master tapes finally got an official release in the ''RCA Albums Collection'' BoxedSet in 2013. The consensus opinion is that it's [[BetterThanCanon just as good as what Nilsson was releasing publicly]] at the time, and if he'd given it a wide release it might've been a career highlight for both him and Sondheim.

* WelcomeToTheCaribbeanMon: A surprising number of his songs have a Caribbean feel, even if the lyrics don't reflect it. "Coconut" is the most famous, but the albums ''Duit on Mon Dei'' and ''Sandman'' prominently feature steel drums and marimbas in their instrumental mixes. He also later covered the calypso standard "Zombie Jamboree".

** His two biggest hits were covers. And pretty obviously, ''Nilsson Sings Newman'' is nothing covers of Music/RandyNewman songs.

* OneWordTitle: "One", often [[RefrainFromAssuming referred to as]] "One Is the Loneliest Number" instead.

* WhiteDwarfStarlet: The subject of "Mr. Richland's Favorite Song".

* StatuesqueStunner: "Jesus Christ You're Tall"

* DeadArtistsAreBetter: Nilsson's death didn't get much notice beyond the standard celebrity obituaries in 1994[[note]]It didn't help that a 6.7 earthquake hit the LA area two days later, dominating news coverage. The joke among his friends was that it was actually Harry throwing a fit after learning there were no bars in Heaven.[[/note]]. Understandable, since he hadn't released an album in over 13 years. At that point he was mainly remembered for a handful of hits and as Music/JohnLennon's "Lost Weekend" drinking buddy. Since then a confluence of factors helped rejuvenate his reputation: several Nilsson songs featured prominently in movies, a small but enthusiastic fandom, websites devoted to his work, a well-executed remaster and reissue campaign by Creator/RCARecords, the acclaimed documentary ''Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why is Everybody Talkin' About Him?)'' and biography ''Nilsson: The Life of a Singer-Songwriter'' by Alyn Shipton, plus the enduring popularity of ''WesternAnimation/ThePoint''.

** Even worse, his mother tried to protect his feelings by telling him that his father died heroically in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. After gaining notice as a singer, he learned that his dad was alive and well and was remarried with children.

* WeUsedToBeFriends: George Aliceson Tipton was Nilsson's arranger up until ''Nilsson Schmilsson'', when he abruptly quit after recording just one song, and they never worked together again. More than just an arranger, though, Tipton was a musical mentor and cohort for Nilsson. Tipton even financed some early Nilsson recording sessions out of his own pocket. More than one person has compared the Nilsson/Tipton partnership to George Martin and Music/TheBeatles. Up to his death in 2016 Tipton steadfastly refused to discuss his work with Nilsson or why they split up. The best guess is that there was some dispute over credits and money, plus Nilsson's increasingly dissolute lifestyle making him harder to work with.

* WordSchmord: This should be pretty obvious by now.

* LyricalDissonance: "Marchin' Down Broadway" is a super-cheery number about... celebrating America's victory over Japan in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
** The bouncy and wholesome-sounding "Cuddly Toy" was an obvious choice for Davy Jones to sing when Music/TheMonkees covered it on ''Music/PiscesAquariusCapricornAndJonesLtd''. As for the lyrics, they're vague enough to be interpreted in different ways (some quite sinister), but they're plainly about some sort of unwholesome sexual encounter.