Harry Nilsson was a great American songwriter who died in 1994, the year I first started playing music. Best known as a singer of hits written by others (Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'," Badfinger's "Without You"), or a writer of songs made popular by others ("One" by Three Dog Night and Aimee Mann, "Daddy's Song" and "Cuddly Toy" by The Monkees), Nilsson was a woefully underappreciated recording artist in his own right, who made almost 20 solo records in a 15-year career. Not all of them are great, but even the sketchy ones are full of impressive arrangements, daring performances, and exciting ideas. In 1969, he used his notoriety to champion the work of a then-unknown songwriter named Randy Newman. The resulting record, entitled Nilsson Sings Newman, is really great, and not just because its title provided at least 75% of the inspiration for this project. The MP3s posted here are very simple piano demos (played by Rob Knop, and recorded by Johnny Sangster—gentlemen both). The record proper, which is being produced by the great Steve Fisk, should be a good deal more elaborate.

MP3 demos

• Gotta Get Up
• Daddy's Song
• Miss Butter's Lament

Other Harry Links

• Home page of sorts
• Amazing resource for MP3s (if you can use Soulseek, that is)