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A stroke of luck enables Harry Nilsson to give up his day job and focus on becoming a singer-songwriter. Biography read by Kerry Shale.

Paul McCartney and John Lennon described him as the Beatles' "favorite group," and yet no figure in popular music is as much of a paradox as Harry Nilsson. A major celebrity at a time when stadium rock was in its infancy and huge concerts and festivals were becoming the norm, Nilsson's instrument was the studio, his stage the dubbing booth, his greatest technical triumphs were masterful examples of studio craft, and he studiously avoided live performance.

He was a gifted composer of songs for a wide variety of performers, having created vivid flights of imagination for the Ronettes, the Yardbirds and the Monkees, yet Nilsson's own biggest hits were almost all written, ironically, by other composers and lyricists. He won two Grammies, had two top ten singles, and numerous album successes. Once described by his producer Richard Perry as "the finest white male singer on the planet," near the end of his life, his career was marked by voice-damaging substance abuse.

Kerry Shale reads extracts from this first ever full-length biography of Nilsson, in which author Alyn Shipton traces Nilsson's life from his Brooklyn childhood to his Los Angeles adolescence, and charts his gradual move into the spotlight as a talented songwriter. With interviews from Nilsson's friends, family and associates, and material drawn from an unfinished draft autobiography Nilsson was writing prior to his death, Shipton probes beneath the enigma and the paradox to discover the real Harry Nilsson, and reveals one of the most creative talents in 20th century popular music.

Read by Kerry Shale

NILSSON: THE LIFE OF A SINGER-SONGWRITER
BY ALYN SHIPTON

Abridged by Libby Spurrier
PRODUCER: JOANNA GREEN
A Pier production for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4.

15 minutes

Credits

Role Contributor
Reader Kerry Shale
Producer Joanna Green
Abridger Libby Spurrier
Author Alyn Shipton

Broadcasts

  • Tue 27 Aug 2013 09:45
  • Wed 28 Aug 2013 00:30
  • Tue 21 Aug 2018 14:45
  • Wed 22 Aug 2018 02:45

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