June 15

Harry Edward Nilsson III's Birthday
 
     

Harry Nilsson was an American singer-songwriter whom many of his contemporaries ranked in a class with The Beatles with whom he was  close friends and whom they called their favorite American musician.   Harry was especially close to John and Ringo. In 1974, Harry and John Lennon made news by being thrown out of the Troubadour for heckling a Smothers Brothers performance.  Lennon produced Nilsson's Pussy Cats album.  Ringo was the best man at his third marriage to Una O'Keeffe, the great love of Nilsson's life and with whom he had six children.

 Harry may be best remembered "Everybody's Talkin,'' the theme song for the Academy Award Best Film of the Year Midnight Cowboy (1969) for which he won his first Grammy, and for "Without You" which won him his second Grammy for best male pop vocal in 1972. Harry's success continued as Three Dog Night's recording of his song "One" reached number 5 on the charts and went on to sell more than a million copies.

Another major hit was his second single "Coconut," a novelty calypso number featuring three characters all sung in different voices by Harry. The song is best remembered for its chorus lyric, "Put de lime in de coconut, and drink 'em both up" and was used during the end credits of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992).

Harry was  commissioned to write and perform the theme song "Best Friend" for the ABC TV series The Courtship of Eddie's Father.  Nilsson then joined famed director Robert Altman in Malta where Altman was filming Popeye (1980) starring Robin Williams. where composed and recorded the music and songs for the film. Later that same year, after the tragic murder of John Lennon , Nilsson stopped all songwriting and recording and worked tirelessly for several years to campaign for better gun laws.

In 1990, Harry found himself broke after it was discovered that his financial adviser Cindy Sims had embezzled all the savings he had earned as a recording artist. He went back to work to tirelessly build up a nest egg for his family.  Sadly, Harry's alcoholism and excessive drug use finally caught up with him and, on January 15, 1994, he died of heart failure in his California home. According to his wife Una, they had been watching Enchanted April (2003) on TV, and the last thing he told her before she fell asleep was, "I love you so much."  During Harry's funeral on January 17, aftershocks from the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake were felt as his friends stood around the lowering coffin singing  his song "You're Breaking my Heart" which opens with

  You're breakin' my heart
You're tearing it apart so fuck you		  

To celebrate Harry's birthday, we suggest renting the superb documentary Who is Harry Nilsson? And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him? (2010) and enjoy some Lime Coconut Shrimp which follows Nilsson's advice to "Put de lime in de coconut."
 

Lime Coconut Shrimp

 
Ingredients
 
3 lb large shrimp, shelled and deveined
1/4 cup butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 sprigs parsley, finely chopped
1 tsp cayenne pepper		 1 tsp salt
2 tsp cumin
2 llarge. tomatoes, chopped
3 cups coconut milk
2 TB lime juice
 

Instructions
 
  1. Heat butter in a heavy skillet over moderate heat, and quickly cook the shrimp until they are  golden pink. Remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon.
  2. 'In the same butter, sauté the garlic, onion, parsley and cayenne  for 2-3 minutes. Add the salt, cumin, and tomatoes and cook until the mixture thickens slightly, stirring constantly to avoid burning.
  3. Reduce heat to low, return shrimp to the pan and add the coconut milk and lime juice. Stir until shrimp is heated through.
  4. Served over rice.

Serves 4
 
© 2011 Gordon Nary and Tyler Stokes