Wednesday, November 8, 2017

November 8th

Harry Nilsson begins recording "Everybody's Talkin'" … it won't become known until it is used in the movie "Midnight Cowboy" nearly two years later, at which point it will become a Top Ten Single. 

He first released the track on his 1968 LP "Aerial Ballet" with very little fanfare.  (RCA released it as a single in August of 1968 where it "bubbled under" in Billboard … but reached #51 and #54 respectively in Record World and Cash Box.)  A year later, Beatles' Publicist Derek Taylor suggested the song might make a good theme to the upcoming Dustin Hoffman / Jon Voight flick but Harry wanted them to use one of his OWN compositions, the very similar sounding and crafted "I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City", which he felt was better suited to the film.  Taylor and producers won out … and "Everybody's Talkin'" became the very first major hit for Nilsson, peaking at #6 in the Fall of 1969.