Editing Harry Nilsson (section)

===1969–1972: Chart success===
[[File:Without You by Harry Nilsson Side-A US vinyl.png|thumb|"Without You" from ''[[Nilsson Schmilsson]]'' 1971]]
Nilsson's next album, ''[[Harry (album)|Harry]]'' (1969), was his first to hit the charts, and also provided a Top 40 single with "[[I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City]]" (written as a contender for the theme to ''[[Midnight Cowboy]]''), used in the [[Sophia Loren]] movie ''[[Lady Liberty (film)|La Mortadella]]'' (1971) (US title: ''Lady Liberty''). While the album still presented Nilsson as primarily a songwriter, his astute choice of cover material included, this time, a song by then-little-known composer [[Randy Newman]], "[[Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear]]".

Nilsson was so impressed with Newman's talent that he devoted his entire next album to Newman compositions, with Newman himself playing piano behind Nilsson's multi-tracked vocals.<ref name="Eden" /> The result, ''[[Nilsson Sings Newman]]'' (1970), was commercially disappointing but was named Record of the Year by ''[[Stereo Review]]'' magazine and provided momentum to Newman's career.<ref name="Eden" />

The self-produced ''Nilsson Sings Newman'' also marked the end of his collaboration with RCA staff producer Rick Jarrard, who recounted in the documentary ''Who is Harry Nilsson?'' that the partnership was terminated by a telegram from Nilsson, who abruptly informed Jarrard that he wanted to work with other producers, and the two never met or spoke again. Jarrard states in the documentary that he never found out why Nilsson had decided to terminate their professional relationship.<ref name="Who is" />

Nilsson's next project was an animated film, ''[[The Point!]]'', created with animation director [[Fred Wolf (animator)|Fred Wolf]], and broadcast on ABC television on February 2, 1971, as an "[[ABC Movie of the Week]]". Nilsson's self-produced album of songs from ''The Point!'' was well received and it spawned a top 40 single, "[[Me and My Arrow]]".{{sfn|Shipton|2013|pp=108–124}}

Later that year, Nilsson went to England with producer [[Richard Perry]] to record what became the most successful album of his career, ''[[Nilsson Schmilsson]]'', which yielded three stylistically different hit singles. The first was a cover of [[Badfinger]]'s song [[Without You (Badfinger song)#Harry Nilsson version|"Without You]]" (by British songwriters [[Pete Ham]] and [[Tom Evans (musician)|Tom Evans]]), featuring a highly emotional arrangement and soaring vocals to match – recorded, according to Perry, in a single take. It was alleged, by Harry himself, that, upon hitting the highest note of the song, he burst a large haemorrhoid.<ref name="Who is" /> The performance earned him his second Grammy Award.<ref name="NYT" />

The second single was "[[Coconut (song)|Coconut]]", a novelty [[Calypso music|calypso]] number featuring four characters (the narrator, the brother, the sister, and the doctor) all sung (at Perry's suggestion) in different voices by Nilsson.{{sfn|Shipton|2013|pp=125–127}} The song is best remembered for its chorus lyric ("Put de lime in de coconut, and drink 'em both up"). Also notable is that the entire song is played using one chord, C7.<ref name="Perone2012">{{cite book|last=Perone|first=James E.|title=The Album: A Guide to Pop Music's Most Provocative, Influential, and Important Creations &#91;4 volumes&#93;|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gzl1lBFXKhQC&pg=RA2-PT456|volume=2|year=2012|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-37907-9|pages=163–165}}</ref> 
The third single, "[[Jump into the Fire]]", was raucous rock and roll, including a drum solo by [[Derek and the Dominos]]' [[Jim Gordon (musician)|Jim Gordon]] and a detuned bass part by [[Herbie Flowers]].<ref name="Perone2012" />

Nilsson followed quickly with ''[[Son of Schmilsson]]'' (1972), released while its predecessor was still on the charts. Besides the problem of competing with himself, Nilsson was by then ignoring most of Perry's production advice,<ref name="Who is" /> and his decision to give free rein to his bawdiness and bluntness on this release alienated some of his earlier, more conservative fan base. With lyrics like "I sang my balls off for you, baby", "Roll the world over / And give her a kiss and a feel", and the notorious "[[You're breakin' my heart]] / You're tearin' it apart / So fuck you" (a reference to his ongoing divorce), Nilsson had traveled far afield from his earlier work. The album nevertheless reached No. 12 on the [[Billboard 200|''Billboard'' 200]], and the single "Spaceman" was a Top 40 hit in October 1972. The follow-up single "Remember (Christmas)", however, stalled at No. 53. A third single, the tongue-in-cheek [[Country music|C&W]] send up "Joy", was issued on RCA's country imprint Green and credited to Buck Earle, but it failed to chart.<ref name="Who is" />

Nilsson was known as a "singer-composer who is heard but not seen", as he did not perform in concerts or shows. Prior to agreeing to be featured on an episode of director and producer's [[Stanley Dorfman]]'s ''[[In Concert (BBC TV series)|In Concert]]'' series for the BBC, Nilsson had appeared only once, for a few moments, on television in Britain and once in America.<ref>{{Cite web |orig-date=January 1, 1972 |title=Harry Nilsson First Show |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/760587047 |url-access=subscription |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2023-06-05 |website= |publisher=The Evening Post |page=3 |language=en}}</ref> Nilsson's record producer, [[Richard Perry]], referenced his lack of live performing in the book 'The Record Producers' by [[BBC Books]], saying "He did do the In Concert series on BBC television with Stanley Dorfman, which was very popular at the time. His show was very interesting and innovative with a lot of new technology, multiple images and things like that, but I think any artist, with very few exceptions and none that I can really think of, can immeasurably enhance his career by appearing in front of the public. At some point, the public needs to reach out and touch the artist, experience and feel them in person.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Richard Perry |url-access=subscription |first1=John |last1=Tobler |first2=Stuart |last2=Grundy |work=The Record Producers |publisher=BBC Books |date=1982 |url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/richard-perry |access-date=2023-06-08 |via=Rock's Backpages }}</ref>