So That's Who Wrote the Song

Thanks to Matt for this tip on the song I heard Madeleine Peyroux sing earlier today on the radio. According to Wikipedia, Harry Nilsson released an album in 1968 called "Aerial Ballet, an album that included Nilsson's rendition of Fred Neil's song Everybody's Talkin'. A minor US hit at the time of release (and a top 40 hit in Canada), the song would become extremely popular a year later when it was featured in the film Midnight Cowboy, and it would earn Nilsson his first Grammy Award. It would also become Nilsson's first US top 10 hit, reaching #6, and his first Canadian #1."

Nilsson was an enigmatic and somewhat tragic figure. I recall reading about him in a music magazine. He was a great friend to John Lennon, a creative and sometimes silly songwriter himself ("I sang my balls off for you" is a choice line). Later in life he suffered total financial devastation due to an embezzling associate, worked to ban guns after Lennon was assassinated and died of a heart attack at age 53.