Title: Without You
Artist: Harry Nilsson
Year: 1972
Album: Nilsson Schmilsson
Look, I'm just going to admit right up front that I am ignoring The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stadust and the Spiders from Mars and Exile on Main St. and a whole lot of other great music that came out in 1972. It was a great year for music.
And you may think this ballad by Nilsson is sappy and melodramatic and I should probably be featuring "I Saw the Light" by Todd Rundgren or Nick Drake's "Pink Moon." I understand and maybe you're right! But that doesn't make this any less of a great song. It pushes all the right buttons and tugs all the right strings mostly due to Nilsson's amazing vocal performance. I dare you to listen to this and not ball your eyes out at 2:10.
That's really all I have to say. What else is there, really? Okay, a couple of fun facts: 1) the song was written by Pete Ham of Badfinger; 2) Nilsson never performed publicly or toured in support of his records; 3) his grandparents were Swedish circus performers.
See you tomorrow in 1982!
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