Harry Nilsson

Born in Brooklyn in 1941, he fled west as a teenager and wrote songs while programming computers at a bank until RCA signed him in 1967. Between 1968 and 1974 he landed nine top 40 singles, including "Everybody's Talkin'" and "Without You", and moved two gold albums without ever touring — a trick almost no one else pulled off. The early seventies brought John Lennon into his circle, along with Ringo Starr and the Hollywood Vampires drinking club, and his voice started to fray after the standards album that came a decade too early. He called himself retired after the Popeye soundtrack, then tur…