Harry Edward Nilsson III (June 15, 1941 January 15, 1994) was an American songwriter, singer, pianist, and guitarist who achieved the height of his fame during the 1960s and 1970s. For most of his recordings, he did not use his first name, and was credited only as Nilsson.
Despite some significant critical and commercial successes, including two Grammy Awards and two Top 10 singles, Nilsson's tendency to make broad stylistic jumps from one record to the next - coupled with his generally iconoclastic decision-making - kept him from fully capitalizing on his career. Among Nilsson's best-known recordings are "Without You", "Jump into the Fire", "Everybody's Talkin'" (theme from the movie Midnight Cowboy) and "Coconut". "Without You" is a song originally recorded by Badfinger for their album No Dice (1970), and written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans and produced by Geoff Emerick. Its verse was composed by Ham, originally titled "If It's Love", but had lacked a strong chorus. Evans had written a chorus without a strong verse, so the duo fused the two sections together. The protagonist of this ballad lets a lover know that he "can't live if living is without.