Everybody’s Talkin’ – Nilsson | Top 40 Chart Performance, Story and Song Meaning
Chart Performance: Pop (#6) and Adult Contemporary (#2); 1969
Story Behind The Song By Ed Osborne
After Brooklyn-born Harry Nilsson’s family moved to Southern California, Harry immersed himself in the music scene, writing and hawking his own compositions. His career went nowhere until legendary producer Phil Spector picked up a couple of Harry’s tunes for The Ronettes.
Soon, Harry’s name was showing up in the songwriter credits of numerous hit acts. When The Beatles, John Lennon in particular, publicly applauded Harry’s own Pandemonium Shadow Show (1967), Harry’s star was on the rise. Aerial Ballet, with Talkin’, followed.
Ironically, for such a prolific songwriter, Everybody’s Talkin’ was penned by Fred Neil, a seminal figure in the mid-1960’s Greenwich Village scene. Talkin’s inclusion in the Dustin Hoffman/Jon Voigt film, Midnight Cowboy, gave it a significant boost, while Harry’s own song for the movie was rejected by the producers.
Riding high on Talkin’, Harry released his Midnight Cowboy offering – I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City – as the follow-up single.
This content and all Song Meaning articles were created and written by Top 40 Contributing Editor Ed Osborne. © 2024 Ed Osborne. All Rights Reserved. In addition to these song meaning articles, Ed has written our “Year in Music 1960s-1990s” articles.
Produced by:
- Rick Jarrard
Lyrics Written by:
- Fred Neil
Ed Osborne
Hi. I got my first record at age two and never looked back, spending a decades-long career in radio and the music business. Even after years of reading about and listening to all types of music, I am still fascinated by it. Apart from that, I’m endlessly intrigued by art, nature, and the inner lives of people (and dogs).