A while back I got really mad on hearing Harry Nilsson's lovely and quirky song "He Needs Me" in a shoe commercial and wrote a post where I used the F word a lot. Nilsson was an interesting musician and it was nice hearing "Put the Lime in the Coconut" in a Williamsburg bar recently. "You're breakin' my heart, you're tearing it apart, so fuck you" was also a groundbreaker in its day. Anyway, aspersions were cast on the Nilsson estate over the shoe thing and an anonymous commenter took me to task for it:
regarding your harry nilsson rant... i guess they don't call you moody for nothin'. after harry nilsson's money manager, Cindy Sims, stole everything from him and was sentenced to prison, Harry was forced to try to sell some of his songs for commercials... it doesn't surprise me that his songs are still being used now in commercials... after his fortune was stolen.

harry singing a ban deodorant ad...
Assuming this is true, sorry.

- tom moody 12-01-2004 9:18 am

"they don't call you moody for nothin'". As a semi regular contributor it behooves me to jot that one down and save it for later.
- joester 12-01-2004 9:14 pm


Actually, the Ban Deodorant ad was written and recorded around 1968, long before Nilsson had a fortune to embezzle.
- anonymous (guest) 9-18-2006 7:27 am


The previous anonymous commenter didn't say the Ban commercial was a song Nillson was "forced" to sell. I think that commenter just wanted us to hear it.
- tom moody 9-18-2006 7:37 am


i dont understand what you are saying about the commenter. here is nillsons wiki. note that this guy has always written and sold (really good) songs for a living. did he write the ban song or just singing ? as not mentioned in wiki notes.
- bill 9-18-2006 10:29 pm


Anon. commenter #1 didn't say the Ban song was one of the songs Nilsson sold after he got fleeced. In fact, linking to it rather undercut the argument that Nilsson only sold song rights when he was on the brink of poverty. Or, as you say, was irrelevant, if Nilsson didn't write the Ban song.
- tom moody 9-18-2006 10:38 pm