THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

39-Nilsson-Without You.

1972-Number 1 single.

Best Bit-At 1.08. Paul McCartney has described this song as ‘The killer song of all time.’

‘Without You’ was co-written by Pete Ham, (1947-1975) and Tom Evans, (1947-1983) both were members of the British Rock group ‘Badfinger,’ who recorded the original version of the song for their third studio Album ‘No Dice’ from 1970, with the production being handled by Geoff Emerick, (1945-2018) (see also best songs 2) who has worked on some of the Beatles classic 1960’s Albums.

Pete Ham and Tom Evans were both part of the quintet ‘Badfinger,’ who were the first band signed to the Beatles (see also best songs 599-319-238-218-141-80-51-10 and 5) record label ‘Apple’ records in 1968, they remained active until the death of Ham in 1975, but regrouped in 1978, with the final parting happening in 1990. It was Neil Aspinall of the ‘Apple Corporation’ who suggested the bands name ‘Badfinger,’ in reference to ‘Bad Finger Boogie,’ an early working title of Lennon–McCartney’s ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’, as Lennon had hurt his forefinger on a piano, and was using only one finger at that time, although George Harrison (1943-2001) (see also best songs 737 and 726) would later state that the band was named after ‘Helga Fabdinger’, a stripper the Beatles had known in Hamburg.

Pete Ham had written a song called ‘Is This Love,’ but he was struggling to find a chorus, meanwhile Evans had the lyrics,’I can’t live if living is without you,’ but he had no verses, they put their heads together and came up with ‘Without You.’ The lives of both Pete Ham, and Tom Evans both ended tragically. Ham committed suicide by hanging himself on April 24th, 1975, after believing that Badfinger’s business manager Stan Polley (1922-2009) has swindled him and the band, wiping out all of their finances, Ham was 27 years old. On November 19th, 1983 Tom Evans also committed suicide by hanging, he was 36 years old. Evans had been in a heated dispute with his former Badfinger bandmate Joey Moland the previous evening over the royalties for the song ‘Without You.’

Harry Edward Nilsson (1941-1994) (see also best songs 388) was born on June 15th, 1941, in Brooklyn, New York, United States, he was born with congenital heart problems, and survived a heart attack in February 1993, but finally succumbed to heart failure, and died on January 15th, 1994, at the age of 52. The discography of Harry Nilsson includes 15 studio Albums released between 1966-2019, and 49 singles issued between 1964-1984. In America on the Billboard Hot 100 top 40 singles he has charted on eight occasions, with this song being his only chart topper, while in the UK he has made the top 40 twice, with ‘Without You’ reaching Number 1.

When Harry Nilsson first heard ‘Without You’ he thought it was a Beatles song, but after realising that it wasn’t he decided to cover it for his seventh studio Album ‘Nilsson Schmilsson,’ from 1971. The song was produced by Richard Perry who would go on to work with other artists including Barbra Streisand, (‘Stoney End’ 1971) Carly Simon, (‘No Secrets’ 1972) and Ringo Starr (‘Ringo,’ 1973) Perry is also credited with helping to craft the Rod Stewart Albums in the ‘Great American Songbook’ series (but we wont hold that against him.)

In 1994 the American singer Mariah Carey (see also best songs 822) recorded ‘Without You’ for her third studio Album ‘Music Box,’ the song reached Number 2 on Billboard, and in the UK, it gave her, her first Number 1 song on that chart. Mariah has said,’I used to love the song ‘Without You’ when I was a little girl, and I remember that it always made me cry and I always thought it was such a beautiful song. I heard it again when I was in a restaurant, they had it playing over the muzak, and I was like, ‘I love this song, this is such a great song, I haven’t heard it in so long,’ and I just decided that I wanted to cover it, so we did it, and I just think it’s an incredible song, it’s a beautiful song.’

‘No, I can’t forget tomorrow when I think of all my sorrow and I had you there, but then I let you go. And now its only fair that I should let you know, what you should know.’