Fred Neil wrote "Everybody's Talkin'" in five minutes at the end of a recording session in 1966 and recorded it immediately in a single take so he could take off and go back home to Miami. It's a great song and an unlikely standard that he probably never thought much of. It made him millions though after it was used in John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy (sung by Harry Nilsson) and was subsequently covered by at least a hundred other artists. Fred Neil spent the last 25 years of his life in Florida.
Ratso wasn't so lucky.
Download:
"Everybody's Talkin'" mp3
by Fred Neil, 1966.
available on Fred Neil
Download:
"Everybody's Talkin'" mp3
by Harry Nilsson, 1968.
available on Greatest Hits
"Everybody's Talkin'" mp3
by Bill Withers, 1971.
available on Just As I Am
"Everybody's Talkin'" mp3
by The Meat Puppets, 1982
available on Meat Puppets
"Everybody's Talkin'" mp3
by Luna, 1998.
available on Lunafied
"Everybody's Talkin'" mp3
by Bobby Bare, 2005.
available on The Moon Was Blue
"Everybody's Talkin'" mp3
by Madeleine Peyroux, 2006.
available on Half The Perfect World
******************************************
********** >>> BONUS <<< *********** "Bleecker & MacDougal" mp3
by Fred Neil, 1965.
available on Bleecker & MacDougal
"Little Bit Of Rain" mp3
by Fred Neil, 1965.
available on Bleecker & MacDougal
"You Don't Miss Your Water" mp3
by Fred Neil and Gram Parsons, 1971(?)
available on The Many Sides of Fred Neil
more on Fred Neil in the current issue of The Oxford American
on sale now at finer news stands.
everybody's talking at me except you listeners, comments are welcome and encouraged below.
Thanks for the collection of covers. It's an excellent cross-section of the covers of a great song.
ReplyDeleteJust to expand a bit on the Nilsson connection. Harry covered the song in 1968 for his Aerial Ballet album, a year before Midnight Cowboy. Once the song was picked for the movie (over other songs written specifically for the movie, including Dylan's Lay Lady Lay and Nilsson's own I guess the Lord must be in New York City), Nilsson recorded a second version for the film. That's the one on the soundtrack, but most of the time, these days, we hear the original 1968 version.
thanks jim. this is version #2 from the film, i think. am i right? i downloaded this from somewhere a few years ago with limited info attached.
ReplyDelete"Little Bit Of Rain" is one of the tracks on Mick Harvey's recent album 'One Man's Treasure' - we like it down here, but we are biassed - one of our successful sons, etc, etc. It's worth a listen if you can find it somewhere. Bit of Serge Gainsborough(sp?) on it as well.
ReplyDeleteTed -- you've got the original 1968 Aerial Ballet version -- which was also re-released as a single after the movie came out, and is the version that always shows up on compilations. If you'd like to hear the soundtrack versions (there are two different versions in the movie), head over to this page on the "For the Love of Harry" blog here on blogger:
ReplyDeletehttp://fortheloveofharry.blogspot.com/2007/02/everybodys-talkin-variations.html
That link was too long for the comments section. Let's see if wrapping it in html helps -- CLICK HERE
ReplyDeleteIf not, just go to fortheloveofharry.blogspot.com and you'll find it in the right-side column of links.
thanks jim, for clarification and for the fantastic link.
ReplyDeletephantastic post, thanks a lot. here's three more versions of "talkin'", by Claudine Longet (sexy), Briamonte Orchestra (Brazil), and Sandro Perri (idiosyncratic):
ReplyDeleterapidshare.com/files/64923696/everybo3dystalkin.zip
greets from munich, s.
thank you s. from munich!
ReplyDeleteGreat song. I've always though King Curtis did it best.
ReplyDeleteThank you for these great , hard to find records. Very educational site. You have good taste in music. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteK_R
Great collection! Here is my favorite version by "The Beautiful South" from England. Sounds like the perfect popsong to me.
ReplyDeletemikesware.com:8081/mp3/Beautiful%20South/Carry%20On%20Up%20The%20Charts%20The%20Best%20Of%20The%20Beautiful%20South/12-The%20Beautiful%20South-Carry%20On%20Up%20The%20Charts%20The%20Best%20Of%20The%20Beautiful%20South-Everybody's%20Talkin'.mp3
Oh no, the "Beautiful South" url is cut off. Here is a shorter one:
ReplyDeletetinyurl.com/3xsrsf