-By David Noh

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“Everybody’s Talkin’”, with its yearning, plaintive capture of youthful anomie, was as seminal a song to a generation as Nirvana’s “Feels Like Teen Spirit” or John Mayer’s “No Such Thing” would prove to later ones, and as the theme song to Midnight Cowboy, instantly made that movie in the way that Simon & Garfunkel’s music made The Graduate. What this consummately enjoyable, fascinating documentary reveals, among other things, is the fact that its singer, Harry Nilsson (1941-94), did not compose it, although he was one of the most accomplished songwriters of his time.

Rarely has the life of any music figure been covered with as much obvious love and honesty as in this film by John Scheinfeld, who amassed an impressive array of interviews and vintage footage to create a compelling portrait of a man blessed and, sadly, tortured by teeming genius and life. His great hits—“Without You”, “Coconut”, “One”, “Cuddly Toy,” “I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City” (which he did compose for Midnight Cowboy)—are covered, from their genesis to ultimate radio domination, and you really get a feel for Nilsson’s haphazard but fertile creative process. The broken Brooklyn childhood from which he emerged, which influenced both his music and life, is poignantly revealed, as are the superhuman excesses which caused his early demise (“as if he had a death wish” being the opinion of a few who knew him intimately). In this benighted age of corporate culture, the uncompromising authenticity of a man like Nilsson, who recorded but refused to tour, did an album of standards years before anyone else, and likewise never played the craven fame game of pop music, is all the more jaw-dropping.

For anyone who remembers or loves the fecund period of music from the late 1960s and ’70s, Who Is Harry Nilsson (and Why is Everybody Talkin’ About Him?) is a highly engaging, deeply touching ride. Among the many recorded witnesses, especially memorable recollections are provided by Nilsson’s complexly extended family, his undeniably put-upon producer, Richard Perry, John Lennon (Nilsson’s idolized and ultimately disastrous collaborator), Yoko Ono, fellow one-time wild man Robin Williams (whose unique, gem-like Popeye score was composed by Nilsson), Micky Dolenz, Randy Newman (whose early songs were recorded by Nilsson instead of his own, during a crucial time in his own career), and Ringo Starr, who was the best man at his second wedding, marked by the usual Dionysian excess. Almost all of them comment, apart from his songwriting genius, on the unearthly beauty of his voice, which many cite as the greatest of his time and genre. If you somehow doubt this, just play “Everybody’s Talkin’” again, in actuality or just in your head, and you will be forced to agree.