Harry Nilsson song rights sold to BMG

Harry Nilsson’s melodic pop music endeared him to the Beatles and won him the admiration of everyone from Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam to Carly Rae Jepsen. But ask someone on the street if they recognize the name, and they’ll probably either respond with knowing reverence or a quizzical stare.

Nilsson, a Brooklyn-born L.A. transplant who rose to fame with the inclusion of “Everybody’s Talkin’” on the soundtrack to 1969’s “Midnight Cowboy,” is a singersongwriter’s singer-songwriter. He got rich penning hits including “One,” performed by Three Dog Night, released successful 1970s albums with “Nilsson Schmilsson” and “Son of Schmilsson,” won a couple Grammys and composed for films including Robert Altman’s “Popeye.” But heavy drinking and smoking contributed to a downturn in his health, and he died of a heart attack in 1994 at age 52.

Though he influenced many musicians, he never achieved the level of longlasting fame enjoyed by John Lennon, Ringo Starr and other collaborators.

But that under-the-radar credibility is exactly what made his catalog attractive to BMG, the Germanowned music company that has carved a niche for itself by acquiring dozens of catalogs from legacy artists.

BMG, owned by the Gütersloh-based media conglomerate Bertelsmann, has acquired Nilsson’s song publishing catalog.