Nilsson was born in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City. His paternal grandparents were Swedish.
"Without her" is one of his early hits. This number is nowadays considered one of his standards as Blood, Sweat & Tears did later an jazzy cover on their album. His biggest hits were during the late 1960s and the 1970s. His songs include "Me And My Arrow", "Coconut", "Cuddly Toy", "Spaceman", and "One". "One" was also a hit for the band Three Dog Night. Nilsson's two most famous songs were "Without You" and "Everybody's Talkin'". These songs were written by other people. "Without You" has been re-recorded many times by other singers. It was written by Peter Ham and Tom Evans of Badfinger. "Everybody's Talkin'" was used in the 1969 movie "Midnight Cowboy". The song was written by Fred Neil.
Nilsson recorded a tribute to The Beatles on his first album. He used lines from fifteen of their songs in one cover version of "You Can't Do That". Derek Taylor, who worked for the Beatles, sent them copies of the album, and Nilsson became a friend of the band. He later shared a house with John Lennon and Ringo Starr. They worked together on each other's music.
Nilsson also wrote a cartoon movie named "The Point!". It was broadcast on ABC. It was about tolerance and diversity. "The Point!" was later turned into a musical. One production of the musical starred former Monkees Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones. The Monkees had recorded two of Nilsson's songs, "Cuddly Toy" and "Daddy's Song", after they met him through producer Chip Douglas.
Nilsson died of heart failure in Agoura Hills, California.
The movie "You've Got Mail" uses several of Nilsson's songs in its soundtrack.
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a string instrument. It has six strings which pass from tuning pegs over the instrument's neck which is marked with lines called frets. These marks show where to press a string with the fingers of the left hand, to change the note that string plays. The right hand plucks or strums the strings, either with the fingers or using a plectrum ("pick"), to make them sound. Acoustic guitars are used in types of music ranging from classical to rock and roll, to bluegrass and folk. The six strings can be steel or nylon. Nylon strings are typically used for classical and related styles of music. Steel strings are typically used for most other styles.
The acoustic guitar came from Spain (an instrument with six strings), created by Antonio Torres Jurado. But at the beginning, the guitar was different with what we see the guitar now. In the 16th to 17th centuries, the guitar became popular in Europe. In the 18th century, the guitar changed to be similar to how it is now. But before the 19th century, many people thought the guitar could not be same as a piano or violin. They thought it could not play classical music. But at the beginning of 19th century, a famous guitar player, Fernando Sor, made the guitar become more popular and he made more people like playing the guitar. Before the 20th century, people played the acoustic guitar. In the 20th century, a musician in United States, Leo Fender, invented the electric guitar.
The guitar and the ukulele are similar in shape and other ways, but they are also different. The ukulele looking like a small guitar. But the guitar has six strings, and the ukulele has just four strings. The six strings in a guitar are tuned: E, B, G, D, A, and E; the four strings in a ukulele are tuned: G, C, E, and A. Also, the ukulele comes from Hawaii, and the guitar comes from Spain.
Flipper
A flipper is a special kind of limb that is flattened like a paddle for moving through water. Many animals that live in water, such as whales and seals have flippers. The flipper of a fish is called a fin.
It can also be an item worn on the foot to help people swim more easily.
Coral fungi
Coral fungi or clavarioid fungi, are mushrooms that are usually shaped like coral, but can also be shaped like forks, worms or clubs.
They are rubbery and at times are brightly coloured.
Originally, such fungi were put in the genus "Clavaria", and called "clavarioid", which means "Clavaria"-like. It is now known that clavarioid species are not all closely related. Since they are often studied as a group, we keep the informal (non-taxonomic) name of "clavarioid fungi", and it is frequently used in research papers.
Most coral fungi grow on the ground, but some grow on well decayed logs and stumps.
They are usually found in forests but some can also be found in fields. They are decomposers.
Although they are not poisonous, some kinds are a laxative and some can cause stomach pain.
Stone fruit
A stone fruit, also called a drupe, is a fruit with a large "stone" inside. The stone is sometimes called the seed, but that is a mistake, as the seed is inside the stone. The stones can also be called a pit. These fruits are edible and used frequently in cooking.
A fruit is the matured ovary of a flower. Fruits consist of two main parts: the pericarp, or ovary wall, and the seed(s).
The pericarp has three layers: the exocarp (skin/rind), the mesocarp (bulk of the pericarp), and the endocarp (innermost layer).
The two main classes of fleshy fruits are berries and drupes, or stone fruits.
Berries have a fleshy mesocarp and endocarp, and may have multiple seeds.
Drupes have a fleshy mesocarp, but a tough endocarp, and of course, a "stone" or "pit" at its center. Drupes typically have only a single seed.
Humpback whale
A humpback whale ("Megaptera novaeangliae") is a large baleen whale with long flippers and a knobbly head. They can be found in every ocean.
They can grow to 15–16 m (49–52 ft) long and weigh up to 40 metric tons.
Humpback whales can live up to 45 years. They migrate between the places they feed in the winter and the places they give birth in the summer. They usually live alone.
Humpback whales eat krill and small fish, for example herring, capelin, and sand lance. They scoop up their food in their large mouths. Sometimes they round up their prey by swimming in tight circles and blowing curtains of bubbles around them. They often hunt in small groups, called pods.
The male whale is known to sing for up to 22 hours at a time. Because whales do not have vocal chords, they make songs by forcing air through their nasal passages. Every male has a different song. We don't yet know why they sing, it might be to call a female or scare away other males. The songs are made up of a pattern of low notes repeated over a period of hours or days. The whales slowly change their songs over a period of years.
Both the male and female humpback whales make other sounds, such as moans and grunts, to communicate with each other.
Slovak language
Slovak is the language spoken in Slovakia, a country in Central Europe. It is a language from Slavic language family. It is very similar to Czech, and Czechs and Slovaks understand each other quite well when they speak their own language. Polish and Sorbian are also quite similar. All of them belong to the western branch of Slavic languages. Slovak is spoken by more than 5 million people.
Slovak is written using the Latin alphabet, but some letters have special signs (called diacritics).
The letters č, š, ž and dž are like the English sounds in "ch"in, "sh"in, vi"s"ion and "j"uice.
The letters ď, ľ, ň, and ť are called “soft consonants” and are pronounced with the blade of the tongue at the roof of the mouth.
The letters c, dz and j are also soft, like "ts" in ba"ts", "ds" in ro"ds", and "y" in "y"es.
Signs over a vowel show that the vowel is pronounced long: á, é, í, ó, ý ú. A long vowel is never followed in the next syllable by a short vowel.
The letter ô is like English "wo"man, and ä is the same as the letter e.
The letter ch is like "ch" in Scottish lo"ch". V is more like English "w".
The letters b, d, ď, dz, dž, g, h, z, ž are voiceless when they are at the end of a word (for example, 'd' will sound like 't').