Everybody's Talkin'
"Everybody's Talkin'" is a song written and recorded by singer-songwriter Fred Neil in 1966 and released by himself two years later. A version of the song performed by Harry Nilsson became a hit in 1969, reaching No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and winning a Grammy Award after it was featured in the film Midnight Cowboy. The song, which describes the singer's desire to retreat from other people to the ocean, is among the most famous works of both artists, and has been covered by many other notable performers. The song later appeared in the 1994 film Forrest Gump and is also on the film's soundtrack album. It also appeared in the comedy film Borat, on The Hangover Part III soundtrack, in the English television show Black Books, the action comedy film Crank, and in the Only Fools and Horses episode "The Jolly Boys' Outing".
Background
The song was first released on Neil's second album, the self-titled Fred Neil, released in early 1967. It was composed towards the end of the session, after Neil had become anxious to wrap the album so he could return to his home in Miami, Florida. Manager Herb Cohen promised that if Neil wrote and recorded a final track, he could go. "Everybody's Talkin, recorded in one take, was the result.Toby Creswell of 1001 Songs noted that the song had parallels to Neil's later life—like the hero of Midnight Cowboy, he looked "for fame to match his talents, discover that success in his profession isn't all its cracked up to be" and wanted to retreat. Five years later, Neil permanently fulfilled the promise of the speaker in the song, rejecting fame to live the rest of his life in relative obscurity "where the sun keeps shining / thru' the pouring rain" in his home in Coconut Grove, Miami.
Nilsson version
Harry Nilsson was searching for a potentially successful song when Rick Jarrard played the track for him, and he decided to release it on his 1968 album Aerial Ballet. When released as a single in July 1968, it managed to reach only No. 113 on the Billboard Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart. After the song was featured as the theme song in the film Midnight Cowboy in 1969, the song was re-released as a single and became a hit, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 2 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart.When Derek Taylor recommended Nilsson for the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack to director John Schlesinger, Schlesinger selected "Everybody's Talkin, preferring the cover to the song Nilsson proposed, "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City".
The song was used as the theme song for the movie and became closely identified with it; Nilsson's cover is also known as "Everybody's Talkin' ". William J. Mann, in his biography of Schlesinger, noted that "one cannot imagine Midnight Cowboy now without 'Everybody's Talkin'".
The song was used in Todd Phillips’ 2013 film The Hangover Part III alongside its soundtrack.
Theme and style
Described in The Rock Snob*s Dictionary as an "anti-urban plaint", "Everybody's Talkin depicts the introverted speaker's inability to connect with others. Not hearing or truly seeing them, the speaker declares an intention to leave for the ocean and the summer breeze. AllMusic's Denise Sullivan describes Neil's version as "positively spooky and Spartan" by comparison to Nilsson's better-known cover, whose arrangement she felt captured the "freedom, shrouded in regret and loss, implied in the lyric".Reception and legacy
Nilsson's single for the song sold over a million copies and charted on both Billboards Adult Contemporary and Pop Singles charts, reaching numbers 2 and 6 respectively in 1969. Nilsson's single also won a Grammy that year. The song became a global success and was followed by international appearances by Nilsson to perform it.Although Nilsson himself denied that the song made him successful, 1001 Songs indicates that the hit "made Nilsson a superstar," exposing him to a much broader fan base and altering his reputation from solely that of a songwriter to a singer. After Nilsson's death, Billboard noted that Nilsson remained popularly remembered for his covers of "Everybody's Talkin and "Without You". Neil, too, is largely remembered for this song. But although Neil's second album was re-released in 1969 under the title Everybody's Talkin
The song is highly regarded in the industry, having become a standard. Songwriter Jerry Leiber described it as "a very strange and beautiful song", among the "truly beautiful melodically and lyrically" songs by Fred Neil, who was described by Rolling Stone as "eclusive, mysterious and extravagantly gifted". A 2006 article in The New York Times characterizes the song as "a landmark of the classic-rock era." The song's popularity has proven persistent; through 2005, according to figures from Broadcast Music Incorporated reported in The New York Times, the song had aired on radio and television 6.7 million times. In 2004, the song was listed by the American Film Institute as No. 20 in its "top 100 movie songs" for the first 100 years of film.
Harry Dean Stanton described "Everybody's Talkin'" as "a heroin song" which he claimed was "inspired by Luke Askew, an actor."
The song was parodied in the Seinfeld TV series, episode 94, when George Costanza claims to have bought Jon Voight's Chrysler LeBaron, singing "Everybody's talkin' at me/I can't hear a word they're sayin'/Just drivin' round in Jon Voight's car".
Cover versions
Since Nilsson's version of the song achieved chart success, the song has been covered by many other artists—almost 100 as of 2006. The more notable artists include Stevie Wonder, Iggy Pop, Willie Nelson, Neil Diamond, Liza Minnelli, Tony Bennett, Luna, Bill Withers, Madeleine Peyroux, Louis Armstrong, Leonard Nimoy, Julio Iglesias, Lena Horne, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Spanky & Our Gang, the Beautiful South, Glen Campbell, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Jimmy Buffett, Tedeschi Trucks Band,and Gregory Isaacs. Nilsson's version was sampled in 2002 by Paul Oakenfold on "Starry Eyed Surprise" and in 2004 by the Go! Team on "Everyone's a V.I.P. to Someone".
Charts and certifications
Weekly charts
Fred Neil version| Chart | Peak position |
| US Billboard Bubbling Under the Hot 100 | 113 |
| US Cash Box Top 100 | 54 |
| US Record World Singles Chart | 51 |
Nilsson version
| Chart | Peak position |
| Australian Singles Chart | 30 |
| Canadian RPM Top Singles | 1 |
| Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary | 1 |
The Beautiful South version
| Chart | Peak position |
| Europe | 39 |
| Iceland | 8 |
Year-end charts
Nilsson version| Chart | Position |
| Canadian RPM Top Singles | 27 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 73 |