Without You

"Without You" was written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans of Badfinger, who joined Ham's "If It's Love" verse to Evans's "I Can't Live" chorus. Badfinger recorded it on July 15 and 29, 1970 at Abbey Road with Geoff Emerick producing, and released it on November 9, 1970 on No Dice, 4:43, not as a single. Nilsson reportedly heard it at a party and thought it was a Beatles song. His version was recorded in 1971 at Island Studios in London and released as a single on October 11, 1971, with Gary Wright on piano, Klaus Voormann on bass, Jim Keltner on drums and Paul Buckmaster's string and horn arrangement; the length is 3:17 on Wikipedia and 3:23 on Sessiondays.

Rock and Roll Globe tells that during a dispute over creative control Perry reminded Nilsson over high tea at the Dorchester that he had agreed to Perry's control, and Nilsson replied, well, I lied; they were then late for the session and, per Perry, Nilsson sang the final vocal in his first take. MusicRadar says Perry pushed him from a stark solo-piano version to a grand orchestral ballad.

It entered the Hot 100 at 99 in December 1971 and spent four weeks at number one from February 1972, his only US number one, and led the adult contemporary chart; it spent five weeks at number one in the UK from March 11, 1972, and topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand. It was Billboard's number four song of 1972. It was nominated for Record of the Year and won the 1973 Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. Mariah Carey's version, released on January 21, 1994, a week after Nilsson's death, reached number three in the US and was number one in the UK for four weeks, based on his arrangement; Ruby Winters, Heart, T. G. Sheppard, Air Supply and Hall and Oates have also recorded it. No verified performance history was found.