This page contains Fred Neil songs, albums and video links. Music profile for Fred Neil with events, tracks, videos, pictures, lyrics and band information.
Fred Neil (March 16, 1936 – July 7, 2001) was an American blues and folk music|folk singer and songwriter in the 1960s and early 1970s. He is best remembered for writing the top 40 hits "Candy Man" by Roy Orbison and "Everybody's Talkin'" by Harry Nilsson, as well as the rock standard "The Other Side of This Life", most famously covered by Jefferson Airplane.
Biography
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, Neil was one of the songwriters who for a time worked out of New York City's famous Brill Building. He has often been called a pioneer of the Folk rock & Singer-songwriter musical genres; his most frequently cited disciples are Tim Buckley, Harry Nilsson, and Jefferson Airplane, but his most prominent descendants have been Stephen Stills, David Crosby, James Taylor, Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell. In concert appearances, as well as the liner notes for his 2003 album, ''Meet Me In Margaritaville,'' Jimmy Buffett called Neil "one of my heroes." Some of Neil's early compositions were recorded by Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison; he played as a session guitarist on hits by Bobby Darin and Paul Anka. In 1968, Nilsson recorded a cover version of Neil's song "Everybody's Talkin'," which became a huge hit a year later when it was featured in the film ''Midnight Cowboy''.
