Billy Nicholls grew up surrounded by music on the White City Estate in Shepherd's Bush, London. His father, Bill Nicholls Sr., played double-bass and sang in the RAF band The Squadronaires, and the household was filled with harmonies from an early age. That immersive early environment gave the young Nicholls a grounding in vocal arrangement that would define his recording style long before he ever set foot in a professional studio.
When he was 17, Nicholls took a bus to Kinfauns - George Harrison's estate in Esher, Surrey - armed with homemade demo tapes and a boldness that bordered on audacity. Harrison listened to the reel-to-reel recording and was charmed enough to pass the songs along to the Beatles' publisher, Dick James. When James misplaced the tape, he atoned by giving Nicholls free studio time at his New Oxford Street offices, where Nicholls soon met his future collaborator Caleb Quaye and caught the attention of Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham.
In 1967, Andrew Loog Oldham hired the teenage Nicholls as a staff songwriter for Immediate Records and set him to work on an ambitious project - creating a British answer to the Beach Boys' landmark 1966 album Pet Sounds. Surrounding Nicholls with session pianist Nicky Hopkins, guitarist Big Jim Sullivan, and a young John Paul Jones handling arrangements, Oldham produced the album Would You Believe in 1968. Financial difficulties at Immediate meant only 100 promotional copies were ever pressed, and the album was not commercially available until Nicholls reissued it on his own Southwest Records label 30 years later in 1998.
Would You Believe has since become one of the most sought-after albums in British pop history. A near-mint copy of one of the original 100 promotional pressings sold in 2017 for just over £8,000. The album was selected for The MOJO Collection as one of the most significant albums in the musical canon.
Many artists have covered Nicholls' compositions, most prominently "I Can't Stop Loving You (Though I Try)," which he originally recorded for his short-lived project White Horse and included on the group's 1977 self-titled album.
Nicholls told Songfacts he was living in London at the time and had to leave his family for long periods of time as the recording for the album was to take place in LA. "Its poignancy stems from my not wanting to leave my then-young family," he said.
"I Can't Stop Loving You (Though I Try)" became a UK Top 10 hit for Leo Sayer in 1978 and was later recorded by The Outlaws in 1980. Its biggest moment came when Phil Collins recorded it for his 2002 album
Testify, after it was used in a Toyota Avalon television commercial in the United States. Collins' version became a major American radio hit, and Nicholls received two ASCAP awards for it as the most performed song by an English songwriter in both 2002 and 2003.
Nicholls wrote four of the songs on the soundtrack to the 1980 biographical film McVicar, starring Roger Daltrey of The Who. One of those songs, "Without Your Love," reached the US Top 20. His relationship with The Who deepened through his long friendship with Pete Townshend - Nicholls composed "Forever's No Time at All" for Townshend's 1972 solo album Who Came First, and served as The Who's musical director and touring backing vocalist, including their 1989 reunion tour and their 1996-97 world tour.
Nicholls and Pete Townshend first bonded while working on tribute recordings for Meher Baba, the Indian spiritual teacher whose influence runs throughout much of Townshend's work. Nicholls is a devoted follower of Meher Baba's teachings, and in 2011 he released Meher Baba, a charity album to help fund the London Baba Centre.
Billy's son Morgan Nicholls is a musician, composer, and producer of wide-ranging talent, best known as the bass player with the Senseless Things. Father and son have also collaborated directly - Morgan's 2000 album Organized features several co-writes between the two.
