"I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City"
Single by Nilsson
from the album Harry
B-side	"Maybe" (U.S.) "Rainmaker" (Intl.)
Released	October 1969
Genre	Soft rock
Label	RCA Victor
Songwriter(s)	Harry Nilsson[1]
Producer(s)	Rick Jarrard
Nilsson singles chronology
"Everybody's Talkin'" (1969) "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City" (1969) "Waiting" (1970)

"I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City" is a song written and recorded by singer-songwriter Nilsson in 1969. A track from his fourth studio album, Harry, it became his second charting single.

Background

The song was written for, but not included in, the movie Midnight Cowboy. The same recording was reissued in 1972 crediting Buck Earl, (Jon Voight's character in the movie was Joe Buck.) as the performing artist.

Chart performance

It became Nilsson's second hit record in the U.S., reaching No. 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart^[2] and No. 7 on the Easy Listening chart.

The song was a bigger hit in Canada, where it reached No. 25 on the Pop chart^[3] and No. 3 on the Adult Contemporary chart.^[4]

Notable cover versions

• "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City" was covered by Sagittarius in 1969. Their version reached number 135 on the U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart.^[11]
• A version by Wayne Newton reached number 28 on the US Easy Listening chart in the fall of 1969.^[12]

Popular culture

• The track was used in a film – 1971's La Mortadella (US title: Lady Liberty), starring Sophia Loren.
• A cover by Sinéad O'Connor was featured in the 1998 movie You've Got Mail starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
• The song was featured in the 2009 Off-Broadway and 2010 Broadway musical "Everyday Rapture", a semi-autobiographical musical about (and starring) Sherie Rene Scott.