Listen to Harry Nilsson’s ‘Gotta Get Up’ from ‘Russian Doll’ the hit Netflix comedy series

Natasha Lyonne as Nadia in 'Russian Doll'

Harry Nilsson’s ‘Gotta Get Up‘ is deceptively cheerful and chipper

American singer songwriter Harry Nilsson’s ‘Gotta Get Up’ is featured on the new hit Netflix comedy series Russian Doll.  On almost every episode of the series that is, as it is the song that is played almost each and every time Nadia resurrects.

We hear it for the first time on the first episode of the series — “Nothing In This World Is Easy”  — and, if you binge watch the series like I did, ‘Gotta Get Up” will soon be earwormed into your head as an absolute addiction.

Harry Nilsson’s ‘Gotta Get Up‘ is the opening track from the late American singer songwriter’s 1971 album Nilsson Schmilsson.  But don’t get fooled by its deceptively cheerful and chipper sound, as it is actually a song about getting older and how, as depressing as it can be, we will all hopefully do that.

Even though Harry Nilsson himself did not. He sadly died of heart failure in 1994 at the age of just 52, after many years as an alcoholic.

As for ‘Russian Doll’, it has become a fast and massive hit for Netflix.

The comedy series stars Natasha Lyonne as Nadia, a video game programmer who, on the evening of her 36th birthday, gets hit by a taxi and dies. And then is immediately reborn in her friend’s bathroom. Again and again and again.

Every night, at the same time and in the same bathroom. In a loop she cannot seem to get out of.

Listen to Harry Nilsson’s ‘Gotta Get Up‘ in the video below.

And, if you are interested in why the song did not appear in every episode of Russian Doll, this New York Times articles explains it. (Nilsson’s estate limited the number of times the song could be played before more money was expected, and the number of times the show’s producers could afford it really ate into the total music budget).

Read: Listen to Placebo’s edgy ‘Running Up That Hill‘ cover from How To Get Away With Murder

About Michelle Topham

I'm a Brit-American journalist, former radio DJ at 97X WOXY, and Founder/CEO of Leo Sigh. I'm also obsessed with music, anime, manga, and K-dramas. Help!