Harry Connick Jr. on How ‘When Harry Met Sally’ Changed His Life

Harry Connick Jr. spoke with hosts Jess Cagle and Julia Cunningham on Radio Andy about how “When Harry Met Sally…” catapulted his music career when he was only 21 years old.

“I did two albums, and then the third album was ‘When Harry Met Sally…’ and I went from selling like five or 10 thousand records — which was an amazing accomplishment for me — to millions of records,” Harry told Jess and Julia.

He continued, “And that was back in the day, obviously before there were cell phones and internet and stuff, so there weren’t as many choices. So when you were on ‘The Tonight Show,’ everybody saw that, or when you were on the radio or a billboard. It wasn’t like there were 1,500 artists coming out every month.”

The “When Harry Met Sally…” film and soundtrack were released in July 1989. The soundtrack went 2x Platinum in the US, and Harry won a GRAMMY for Best Jazz Male Vocal Performance.

“It was a different time,” Harry said, “so I went from being not very well known to people — I remember walking through an airport once and they were playing it, and people are turning and looking … I can’t describe that feeling ’cause that’s what I wanted my whole life … ‘Just give me the piano. Give me the microphone. Let me sing for y’all.’ That’s all I wanted to do. It’s all I still want to do, so to have the chance, like that was just, man. I felt like the luckiest guy in the world.”

SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Show with Julia Cunningham” airs Monday through Friday at 2pm ET on Radio Andy (Ch. 102) and is available to stream anytime on the SiriusXM app.