On April 7, 1979 Badfinger returned as a duo to the US charts for the first time since 1973 with the single "Love is Gonna Come at Last" entering at U.S. #89. The Joey Molland penned tune from what was supposed to be a comeback album, Airwaves , would peak at U.S. #69. The troubled band had lost Pete Ham, their lead vocalist, in 1975 when he hanged himself in his garage. Tom Evans, wearing the loose tie in the official music video below, hanged himself in 1983. Drummer Mike Gibbins had walked out of the Airwaves sessions. He would die in his sleep in 2005.
The music industry doesn't realize that musicians in its care must be treated with gentleness and sincerity, only then will the music grow and flourish. Musicians are special, sensitive people who give much, and many, like Badfinger, are adrift within a hostile so-called "industry" that seems based solely on money and self-interest
-Tony Beresford-Cooke, friend
On April 24, 1975 a despondent Pete Ham hanged himself in his garage studio. He left behind a note for his pregnant girlfriend Anne who discovered his body.
That last line again:
"Stan Polley is a souless bastard. I will take him with me"
Stan Polley is the business manager who signed Badfinger to a deal with Warner Brothers which came with a huge multi million dollar advance that the members of Badfinger would never see. In return the band had to produce two albums and an additional two singles every year.
Noting $100,000 in missing funds, the publishing division of Warner Brothers spent a year trying to contact Polley. They got no response. So WB Records pulled the band's excellent comeback album, Wish You Were Here, off the shelves. Polley still wasn't taking or returning calls. Now, as Badfinger began recording their next album, to be titled Head First ( and featuring bitter songs like "Hey Mr Manager" and " Rock'n'Roll Contract") lawyers got involved. They stopped payment on Warner Brothers checks to Badfinger and convinced record execs to turn down the new album. To top it off Apple was suspending royalty payments to avoid getting swept up into the lawsuit. And still no word from Stan Polley.
By April of 1975 Pete Ham had a pregnant girlfriend ( for whom he had written "Lay Me Down"), new house payments, no money and no way to earn any money. He told his bandmate Tom Evans he knew a way out. He died at the age of 27.
Head First was released 26 years after it was recorded.
Sounds like the Badfinger boys heard The Raspberries album Starting Over and said "You want to hear the ultimate power pop album? That's what we'll give you!" Beginning with the opening track, "Just a Chance" all the way through "Meanwhile Back at the Ranch/Should I Smoke", Wish You Were Here does - in fact- smoke. Consistently superb throughout.
Unfortunately, Warner Brothers pulled the album from store shelves seven weeks later due to a lawsuit that would be yet sad chapter in Badfinger's star crossed story.
Just six weeks after finishing Ass, Badfinger was back in the studio trying to fulfill the Warner Brothers contracts their agent Stan Polley set up for them, which came with a reported $3 million advance. The money was supposed to go into an escrow account for the band. That was the good news. The bad news was that Badfinger had to knock out two albums and two extra singles every year. It didn't begin well and it would only get worse. Badfinger, originally titled For Love Or Money, was written and recorded in the studio with producer Chris Thomas. At the same time, the members were dealing with depositions from Apple lawyers. The result is an album of slight tunes and punch-less pop, their lowest-charting album.
The album's February release was timed with an American tour in which they often played nightclubs befitting local bands. Warner Brothers made no effort to promote the band's single "Shine On". After the tour, Badfinger had to get back into the studio for their second album of 1974, and one of their very best, Wish You Were Here.
But by then all the money in the escrow account had vanished and Warner Brothers had filed a lawsuit against Polley and Badfinger. The experience took a dreadful toll on the band. Both Pete Ham and Joey Holland quit Badfinger and in 1975, destitute, and awaiting the birth of his girlfriend's child, Ham hanged himself in the garage of his Surrey home.
There was already a glut of post Beatles music on the market when the Lennonesque Stealers Wheel and the McCartneyesque Badfinger released albums in November of 1973. Ringo's album had entered the US charts at #15. Harrison's Material World was still in the charts, at #133. McCartney's Red Rose Speedway was at #167 but his new UK single, "Helen Wheels" had just been released. Lennon's single "Mind Games" was climbing the US pop charts at #60 with a bullet while The Beatles 1967-1970 ( at #86) and 1962-1966 ( #111) were still selling strong numbers.
Gerry Rafferty had quit Stealers Wheel when "Stuck in the Middle With You" hit #2 in the Summer of 1973. He came back. He and Joe Egan fired three members of the band and used studio musicians, including ex Spooky Tooth guitarist Luther Grosvenor, on the Leiber/Stoller produced Ferguslie Park.
The "Star" single peaked at #29 in the US and failed to propel the album into big sales. It's one of a number of songs that seem to criticize the music business. ( Well, that did work on "Stuck"). There's not a lot on this album that will make you bow down to the band's genius, but there are some very worthy songs, including the rocker "Blind Faith" and, our deep cut selection, Rafferty's "Who Cares".
With Ass, Badfinger's string of albums for the Beatles' Apple label ends on a mediocre note, which is all the more disappointing when you consider how great the previous album, Straight Up, remains. Badfinger's relationship with Apple was in turmoil, thanks to a dispute over songwriting royalties. Producer Todd Rundgren quit during the sessions. Badfinger's manager was negotiating a $3 million deal with Warner Brothers in what would prove to be a disastrous move. Surely no band was treated as badly as Badfinger, who gave Apple "the finger" with its cover of a giant carrot being dangled in front of a goat and a lead off single, called "Apple of My Eye" which begins "Oh I'm sorry but it's time to move away..."
On March 11, 1972 Harry Nilsson's "Without You" ended its four week run at number one in the US and began its five week run at the top of UK charts.
Credit booze. Really. Nilsson has been up all night drinking and listening to albums.
He told the story to Dick Clark:
"After sobering up the next day, I said, 'What was that Lennon tune we were listening to last night?' We went though a bunch of (Beatles) albums and couldn't find it. Finally I said "No! It wasn't The Beatles, it was another group. It was Grapefruit or something "
Actually it was Badfinger. The album was 1970's No Dice.
Although the demo is a bit rough ( and therefore incredibly revealing) Harry knew he had something special. With the help of producer Richard Perry, Nilsson went after a more epic sound--one that showed off his incredible voice and his incredible range."It was a different record for its time. It was a big ballad with a heavy backbeat, and although many artists have cut songs like it since, no one was doing it then.--Richard Perry
Gary Wright of Spooky Tooth plays piano. Klaus Voorman is on bass. The single was the biggest hit of the year. Period. It sold millions of copies and earned Nilsson a Grammy Award. Paul McCartney called it "the killer song of all time."
The sad footnote: both of the writers behind the lyrics "I can't live/ If living is without you" committed suicide by hanging themselves. Pete Ham in 1975 and Tom Evans in 1983.
Badfinger's third album, Straight Up, produced two Top 20 singles in the U.S. The group's highest charting single ever, "Day After Day", peaked at #4 while "Baby Blue" peaked at #14. The album also featured the radio-friendly 1001Songs favorite "I'd Die Babe".
But this post is about deep cuts, so we're featuring Track #11 "Perfection". In light of songwriter Pete Ham's suicide four years later, it is interesting to hear his thoughts on this gem:"Well it basically says that I think people have to -- before they try do anything about the world-- admit that they've got a lot of faults themselves. Admit that there is no real perfection. People get too obsessed with ideals. The perfect world or the perfect human being and there's no such thing. So all basically that song says is realize our imperfections and talk about them and then try and do something about it".
