Badfinger – success and tragedy

With the support of the former Beatles members, Badfinger enjoyed a great deal of success, selling an estimated 14 million records. The Welsh band was recognised for its influence of the 1970s power pop genre. But after Apple Records folded, the Badfinger story changed dramatically.

Known at first as the Iveys, the band renamed themselves Badfinger, after the working title for the Beatles’ 1967 song With a Little Help from My Friends (“Bad Finger Boogie”). Their best-known lineup consisted of Pete Ham (vocals, guitar), Mike Gibbins (drums), Tom Evans (bass), and Joey Molland (guitar). From 1968 to 1973 they recorded five albums for Apple and toured extensively.

Badfinger had four consecutive worldwide hits from 1970 to 1972: Come and Get It (written and produced by Paul McCartney, 1970), No Matter What (produced by Mal Evans, 1970), Day After Day (produced by George Harrison, 1971), and Baby Blue (produced by Todd Rundgren, 1972). Their song Without You (1970) has been recorded many times, and became a #1 hit for Harry Nilsson and later, Mariah Carey.

After Apple Records folded in 1973, Badfinger struggled with a host of legal, managerial, and financial problems, leading to Ham’s suicide in 1975. The surviving members struggled to rebuild their personal and professional lives against a backdrop of lawsuits, which tied up the songwriters’ royalty payments for years. Their subsequent albums floundered, as Molland and Evans alternated between co-operation and conflict in their attempts to revive and capitalise on the Badfinger legacy. Evans died by suicide in 1983, and Gibbins died from a brain aneurysm in 2005, leaving Molland as the group’s only surviving member.

Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badfinger

The story of Badfinger has been published and broadcast over the years, including the book Without You: the Tragic Story of Badfinger.

Among a number of video documentaries is Badfinger – The Tragic Story of The Band, released on YouTube by Rock N’ Roll True Stories:

Also worth a listen is this radio program called Without You: The Badfinger Story, presented by James Dean Bradfield and broadcast by BBC Radio Wales: