March 17 – Writer Badfinger Talks Of Band Badfinger

On By DaveIn Artist Profiles, Songs And Their Stories

Something a bit different here today. We’re happy to have a guest post from Max, over at Power Pop Blog , who gives us a look at one of the more under-rated, and tragic of ’70s acts. Thanks Max! And be sure to check out his site, where we’ve got a bit of a personal musical history today. *** 

I want to thank Dave for allowing me to take his site over today and write something for the followers of A Sound Day.

Something a bit different here today. We’re happy to have a guest post from Max, over at Power Pop Blog , who gives us a look at one of the more under-rated, and tragic of ’70s acts. Thanks Max! And be sure to check out his site, where we’ve got a bit of a personal musical history today. Power Pop is one of my loves. In the early seventies, three of the best power pop bands were all making music. Big Star, The Raspberries, and last but not least…Badfinger.

When I first heard Badfinger as a 12-year-old I just knew it was The Beatles. I then found out it was a band called Badfinger. The more I heard the band the more I liked them. When I start to like an artist’s music, I want to find out more about them. What I found about Badfinger resembled a Greek tragedy more than a power pop band. I’ve read the story over and over, hoping for a different outcome that doesn’t happen.

The members were Pete Ham, Tom Evans, Mike Gibbins, and Joey Molland (who replaced Ron Griffiths).

They started out as the “Iveys” and in 1968 signed with the Beatles new label…Apple. After that, they changed their name to Badfinger. Paul McCartney wrote their first big hit single “Come and Get It” and after that, they were recording their own songs. The hits kept coming… “No Matter What”, “Baby Blue” and “Day after Day”. They also wrote “Without You”…a small blues song that Harry Nilsson covered…it became a monster worldwide hit. Mariah Carey also covered it later and was again a giant hit.

They signed with a manager named Stan Polley and got a massive contract with Warner Brothers and left Apple. Things were looking good. They had hits but they never made it over the hump. Warner Brothers could have pushed them over to stardom. Polley set up an escrow account for the band with the advance money and the money disappeared.

He told the band that he was planning for their future etc. He put them on a small salary and embezzled the rest. He really (deceived) them and their royalties for their songs were tied up for years. The band was basically broke. With all their self-written hits, they should have been set financially for years.

Pete Ham didn’t have the money to pay his mortgage and he had a baby on the way. On April 23, 1975, after a night of drinking he hanged himself in his garage.

Pete was said to be a trusting soul and never would believe Polley was cheating them until the very end. His suicide note read… “I will not be allowed to love and trust everybody. This is better P.S. Stan Polley is a soulless bastard. I will take him with me.”

In 1983 after scrambling for gigs, Tom Evans and his wife were running out of money and not able to get to any of the royalties due him from co-writing songs with Pete…it led him to hang himself eight years after Pete.

Stan Polley got off easier than Pete Ham and Tom Evans. He had a long life, dying at Rancho Mirage in California in 2009 at the age of 87 after defrauding a number of clients. There were few mourners at the funeral.

“Day After Day” is one of their best-known songs. It was their highest-charting song and it peaked at #4 in the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, and #10 in the UK Charts in 1972. The song was on the Straight Up album that peaked at #31 in the Billboard album charts. Straight Up is a fantastic album and probably their greatest. The song is one of the best of 1970’s power pop.

 The Straight Up album did very well thanks to “Day After Day” and “Baby Blue,” but Apple was in such disarray that Badfinger had to leave the label soon after.

The slide guitar sounds familiar because George Harrison produced this and played slide on it along with Pete Ham. Leon Russell joined in and played. It was mixed by Todd Rundgren.

If you are interested in Badfinger there is a book called Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger by Dan Matovina. If you look it up, don’t faint because of sticker shock. If you find a used copy somewhere that is affordable… pick it up. I hope they reprint it again one day.

 

Day After Day

I remember finding out about you
Every day, my mind is all around you
Looking out from my lonely room, day after day
Bring it home, baby, make it soon
I give my love to you

I remember holding you while you sleep
Every day, I feel the tears that you weep
Looking out of my lonely gloom, day after day
Bring it home, baby, make it soon
I give my love to you

Looking out of my lonely room, day after day
Bring it home, baby, make it soon
I give my love to you

I remember finding out about you
Every day, my mind is all around you
Looking out of my lonely gloom, day after day
Bring it home, baby, make it soon
I give my love to you.

(Badfinger’s first hit, “Come And Get It” had just hit the American top 40 this week in 1970, by the way. They’d have three more, including this great one.)

 

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56 thoughts on “March 17 – Writer Badfinger Talks Of Band Badfinger”

  2. I didn’t know any of that back story. Dang, such talent and tragedy. There were agents and labels in the biz that would do that to musicians. I believe the Monkee’s suffered a similar fiasco and the Dixie Chicks with Sony. Keep up the digging. The band did sound a bit like the Fabs on their first hit, after that, they took on their own sound.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    1. Badfinger (Max)

      They did change their sound and became their own band. Of course I skimmed over the history but it really is bad.
      I know many of the 50s and early 60s artists would sign to Mafia labels and of course that didn’t go well. Tommy James was one of them I believe. Thanks for commenting as always Phil.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. very few of the 60s artists seemed to do well financially, there were a lot of shady characters around in the business. Tomorrow I have a post about an artist who’s the opposite… exceptional career management. It seems like back then in the 60s-90s at least, having someone in the band who was well-versed in business and law was as important as having one who knew music theory or was a vituoso.

        Liked by 1 person

  3. They had so much potential, but fate was not on their side, and they ended up being penniless and forgotten, little more than a sad footnote in musical history, time was not kind to Badfinger. When Lennon hurt his forefinger on a piano, and he was using only one finger, the Iveys changed their name to Badfinger.

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      1. yeah, I was thinking that too – it was not only their hit singles, which were decent (commercially) but that massive hit for Nilsson…even their songwriting part of the royalties for that should have been big.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Badfinger (Max)

        Oh…one more…Carey’s massive version also. Their families probably made more in those versions than the band made in their career.

        Liked by 1 person

  5. Great guest post. The Badfinger story gets more tragic every time I read about them. I’m glad you continue to tell it. I just finished going through Paul McCartney’s 2-book set of ‘The Lyrics’. He included ‘Come and Get It’, and told the story from his perspective as an Apple exec and as songwriter for their first hit.

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. Badfinger (Max)

      Thank you… when I read that book…I was just shocked on how bad it got. Polley had them stitched up and really never paid for it. The one thing that came out was how great a guy Pete Ham was…and how caring. Not to mention he could write like Paul McCartney.

      Liked by 2 people

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      1. my question is did they realize how badly they were being taken adantage of, and if so couldn’t they have hired a lawyer to try to get them out of the situation and bring in the money due?

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Badfinger (Max)

        I’ll have to reread that book…I think it was like CCR…when Fogerty went to Allen Klein…even Klein told him…you are hooked.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Badfinger (Max)

        It does…Pete is the one you really feel pity for. Now you cannot find a copy under 150 dollars anyway. I hope they do reprint the book.

        Liked by 2 people

      6. Badfinger (Max)

        I keep hoping to find another one at a used bookstore…well… before Covid…hopefully now I can start looking again…not to sell them but to give them away to friends.

        Liked by 2 people

      7. seems like a needle in a haystack, but if you are going by one, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to check, who knows what you might end up finding in the music section.

        Like

    2. that’s a book I have admired in the stores, but don’t quite feel justified buying yet given its current price. But that would definitely be an interesting chapter to read. It’s amazing -sad, but amazing – they didn’t do better with the support of the beatles, and their talent.

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. I checked The Lyrics out from our public library,… after quite a long time on the wait list, I might add. If you have that option, I recommend it. The Beatles were a bit too wrapped up with their own interests, according to some other things I’ve read or watched. But Badfinger did eventually get a great start with Paul and George. Too bad they couldn’t help with the fraudster.

        Liked by 2 people

  6. Max, I knew vaguely what happened with Badfinger from reading some of your other posts, but I learned a lot of the sordid details from this one. I also learned more about who helped them out on the song. That saying, “Only the good die young.” sure is true. The swindler living to a ripe old age doesn’t seem fair, yet I feel once he passed on to the next realm he started feeling the heat. Great post, and I’m tickled you and Dave traded places today. Hoping to see more of it in the future.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    1. Badfinger (Max)

      Thanks Lisa…Yes it gets really bad and I do hope he pays for what he did to them plus Pete’s daughter who never knew her dad. From what I read Pete was just such a nice guy that he couldn’t believe anyone would do that…until it was too late. Also…thanks for posting my post in advance. It’s a lot of fun.

      Liked by 2 people

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    1. like I just said to Max, I try to forget about that record! Great song though…i’d say the best they wrote, but not the best they did. Nilsson really made it everything it could be and then some.

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      Reply

  8. I remember my older bro bought a single on the Apple label; As we passed, he to his bedroom, me to the kitchen, thought it would be the Beatles or (God no!) Mary Hopkin but when he slung it on the stereo I forgot about the peanut butter and honey sandwich I was going to make. The sound of the Iveys ‘Maybe Tomorrow’ filled my ears, and that was enough to forget about my guts. I went back and said, ‘play it again.’
    Also Max, Big Star- after he hit the Box-Top jackpot at 17-18 Alex Chilton had more than a touch of the Badfinger luck.
    (Dave, I hope this cross-fertilzation garners you some more followers.You definitely deserve more.)

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    1. Badfinger (Max)

      You know I should have mentioned Maybe Tomorrow. Badfinger should have been more than a cautionairy tale.
      I agree Obbverse…. Big Star was one disaster after another. They might have been the best out of the three but yet they were not heard by many…only musicians who started bands…the rest of Alex’s career was like that also.
      Yes, Dave does deserve more.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply
      2. Badfinger (Max)

        Thank you Obbverse I really appreciate it. Yes they do fly by. I go to Dave’s blog first thing because I never know what the afternoon will bring.

        Liked by 2 people

    2. thanks for that Obbverse! I know when I started reading more about the Beatles a few years back, I was extremely surprised that Mary Hopkin was one of their first picks to be on their own label. In some ways, Chilton’s career was sadder than many because like you say, he started off on top out of nowhere as a teen then never really got close again no matter what (to borrow a phrase from the other band talked about here)

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  9. I loved Badfinger. Their hits were staples on the oldies playlist at our station. The songs always tested well with audiences, so they remained in a steady rotation. I had forgotten that two members hung themselves. So very sad. I’m glad we have the music we have from them, but wish there was much more.

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. Badfinger (Max)

      The sad part is Keith…their non hits were really good! Some were just as good as their hits…better than “album filler.”
      That is cool that they tested well.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. I think that’s the difference between ‘hit of the moment’ fluff like ‘Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep,’ ‘I Think I love You,’ anything Osmond, and hooky quality pop. The good stuff is appreciated and lasts, the pap gets looked back on with a derisory laugh. And the kids who bought it now think ‘what were we thinking, buying that Leif Garrett Collection of crap?’

        Liked by 1 person

      2. very true… and the crap product that finds the right market at the right time is why “pop” and “disco” , maybe “new wave” too are looked down on. They each have produced many spectacular records, but also got too popular and encouraged too many wannabes.

        Liked by 1 person

  10. Pingback: Big Star – Feel ….Power Pop Friday – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

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