Badfinger

Badfinger stood out among the most admired forerunners of the 1970s power pop scene through their skillful fusion of appealing, melodic songcraft and forceful guitar drive. The Beatles served as their mentors after the Welsh group joined the Apple roster, and while their strongest recordings echoed those sponsors only slightly, the guitar contributions of Pete Ham and Joey Molland supplied a harder-rocking bite across much of their output; both 1970’s No Dice and 1971’s Straight Up demonstrated their command of energetic, spirited songwriting and performance. Apple’s top-selling act after the Beatles, they watched their prospects sour once the label encountered monetary difficulties, yet 1974’s Wish You Were Here—cut for Warner Bros.—affirmed that abundant strong material remained, even as misfortune and exploitative contracts ultimately devastated the ensemble.

Pete Ham, guitarist and songwriter from Swansea, Wales, assembled a group in 1961 that included Dai Jenkins on rhythm guitar, Ron Griffiths on bass, and Roy Anderson on drums. The musicians cycled through several monikers—the Panthers, the Wild Ones, and the Black Velvets—before adopting the Iveys in 1964, a tribute to the rising Hollies. Initially modeling themselves on the Shadows, who doubled as Cliff Richard’s backing unit while maintaining their own instrumental profile, the Iveys cultivated a tougher, R&B-tinged approach with accumulated experience; Mike Gibbins’s arrival behind the kit in place of Roy Anderson helped them build a firmer regional audience and secure support slots in Swansea for the Who, the Yardbirds, and the Spencer Davis Group. Following their pact with manager Bill Collins, the Iveys balanced their own engagements with sideman duties for pop vocalist David Garrick, attracting attention from record companies eager to sign them.

Dai Jenkins departed the Iveys in 1967, after which Liverpool guitarist Tom Evans stepped in. Evans’s addition intensified the band’s synthesis of pop, R&B, and rock, and when the Beatles launched Apple Records in 1968, Peter Asher—formerly of Peter & Gordon and now an Apple A&R executive—and Mal Evans, the Beatles’ roadie and assistant also affiliated with the label, both spotted the Iveys. Mal Evans proved especially enthusiastic, producing demos that prompted all four Beatles to endorse the signing; Apple extended publishing agreements to the songwriters as well as a recording contract. Under producer Tony Visconti, the Iveys’ first single, “Maybe Tomorrow” b/w “And Her Daddy’s a Millionaire,” appeared in November 1968; it performed solidly in Europe and Japan yet missed the U.S. Top 40 and failed to register on British charts. A follow-up, “Dear Angie” b/w “No Escape,” arrived in July 1969 and again sold respectably outside English-speaking territories but stalled elsewhere. The projected 1969 album Maybe Tomorrow received only restricted distribution in Germany, Italy, and Japan amid Apple’s internal restructuring.

Paul McCartney rescued the situation by offering the Iveys “Come and Get It,” a song he had written for the Peter Sellers–Ringo Starr film The Magic Christian. He produced the track, insisting the band replicate his arrangement closely, and the session wrapped in a single hour; two originals, “Carry On ’til Tomorrow” and “Rock of All Ages,” were also taped for the soundtrack LP. Shortly before the single’s release, the musicians adopted the more contemporary name Badfinger, drawn from the working title “Bad Finger Boogie” once attached to the Lennon/McCartney composition that became “With a Little Help from My Friends.” The lineup shifted as well when Ron Griffiths was dismissed; Tom Evans switched to bass, and Joey Molland, ex of the Masterminds, joined as rhythm guitarist.

Apple issued “Come and Get It” in the United Kingdom in December 1969 and in the United States the following January, where it reached the Top Ten in both markets. The accompanying 1970 album Magic Christian Music mixed fresh recordings with earlier Iveys material, after which the group returned to the studio under Mal Evans and Geoff Emerick. No Dice appeared late in 1970, propelled by the robust single “No Matter What,” another Top Ten success; the LP also contained “Without You,” later a major hit for Harry Nilsson on his 1971 release Nilsson Schmilsson and again in 1994 via Mariah Carey’s version. George Harrison enlisted Badfinger to supply acoustic guitars and harmonies on several tracks for his 1970 album All Things Must Pass and included them in his 1971 Concert for Bangladesh band; they also contributed backing vocals to Ringo Starr’s “It Don’t Come Easy” and participated in sessions for John Lennon’s Imagine, though those parts were ultimately omitted.

Badfinger commenced work on their next album in 1971 while Apple sought a more polished sound, resulting in three separate producers—Geoff Emerick, George Harrison, and Todd Rundgren—overseeing Straight Up, issued in December 1971, with Rundgren handling final assembly. The set yielded the major singles “Day After Day” and “Baby Blue,” yet its arrival coincided with Apple’s collapse, and the British release of “Baby Blue” was canceled at the eleventh hour. Extensive touring followed, interrupted when a rift between Tom Evans and Mike Gibbins prompted the drummer’s temporary exit from U.S. dates; Rob Stawinsky filled in, though Gibbins rejoined by year’s end. Amid Apple’s deepening financial woes, the band recorded their final label album, Ass, a fraught effort that began under Todd Rundgren—who quit after two tracks and later sued for non-payment—before Chris Thomas and Badfinger completed production; the November 1973 release proved commercially underwhelming.

Even before Ass wrapped, business manager Stan Polley secured a Warner Bros. contract that demanded an album every six months, a schedule many associates viewed skeptically. Badfinger entered the studio for their self-titled Warner Bros. debut only six weeks after finishing Ass; Badfinger surfaced in February 1974, competing directly with the prior LP and disappointing commercially. Chris Thomas then guided further sessions in Colorado and London, yielding Wish You Were Here, released by Warner Bros. in November 1974 to enthusiastic reviews and initial fan support. Polley’s Warner Bros. arrangement, however, sparked a publishing dispute that prompted the label to withdraw the album less than two months after its appearance. Internal strains intensified, leading Pete Ham to depart briefly before returning for touring; while Polley and Warner Bros. remained at odds, the manager rushed the group back into the studio for an eleven-day session whose tapes the label rejected. Promised royalties subsequently disappeared, and although Polley’s organized-crime connections and misappropriation of funds later emerged, the full scope remained unknown when Pete Ham died by suicide on April 24, 1975. His note ended with the lines “Stan Polley is a soulless bastard. I will take him with me.” Badfinger disbanded a month later, severing ties with both Warner Bros. and Apple.

Tom Evans and keyboardist Bob Jackson, who had toured with the group in its final phase, subsequently formed the Dodgers, releasing the 1978 album Love on the Rebound before dissolving after a management dispute. Mike Gibbins joined the Flying Aces and toured and recorded with Bonnie Tyler, while Joey Molland formed Natural Gas with alumni of Humble Pie and Colosseum. Within several years both Evans and Molland had exited the music industry for day jobs. In 1978 Molland was contacted by guitarist Joe Tansin and drummer Kenny Harck about forming a new band; needing a bassist, he recruited Evans, and Elektra expressed interest provided the group use the name Badfinger. Their reunion album Airwaves appeared in March 1979; by then Tansin and Harck had departed, and although reviews were favorable, sales lagged. Evans and Molland were joined by guitarist Glenn Sherba, keyboardist Tony Kaye, and drummer Richard Bryans for 1981’s Say No More, another poor seller that again fractured the lineup. Molland and Evans soon toured separately under the Badfinger name while publishing income, especially from the lucrative “Without You,” remained contested; Evans died by suicide on November 19, 1983.

Molland resumed touring as Badfinger in the mid-1980s, occasionally with Gibbins on drums, and in 1990 oversaw the release of Day After Day: Live, an extensively overdubbed and reordered document of a 1974 Cleveland concert. Various compilations of the Apple and Warner Bros. catalogs emerged throughout the 1980s and 1990s, while the original Apple albums received authorized CD editions in 1995. The long-shelved 1975 Warner Bros. project finally appeared in 2000 as Head First. Mike Gibbins, then residing in Florida, suffered a brain aneurysm and died on October 4, 2005, leaving Joey Molland as the sole surviving member of the classic lineup. Cleopatra Records issued No Matter What: Revisiting the Hits in 2023, featuring a Molland-led version of the band re-recording signature songs alongside guests Todd Rundgren, Rick Springfield, Matthew Sweet, Ian Anderson, and Rick Wakeman.