Badfinger

Signed to The Beatles' label Apple Records, Badfinger are best known for their bouncy 1969 hit "Come & Get It", written by Paul McCartney and they were often compared to the Fab Four (although singer Pete Ham was a fine songwriter in his own right co-composing the Nilsson hit "Without You"). Yet, though the name Badfinger wasn't used until 1969, they'd already effectively been together in one shape or form for eight years after initially getting together in Swansea under a variety of different band names and line-ups. As The Iveys they attracted the interest of The Beatles, who signed them to their Apple label and released their first single "Maybe Tomorrow" in 1968. It broke into the Top 10 all over Europe and Japan and made inroads into America, leading to the release of an album, also called Maybe Tomorrow. They then changed their name to avoid confusion with the US band The Ivy League and became Badfinger, with McCartney writing and producing the single "Come & Get It". Also featured in the movie The Magic Christian, it went on to sell over a million copies, making them stars all over the world. Other hits followed, including "No Matter What", "Day After Day" and "Baby Blue", while their relationship with The Beatles continued - Tom Evans and Joey Molland both played on John Lennon's Imagine album, they played on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass album, while Ham and Evans played on Ringo Starr's "It Don't Come Easy" hit single. They subsequently left Apple to sign with Warner Brothers but internal disputes led to disruption and personnel changes and with the band embroiled in legal arguments, mental pressures mounted on Ham, who committed suicide in 1975. The band then disbanded although Jackson, Molland and Gibbins revived Badfinger in the mid-1980s and Molland was continuing to keep a version of Badfinger playing gigs through the 1990s. The original sound of Badfinger enjoyed popularity again in 2013 when their 1971 hit "Baby Blue" from their Straight Up album had a surge of downloads after being featured in the cult TV series Breaking Bad. After the deaths of Ham in 1975 and Evans in 1983, other membres of the classic line-up are also deceased: Mike Gibbins in 2005 and Joey Molland on March 1, 2025, at the age of 77.