Product Code Database
Badfinger were a Welsh rock music band formed in Swansea in 1961. Their best-known lineup consisted of Pete Ham (guitar), Mike Gibbins (drums), Tom Evans (bass), and Joey Molland (guitar). They are recognised for their influence on the 1970s power pop genre. It is estimated that the band sold 14 million records.
Initially known 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"). From 1968 to 1973, Badfinger recorded five albums for Apple Records and toured extensively, before they became embroiled in the chaos of Apple's dissolution.
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 UK and US number-one hit for Harry Nilsson in 1972 and a UK number-one for Mariah Carey in 1994. In 1972, "Without You" saw co-writers Ham and Evans receive the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically from the Songwriters Guild of Great Britain.
After Apple Records folded in 1973, Badfinger struggled with a host of legal, managerial, and financial problems mostly due to their fraudulent manager Stan Polley, 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, Gibbins died from a brain aneurysm in 2005, and Molland died from complications of diabetes in 2025. At the time of his death, Molland was the last surviving member of the group’s classic lineup.
Badfinger's 'Baby Blue' featured as the final score in the finale of Breaking Bad, reviving its popularity amongst a new generation of listeners.
In March 1965, drummer Mike Gibbins joined the Iveys. The group secured concerts around the Swansea area, opening for prominent British bands such as the Spencer Davis Group, the Who, the Moody Blues, and the Yardbirds.
By June 1966, Bill Collins (the father of actor Lewis Collins) had started to manage the group. In December 1966, the group moved into Collins's home at 7 Park Avenue, Golders Green, London, sharing space with an act called the Mojos. The house was terminally overcrowded, so the only place to find any privacy was in a room equipped with a two-track recording machine.
The group performed a wide range of cover tunes on the London circuit, from Motown, blues, and Soul music to Top 40, psychedelia, and Beatles hits, which garnered interest from record labels. Ray Davies of the Kinks auditioned to produce them, recording three of their songs at a four-track demo studio in London's Old Kent Road on 15 January 1967: "Taxi" and "Sausage And Eggs", songs by Ham; and Griffiths's "I Believe in You Girl". On 8 December 1966, Collins and the group signed a five-year contract giving Collins a 20% share of net receipts, the same as the individual group members, but only after managerial expenses had been deducted. Collins said at the time, "Look, I can't promise you lads anything, except blood, sweat and tears." The group performed occasional concerts backing David Garrick while performing as the Iveys across the United Kingdom throughout the rest of the decade.
In August 1967, Dai Jenkins was asked to leave the group, and was replaced by Liverpudlian guitarist Tom Evans, formerly of Them Calderstones (b. Thomas Evans Jr., 5 June 1947, Liverpool, d. 19 November 1983). Jenkins's departure was remembered by Griffiths as being "politely asked if he would step down", as Jenkins seemed more interested in girls than the music.
The group's first single, "Maybe Tomorrow", produced by Visconti, was released worldwide on 15 November 1968. It reached the Top Ten in several European countries and Japan, but only #67 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and failed to chart in the UK. The US manager of Apple Records, Ken Mansfield, ordered 400,000 copies of the single—considered to be a bold move at the time in the music business—and pushed for automatic airplay and reviews from newspapers, which he secured. Nevertheless, Mansfield remembered the problems: "We had a great group. We had a great record. We were missing just one thing ... the ability to go out and pick up people, and convince them to put their money on the counter." A second Tom Evans composition, "Storm in a Teacup", was included on an Apple EP promoting Wall's Ice Cream, along with songs by Apple artists such as James Taylor, Mary Hopkin, and Jackie Lomax. The chart success of "Maybe Tomorrow" in Europe and Japan led to a follow-up single release in those markets in July 1969: Griffiths's "Dear Angie", also produced by Visconti. An LP containing both singles and titled Maybe Tomorrow was released only in Italy, Germany, and Japan. This limited release strategy was thought to be the work of Apple Corps president Allen Klein: an Apple Corps press officer, Tony Bramwell, remembered: "Klein was saying, 'We're not going to issue any more records until I sort out this Apple mess.
After the unexpectedly limited releases of "Dear Angie" and Maybe Tomorrow, Griffiths complained about Apple's handling of the Iveys in an interview for the Disc & Music Echo magazine, saying: "We do feel a bit neglected. We keep writing songs for a new single and submitting them to Apple, but they keep sending them back, saying they're not good enough." Paul McCartney read the interview and offered the song "Come and Get It" to the group, although he had written the song for the soundtrack of The Magic Christian. Before the recording on Saturday, 2 August 1969, Griffiths remembered the whole group being so excited they couldn't sleep. Producing the track in under one hour, McCartney made sure that they copied his own demo note-for-note: "They were a young band ... they said, 'We want to do it a bit different, wanna get our own thing in'. I said 'No, this has gotta be exactly like this McCartney's, 'cos this is the hit.
McCartney had been commissioned to contribute two other songs to the film's soundtrack. After "Come and Get It" was successfully recorded, he offered to produce two of the Iveys' original compositions to fulfill those commissions, for which he selected "Carry On Till Tomorrow" (commissioned as the main title theme for the film) and "Rock of All Ages" (commissioned as background music for a party scene). All three tracks appeared both in the movie and on its soundtrack album. McCartney then recruited George Martin to provide the string arrangement for "Carry On Till Tomorrow". As Griffiths fell ill midway through these sessions, Evans played bass on "Rock of All Ages", "Midnight Sun", and "Crimson Ship".
Harrison would later state that the band was named after Helga Fabdinger, a stripper the Beatles had known in Hamburg.
As the release date of "Come and Get It" was approaching, the Iveys looked for a replacement for Griffiths. After unsuccessfully auditioning a number of bassists, they hired guitarist Joey Molland, who was previously with Gary Walker & the Rain, the Masterminds, and the Fruit-Eating Bears. His addition required Evans to shift from rhythm guitar to bass.
New recording sessions for Badfinger also commenced in March 1970, with Mal Evans producing. Two songs were completed, including "No Matter What", which was rejected by Apple as a potential single. Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick then took over as producer and the band completed its second album in July 1970. During the recordings, the band were sent to Hawaii on 4 June, to appear at a Capitol/Apple Records convention, and then flew to Italy to play concerts in Rome. No Dice was released in the US in late 1970, peaking at #28 on the Billboard album chart. The Mal Evans-produced track "No Matter What", as re-mixed by Emerick, was finally released as a single, and reached numerous Top Ten charts around the world—peaking at #8 in the US and #5 in the UK. An Emerick-produced album track from No Dice titled "Without You" became even more successful after Harry Nilsson covered the song in 1972; his version became an international hit, reaching #1 on Billboard in the US, and also spending five weeks at the top of the UK chart. The song began as a merger of two separate songs, with the verses penned by Ham and the chorus penned by Evans. The song won Ham and Evans the 1972 Ivor Novello award for "Song of the Year".
Although Polley's professional reputation was admired, his dubious financial practices eventually contributed to the band's downfall. A financial statement prepared by Polley's accountants, Sigmund Balaban & Co., for the period from 8 December 1970 to 31 October 1971, showed Polley's income from the band: "Salaries and advances to client, $8,339 (Joey Molland), $6,861 (Mike Gibbins), $6,211 (Tom Evans), $5,959 (Pete Ham). Net corporation profit, $24,569. Management commission, $75,744 (Stan Polley)". Although it is not known if the band members saw the statement, Collins certainly had, as his handwriting was on the document.
Badfinger toured the US for three months in late 1970 and were generally well-received, although the band was already weary of persistent comparisons to the Beatles. "The thing that impressed me so much was how similar their voices were to The Beatles," Tony Visconti (producer, "Maybe Tomorrow") said; "I sometimes had to look over the control board down into the studio to make sure John and Paul weren't singing lead vocals ..."Liner notes, The Best of Badfinger, Apple CDP 530129, 1994. Rolling Stone critic Mike Saunders opined in a rave review of No Dice in 1970: "It's as if John, Paul, George, and Ringo had been reincarnated as Joey, Pete, Tom, and Mike of Badfinger." Media comparisons between them and the Beatles would continue throughout Badfinger's career.
The album, ultimately titled Straight Up, was released in the US in December 1971, and spawned two successful singles: "Day After Day" ( Billboard number four), which sold over a million worldwide, and "Baby Blue" (US number 14). The album reached number 31 on the US charts. However, the disintegration of Apple Records in Britain led to "Baby Blue" never being released as a UK single, although a release number and date had already been assigned to it.
The band embarked on a US tour in 1972, but after problems with Evans, Gibbins left and was replaced for the tour by drummer Rob Stawinsky, who was described as Badfinger's "solid, new drummer". Stawinsky was not used after the tour, though, and Gibbins rejoined the band in September.
Sessions for Badfinger's fourth and final album for Apple, Ass, had begun as far back as early 1972 and would continue at five recording studios over the next year. Rundgren was originally hired to produce but quit in a financial dispute during the first week. The band then produced itself, but Apple rejected their version of the album. Finally, Badfinger hired Chris Thomas to co-produce and complete the project. In the meanwhile, Polley negotiated a deal with Warner Bros. Records, that required a new album from the band every six months over a three-year period. By this time Evans had become suspicious of Polley's oversight, but the band nevertheless signed the deal. Released in 1973, the Ass front cover featured Evans' idea: a jackass staring at a huge dangling carrot. The Ass release was further stalled because of legal wrangling, with Polley using Molland's unsigned song publishing as a negotiating ploy. Attempting to sweep discrepancies under the carpet to secure the LP's release Apple attributed the songwriting credits to "Badfinger". But both Ass (US number 122), and its accompanying lead single, "Apple of My Eye", fell short of reaching the Billboard Hot 100.
Only six weeks after the Ass sessions had been completed, Badfinger re-entered the studio to begin recording material for its first Warner Bros. release, Badfinger (the intended title, For Love or Money, was omitted from the album pressings). The album was produced by Thomas, even though the songs were being written in the studio as they recorded. Ass and Badfinger were released almost simultaneously, and the accompanying singles from Badfinger, "Love Is Easy" (UK) and "I Miss You" (US), were unsuccessful. Badfinger did manage to retain some US fan support as a result of their touring schedule. A March 1974 concert at the Cleveland Agora was recorded on 16-track tape for a possible live album release, even though the performance was deemed unsatisfactory at the time.
Following the American tours, Badfinger recorded Wish You Were Here at the Caribou Ranch recording studio in Colorado, and at George Martin's AIR Studios in London. The album was well received by Rolling Stone and other periodicals upon its release in October 1974. However, over the previous year, Warner Brothers' publishing arm had become increasingly troubled by a lack of communication from Polley regarding the status of an escrow account of advance funds. Per their contract, Polley was to deposit $250,000 into a mutually accessible account for safekeeping, which both Warner Publishing and the band could potentially access. But Polley did not reveal the account's whereabouts to Warner Publishing, and he reportedly ignored Warner's demands to do so. As a result, in a letter dated 30 April 1974, WB's publishing arm terminated its relationship with Badfinger, but, other than having the group sign some new contracts, Polley took no action to resolve Warner's publishing issue. Consistent with the termination notice, on 14 August 1974, Warner's publishing arm refused to accept the tapes of Wish You Were Here, but the album was later released anyway.
With the Warner situation becoming increasingly unstable, Polley's next ploy was to press the band to pass up a US tour to go back into Apple Recording Studios to record its third album under the Warner Brothers contract. Because Thomas, the producer of Badfinger's last three albums, thought that the band was rushing into the studio too quickly, Polley hired Kiss producers Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise to produce the album. Over only 11 days at the Apple studios, tracks were recorded for the Head First album (eventually released in 2000), and rough mixes were distributed to the musicians and Warner Brothers Records in America. However, because Warner's publishing arm had already filed a lawsuit against Polley and Badfinger in the L.A. Superior Court on 10 December 1974, the album tapes could not be formally accepted by Warner Bros. – and Warner executives also thought the rough tapes sounded "thrown together in a hurry" in "an obvious attempt to extract further advances from us". The legal action also led to the company stopping the promotion of Wish You Were Here after seven weeks, and ending its distribution worldwide, thus completely halting Badfinger's career.
On the night of 23 April 1975, Ham received a phone call from the United States, telling him that all his money had disappeared. Later that night he met Tom Evans and they went to The White Hart Pub in Surrey together, where Ham drank ten whisky. Evans drove him home at three o'clock on the morning of 24 April 1975. Ham hanged himself in his garage studio in Woking later that morning. His suicide note—addressed to his girlfriend, Anne Herriot, and her son, Blair—blamed Polley for much of his despair and inability to cope with his disappointments in life. The note read: "Anne, I love you. Blair, I love you. I will not be allowed to love and trust everybody. This is better. Pete. P.S. Stan Polley is a soulless bastard. I will take him with me". Ham died at the age of 27. He had shown growing signs of mental illness over the past months, with Gibbins remembering Ham burning on his hands and arms. He was cremated at the Morriston Crematorium, Swansea; his ashes were spread in the memorial gardens. Ham's daughter, Petera, was born one month after his death. In May, Warner Bros terminated its contract with Badfinger, and Badfinger dissolved. Around that time, Apple also deleted all of Badfinger's albums from its catalogue.
By 1977, both Molland and Evans were out of the music business. Molland later described his dire economic circumstances: "Thank God I had guitars and I was able to sell some of that stuff. We were flat broke, and that's happened to me three times, where my wife and I have had to sell off everything and go and stay with her parents or do whatever. I installed carpeting for a while in Los Angeles and stuff like that. You do what you've got to do to survive." In London, Evans briefly had jobs insulating pipes, and driving a taxi. Collins was having trouble paying the lease on the group's two-room rehearsal studio at No. 6 Denmark Street, London. After advertising for new occupants, he was contacted by Malcolm McLaren, manager of the Sex Pistols, who gave Collins £650 () and a Fender Rhodes piano as down payment.
The Warner Brothers lawsuit against Polley lasted four years, with Polley finally being forced to pay a "substantial sum" back to the company in late 1978. However, Polley managed to retain approximately half of the original $100,000 escrow payment, representing about three albums' worth of payments. In 1987, detective John Hansen, working for the Riverside District Attorney's office, started an investigation into fraudulent bank dealings by Polley.
After the failure of Say No More, Molland and Evans operated rival touring bands, each using the name "Badfinger", during 1982 and 1983, which created even more personal and professional conflict. In 1982, Evans teamed with pre-1975 Badfinger members Jackson and Gibbins, first adding guitarist Adam Allen, and then, in the fall of 1982, adding guitarists Reed Kailing of the Grass Roots and (Chicago's) Donnie Dacus.
In 1983 Evans and Jackson were joined by post-1975 Badfinger members Kaye and Sherba, with drummer Lenny Campanaro. Meanwhile, for his Badfinger concerts, Molland had teamed with post-1975 member Tansin. Evans and Jackson signed a management contract with Milwaukee businessman John Cass, which led to a disastrous tour and a $5 million lawsuit, which was finally settled on 21 October 1985, in Cass's favour, although both musicians argued that their responsibilities of the contract could not be enforced because certain management obligations had not been performed. Early in 1983, Evans and Jackson, with assistance from new member Al Wodtke, completed four demos in Minneapolis, under the name "Badfinger". The demos included Jackson's "I Won't Forget You", a tribute to Ham. The songs were briefly promoted but failed to generate strong interest, despite the involvement of Don Powell, who was a manager for musicians such as David Bowie and Stevie Wonder.
On the night of 18 November 1983, Evans and Molland had an extensive and heated argument on the telephone regarding past Badfinger income still in escrow from the Apple era, and the "Without You" songwriting royalties Evans was now receiving, which Molland, former manager Collins and Gibbins all wanted a share of. Following this argument, 36-year-old Evans hanged himself in the garden at his home in New Haw, Surrey, on the morning of 19 November 1983. He was cremated at the Woking Crematorium, Surrey, on 25 November 1983.
All four Badfinger albums on Apple, which were deleted from release in 1975, have been reissued twice; first in the early 1990s as part of a revival of the Apple catalogue and again in 2010, when the albums were available individually or as part of the 17-disc Apple Box Set. The sole Iveys' album Maybe Tomorrow was also reissued in the early 1990s but was not part of the 2010 campaign.
Badfinger's first collection titled Shine On, spanning their two Warner Brothers albums, was released in the UK in 1989. In 1990, Rhino Records released another Warner Brothers-era compilation, The Best of Badfinger, Vol. 2, including material from both Airwaves and the previously unreleased Head First. A greatest hits collection taken from Badfinger's four albums on Apple, Come and Get It: The Best of Badfinger, appeared in 1995 on the EMI/Apple/Capitol label, which was the band's first release since 1973's Ass to be assigned a standard Apple catalogue number: SAPCOR 28. A more comprehensive collection, with tracks from both record labels, was the 2000s The Very Best of Badfinger. In 2013, a new compilation titled Timeless was issued by EMI/Universal both to capitalise on the use of "Baby Blue" in the finale of Breaking Bad and to include the 2010 remastered versions of Badfinger's songs on a greatest-hits album.
In 1990, Rykodisc released , billed as a Badfinger live recording from 1974. The album underwent substantial re-recording, and a rearranged track order by the album's producer, Molland, and had a mixed critical reaction. The album's release then sparked a lawsuit filed by Molland. The band's accounting firm, collecting for a 1985 court order settlement, had re-adjusted against Molland's Apple royalty income by deducting away the percentage amounts of that court order, then reimbursing those amounts to the other Badfinger parties. The Rykodisc contract did not include artist royalty payments, because Molland had advised Rykodisc he would take care of that distribution himself under another company name. Molland subsequently sued the other members and their estates to recoup his expenses plus a producer's royalty. He was awarded a partial settlement, as the judge stated the evidence against Molland was insufficient to justify a severe penalty, also noting that since both parties had conceded the original tapes were of poor quality, Molland's salvaging of them to a commercial level merited consideration.
After the success of Mariah Carey's recording of "Without You" in 1994, Molland and Gibbins collected an award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1995, incurring the anger of the Ham and Evans families.
While in a 1988 readers poll for Goldmine magazine, Straight Up (1971) ranked as the most-requested CD release among out-of-print albums, the album made it to CD only in 1993. In 1995, Molland was paid to re-record the 10 most popular Badfinger songs. These recordings were variously packaged in the market, often showing the original 1970s line-up of the band with little or no disclaiming information, despite Molland being the only original member of Badfinger who performed. A detailed biography of Badfinger by Dan Matovina was published in 1998, titled Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger. The 2000 update of the book was accompanied by a CD of rare material and interviews.
In 2000, a rough mix version of Head First (taken from an open-reel tape prepared by Apple engineer Phil McDonald in December 1974) was released on CD. (According to Dan Matovina, Warner Brothers could not locate the original master tapes for remixing at that time, but they were eventually found about 10 years later.) In 2002, Gibbins released a two-disc set of a Badfinger performance recorded in Indiana, on 19 October 1982, which had been captured on a basic cassette recorder, which was initially (and inaccurately) titled Live 83 – DBA-BFR. The band at that time had consisted of Evans, Gibbins, Jackson, Kailing and Dacus.
In 2003, and again in 2006, two separate CDs of related Apple Publishing music, 94 Baker Street, and An Apple a Day, were released. The CDs contain nine songs by the Iveys. In 2008, another CD of Apple-related songs, Treacle Toffee World: Further Adventures into the Pop Psych Sounds from the Apple Era 1967–1969, included two more Iveys demos.
By 2013, the issue of royalty payments had been resolved in court. The main songwriter receives 32 percent of publishing royalties and 25 percent of ASCAP royalties. The other band members and Collins share the rest. Revenue from album sales is shared equally with 20% going to each member as well as Collins. In 1994, the year in which Mariah Carey covered the song "Without You", the royalties for Ham's estate spiked up to US$500,000.
Also, posthumous collections were released for both Pete Ham and Tom Evans. In both 1997 and 1999, two collections of Ham's home recordings were released: 7 Park Avenue (1997), and Golders Green (1999), with extra instruments added by Jackson and Griffiths. In 1995, a posthumous Evans album was released, Over You: The Final Tracks, which was produced by Evans's friend and songwriting partner Rod Roach.
Former manager Bill Collins died in August 2002, aged 89, and on 4 October 2005, Mike Gibbins died in his sleep at his home in Oviedo, Florida from a brain aneurysm. He was 56, had been married twice and had three sons.
In June 2006, a Badfinger convention took place in Swansea, featuring a performance by Bob Jackson. The event brought together Bob Jackson, Ron Griffiths, and some members of the Ham, Evans and Gibbins families. On 1 January 2008, BBC Wales broadcast a one-hour documentary about Badfinger.
On 27 April 2013 an official blue plaque was unveiled by the Swansea City Council to honour Pete Ham in his home town of Swansea. The public event was also attended by two former members of the original Badfinger band, the Iveys, Ron Griffiths and Dai Jenkins, plus former Badfinger member, Bob Jackson. The plaque honored Pete and all the Iveys and Badfinger members of Pete Ham's lifetime. A concert followed the unveiling of the plaque featuring former Badfinger members Bob Jackson and Al Wodtke.
Joey Molland's wife, Kathie Molland, died on 24 March 2009, and Stan Polley died on 20 July 2009 in California.
Molland, the last surviving member of the band's classic lineup, continued to tour under the name Joey Molland's Badfinger in the United States. In 2015, former member Bob Jackson formed his own version of Badfinger with current members Andy Nixon, Michael Healey, and Ted Duggan to honour the memory of Pete Ham, Tom Evans, and Mike Gibbins and undertook a 23 date UK theatre tour, playing to over 20,000 people. In 2016 the band continued to play UK shows
Molland continued to lead his Badfinger touring group until 2024; he died the following year, on 1 March 2025, aged 77.
Other members
Line-ups
| 1961–1965 The Iveys |
|
| 1969 | Maybe Tomorrow |
As Badfinger:
| 1970 | Magic Christian Music | 31 | 55 |
| No Dice | — | 28 | |
| 1971 | Straight Up | 22 | 31 |
| 1973 | Ass | — | 122 |
| 1974 | Badfinger | — | 161 |
| Wish You Were Here | — | 148 | |
| 1979 | Airwaves | 97 | 125 |
| 1981 | Say No More | — | 155 |
| 2000 | Head First | — | — |
| 1989 | Shine On (UK only) |
| 1990 | The Best of Badfinger, Vol. 2 |
| 1990 | |
| 1995 | Come and Get It: The Best of Badfinger |
| 1997 | BBC in Concert 1972–1973 |
| 2000 | The Very Best of Badfinger |
| 2002 | Live 83 – DBA-BFR |
| 2010 | Magic Christian Music; No Dice; Straight Up; Ass (remastered albums on CD, with bonus tracks) |
| 2010 | Apple Records Extra: Badfinger |
| 2013 | Timeless...The Musical Legacy |
| 1969 | "Maybe Tomorrow" | — | — | — | 67 | 51 | Maybe Tomorrow |
| "Dear Angie" | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Come and Get It" | 4 | 14 | 4 | 7 | 6 | Magic Christian Music | |
| 1970 | "No Matter What" | 5 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 6 | No Dice |
| 1971 | "Day After Day" | 10 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 3 | Straight Up |
| 1972 | "Baby Blue" | 73 | 16 | 7 | 14 | 9 | |
| 1973 | "Apple of My Eye" | — | 96 | — | 102 | 88 | Ass |
| 1974 | "Love Is Easy" | — | — | — | — | — | Badfinger |
| "I Miss You" | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1979 | "Lost Inside Your Love" | — | — | — | — | — | Airwaves |
| "Love Is Gonna Come at Last" | — | — | — | 69 | 79 | ||
| 1981 | "Hold On" | — | — | — | 56 | 67 | Say No More |
| "I Got You" | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Because I Love You" | — | — | — | — | — |
|
|
