About
Also known as: Bad Finger
Few bands carry a story as heavy as Badfinger's. They started out in Swansea in 1961 as the Iveys, playing covers of Motown, blues, and Beatles hits around the London circuit before becoming the first non Beatle act signed to Apple Records in 1968. The name change came soon after: Badfinger was lifted from "Bad Finger Boogie", the working title for "With a Little Help from My Friends". Once they hit their stride, the hits kept coming. Paul McCartney wrote and produced "Come and Get It", George Harrison produced "Day After Day", and Todd Rundgren handled "Baby Blue". Their most enduring legacy might be "Without You", a song written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans that became a number one for Harry Nilsson in 1972 and again for Mariah Carey in 1994. The band is estimated to have sold 14 million records and is widely credited with shaping the power pop sound of the 1970s. The story behind those records is genuinely tragic. Fraudulent manager Stan Polley left the band financially ruined after Apple folded, and the fallout was devastating. Ham took his own life in 1975, Evans in 1983, and Gibbins died from a brain aneurysm in 2005. "Baby Blue" got a second life when it featured in the finale of Breaking Bad, introducing Badfinger to an entirely new audience.
