Come and Get It: The Best of Badfinger

by

Badfinger

Edit

This is a very fine compilation of songs that Badfinger recorded for Apple Records from 1969 to 1973. Contrary to popular belief, Badfinger was not a cheap imitation of the Beatles. Their music was undeniably influenced by the Beatles, but it was original and stood on its own merits. The tragic suicides of Pete Ham and Tom Evans have been well documented, so I won't go into them here. The hit singles on this CD are as follows: "Come And Get It","No Matter What","Day After Day", and "Baby Blue". Another song,"Without You", was a #1 single for Harry Nilsson in 1972. The melodies and lyrics on almost every of the 21 songs are top rate, and should not be dismissed as "filler". The last 4 songs on the compilation are from the album "Ass", which has never been released on CD. The last song,"Apple Of My Eye", is Pete Ham's message to Apple Records that it's time for the band to move on to another label. Badfinger was a band that was misunderstood by critics and fans, and never got the credit that it deserved.

Badfinger was one of the most perplexing bands of the early 1970's. Anointed by The Beatles themselves as one of the first projects for Apple Records (along with James Taylor, Mary Hopkins and Billy Preston), and adopted by Paul McCartney (who slipped them their first hit single, 'Come and Get It' in February of 1970) and George Harrison, who employed them as a back-up band for the monumental 'Concert For Bangladesh' in 1972, Badfinger were either red hot or bland and mediocre throughout their brief tenure. This CD summarizes it all.

Badfinger started out as The Iveys in 1969 and nailed a #67 single with 'Maybe Tomorrow', a quaint song which anyone unfamiliar with the band is unlikely to recall. After some personnel changes, and a name change, the band achieved overnight stardom with the completely McCartneyesque 'Come and Get It', from 'The Magic Christian' soundtrack the following year. Later that same year the band released one of their three most defining tunes, 'No Matter What', which rose to number 8 on the national charts.

In 1971 Badfinger scored their biggest hit when 'Day After Day' rose to number 4. In the following year the band rode the fuzzy power-pop guitar sounds of 'Baby Blue' to number 14, and their hitmaking days were over, but these great songs etched their immortal legacy in rock. All of these aforementioned numbers are included on this disc, and constitute a quintet of exemplary songs that in themselves justify the purchase price of the disc.

There are two other recordings of note on 'Come and Get It: The Best of Badfinger'. The first is the original recording of 'Without You', penned by bandmates Tom Evans and Pete Ham and recorded at Abbey Road Studios in 1970. In 1972 Harry Nillson covered the song, turning it into a hit single. The Nillson version is of course more familiar, and in my opinion better than the Badfinger rendering, which is nonetheless a pleasant listen. The other is a blistering rock number from the band's 'Magic Christian Music' disc called 'Rock of All Ages'. With the capacity to rock out like this, it is easy to see why Badfinger fans frequently proclaim the band had it in 'em, and difficult to see why Badfinger so frequently opted for the safer confines of power-pop.

The remainder of the disc is schlock-pop. The compositions and performances are neither memorable or offensive... perhaps a little better than filler, but not much. So about a third of the disc is remarkable, the other two-thirds replaceable. In fact, the best thing about the disc aside from the 7 remarkable tunes is the great apple logo, which looks just as sweet on a CD as it did on vinyl discs when The Beatles first used it back in the 1960's.