Thursday September 9, 2021 “Without You“ Badfinger
We of course have visited “Without You” as a Song of the Day” previously but it was with the Nilsson version of this fine song which IMHO is the definitive version. However the song was co-written by Pete Ham and originally recorded by his group Badfinger.
For all the bands touted as the ‘next Beatles’, Badfinger really had the creds to fill those shoes, they were experienced players, excellent musicians and singers and great songwriters. In addition to that they were one of the first bands signed to the Beatles Apple record label and their first album was produced in large part by a guy named McCartney.
Often touted as one of the pioneers of the ‘power-pop’ genre of music, band co-founder and multi-instrumentalist Pete Ham was responsible for some great hits like ‘No Matter What’, ‘Day After Day’, and ‘Baby Blue’ and of course today’s song “Without You”. Ham also contributed to George Harrison’s album All Things Must Pass, and along with Badfinger guitarist Tom Evans he sang backup on Ringo Starr’s “It Don’t Come Easy.” A year later, he added acoustic guitar to songs on Lennon’s Imagine album, and performed with Badfinger at Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh.
Badfinger unfortunately suffered from bad management, financial fraud and were caught up in the collapse of what was once thought of as being un-collapsible, the Beatles record label, Apple Records. Badfinger never had the opportunity to become the next Beatles.
Pete Hamm, died April 24, 2021, age 27.