Bad finger
Bad finger | |
---|---|
General information | |
Genre (s) | Soft Rock , pop rock , power pop |
founding | 1966 as The Iveys, 1969 as Badfinger |
resolution | 1983 |
Founding members | |
Pete Ham (†) | |
Vocals, bass
|
Tom Evans (†) |
guitar |
Ron Griffiths |
Mike Gibbins (†) | |
Last occupation | |
Vocals, bass |
Tom Evans (†) |
Vocals, guitar |
Joey Molland |
Drums |
Peter Clarke |
Tony Kaye |
Badfinger was a British rock band .
Band history
Under the name The Iveys, the group was founded in 1966 by Tom Evans, Mike Gibbins, Pete Ham and Ron Griffiths. They initially performed as the backing band of David Garrick until they sent demo tapes to Apple Records and were signed by Paul McCartney as Iveys. In 1968 the first single Maybe Tomorrow was released , which did not attract much attention. Griffiths got out soon after. Joey Molland came for him. In 1969 the band first appeared as Badfinger. In 1970 the McCartney composition Come and Get It came to number 4 in the British charts.
They were wrongly called caricatures of the Beatles and were particularly successful in the USA . In 1971 the hit single No Matter What came out. Badfinger appeared on albums by George Harrison and John Lennon , and the group also performed in the Bangladesh concert . The following single day after day was also successful, Baby Blue not so much. Her song Without You became a worldwide hit in the cover version by Harry Nilsson , later also for Mariah Carey .
In 1973 Badfinger moved to Warner Brothers . Apple torpedoed their first album for Warner Brothers by releasing Ace in December 1973 . Both Badfinger and Wish You Were Here (both 1974) could not build on their earlier successes. A short time later, Molland left the band. On April 23, 1975, Pete Ham hanged himself in his garage after he had briefly left Badfinger. For years the band had struggled in vain for more influence with their managers and the record companies, but was only systematically exploited (among other things, the album Badfinger was taken off the market after financial irregularities in the accounting). The sensitive Ham chose suicide. His last work with Badfinger was the album Head First . It remained unpublished and could only be made available to fans in 2000.
Molland and Evans hired Peter Clarke and Tony Kaye (Ex- Yes ) for a Badfingers reunion in 1978 . The 1979 album Airwaves , however, had little success. 1981 came out with Say No More Badfingers last album. On November 19, 1983, Tom Evans followed Ham's example and hanged himself. He had long fought unsuccessfully in court to get a share of the income from his songs - especially Without You , which he had written with Pete Ham. The money had disappeared somewhere with the record companies and managers involved.
Mike Gibbins died in his sleep in his Florida home on the morning of October 4, 2005, aged 56.
Trivia
The song Baby Blue , released in 1971, was used in the final scene of the hit series Breaking Bad . Due to the popularity of the series, sales of the digital version and the number of online streams rose sharply for a short time.
Discography
Studio albums
year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DE | AT | CH | UK | US | |||
1970 | Magic Christian Music | - | - | - | - |
US55 (17 weeks) US |
First published: January 1970
|
No dice | - | - | - | - |
US28 (15 weeks) US |
First published: November 1970
|
|
1971 | Straight up | - | - | - | - |
US31 (32 weeks) US |
First published: December 1971
|
1973 | Ass | - | - | - | - |
US122 (8 weeks) US |
First published: November 1973
|
1974 | Bad finger | - | - | - | - |
US161 (5 weeks) US |
First published: February 1974
|
Wish You Were Here | - | - | - | - |
US148 (6 weeks) US |
First published: November 1974
|
|
1979 | Airwaves | - | - | - | - |
US125 (8 weeks) US |
First published: March 1979
|
1981 | Say no more | - | - | - | - |
US155 (6 weeks) US |
First published: January 1981
|
gray hatching : no chart data available for this year
more publishments
- 1969: Maybe Tomorrow (as The Iveys)
- 1990: Day After Day: Live
- 1997: BBC in Concert 1972-3
- 2000: Head First
- 2013: Timeless… The Musical Legacy
Singles
year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DE | AT | CH | UK | US | |||
1968 | Maybe Tomorrow Maybe Tomorrow |
- | - | - | - |
US67 (6 weeks) US |
First published: November 1968
(as The Iveys) |
1969 | Come and Get It Magic Christian Music |
DE34 (2 weeks) DE |
- | - |
UK4 (11 weeks) UK |
US7 (15 weeks) US |
First published: December 1969
|
1970 | No Matter What No Dice |
DE32 (4 weeks) DE |
- | - |
UK5 (12 weeks) UK |
US8 (12 weeks) US |
First published: November 1970
|
1971 | Day After Day Straight Up |
DE25 (7 weeks) DE |
- | - |
UK10 (11 weeks) UK |
US4th
gold
(14 weeks)US |
First published: November 1971
|
1972 | Baby Blue Straight Up |
DE30 (3 weeks) DE |
- | - |
UK73 (1 week) UK |
US14 (10 weeks) US |
First published: March 1972
|
1979 | Love Is Gonna Come at Last Airwaves |
- | - | - | - |
US69 (4 weeks) US |
First published: March 1979
|
1981 | Hold on, say no more |
- | - | - | - |
US56 (8 weeks) US |
First published: January 1981
|
gray hatching : no chart data available for this year
book
- Dan Matovina: Without You: The tragic Story of Badfinger
- Ingeborg Schober : Pop tragedies: the most spectacular cases from the Beach Boys to Nirvana . Ueberreuter, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-8000-7004-9 .
Web links
- Badfinger Library (in English)
- Pete Ham Official Website (in English)