Badfinger

Badfinger
Also known as	The Iveys
Origin	Swansea, Wales; Liverpool, England
Genres	Power pop Rock Pop rock
Years active	1969 - 1975 1978 - 1984
Labels	Apple, Warner Bros., Elektra, Radio Records, Fuel 2000, Snapper Music
Associated acts	The Dodgers Natural Gas
Former members
Pete Ham Tom Evans Joey Molland Mike Gibbins Ron Griffiths Bob Jackson Joe Tansin Tony Kaye Glenn Sherba Al Wodtke Richard Bryans

Badfinger was a British rock group. They were first called The Iveys, but renamed themselves after a song title, "Badfinger Boogie", the original title of "With a Little Help From My Friends". The band's members were Peter Ham, Tom Evans, Mike Gibbins and Joey Molland. Badfinger recorded for Apple Records, which was a record label started by The Beatles.

Their first hit record was "Come And Get It", which was written by Paul McCartney. It appeared in a movie, The Magic Christian. The band followed McCartney's demo closely to make the record. The finished record sounded like a Beatles song, and the band were called "protegés" of the Beatles. Later they made records that sounded different, and showed the band's own style. Todd Rundgren was the producer of some of their recordings.

Badfinger's other hit records included "No Matter What", "Day After Day", and "Baby Blue". Later they left Apple Records and recorded for Warner Bros. Ham and Evans were the band's main songwriters. One of their songs, "Without You", was recorded by the band, but was not a hit. A later cover version by singer Harry Nilsson became an international hit, and was the first of many such versions. Many recording artists have sung "Without You", including Mariah Carey.

In 1970 Badfinger made an agreement with an American businessman called Stan Polley who promised to help them earn more money. But instead of helping them, Polley kept their money away from them in an account and refused to tell them how to get it out. He also behaved dishonestly toward Warner Bros. Because of his dishonesty, the band's sixth album was removed from shops after being available for only seven weeks, and Warner Bros. refused to release their seventh album. As a result, the band did not earn any money for their hard work, which made Pete Ham feel very depressed. Feeling that he could not be a good husband or father without any money, Ham committed suicide by hanging himself in 1975. Tom Evans had similar problems, and killed himself eight years later in the same way.

The other two band members, Gibbins and Molland, decided they still wanted to work together. They found two more musicians to take the place of Ham and Evans, and recorded a new album. The new songs still sounded like Badfinger songs, and they got permission from Ham's and Evans's families to keep using the Badfinger name. They had no more hits, but continued to tour and sometimes make new records. One record had cover art by artist Peter Max.