Music Review: Badfinger - "Apple Records CD Reissues"

The story on the British band Badfinger usually goes as follows…

Badfinger was a great band but never achieved the success they deserved because of bad management, poor record label support, band member infighting and subsequent deaths.

After listening to the newly remastered versions of the band's most popular albums: "Magic Christian Music," "No Dice," "Straight Up," and "Ass," I am here to tell you that the real reason the band never attained huge success is because they stink!

Does Badfinger have some great songs? Yes they do. They have 5 unbelievable songs. The first one is "Come And Get It" written and produced by Sir Paul McCartney. Every time I hear this song I am amazed that McCartney gave this song away as it would have been a perfect song for his post-Beatles band Wings.

Next, we have "No Matter What" a song so good that it has been often covered by other bands, most notably The Knack and Def Leppard.

Number 3 is "Without You." Originally not released as a single by Badfinger it became a #1 hit on both sides of the Atlantic in 1972 for singer Harry Nilsson -- but the bands' version is just as good.

Number 4 is "Day After Day." Produced by George Harrison, this track became Badfinger's highest charting single and peaked at #4. The song is also notable for its guest performances by Harrison on slide guitar and Leon Russell on piano.

Finally, we have "Baby Blue" produced by the American pop-wunderkind Todd Rundgren.

Anyone reading this will agree that those songs are, as I said before, unbelievable. And let's give credit where credit is due… of the 4 original songs listed above Badfinger guitarist Pete Ham wrote 3 and co-wrote the 4th. So obviously Ham had the power to churn out a great pop rock song.

So why is Badfinger well… bad? Because, to get to those 5 classics you have to wade through 4 albums worth of mediocrity; boring, uninspired songs that plod along endlessly. And given the talented producers on hand for these albums: Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T-Rex), Chris Thomas (Pretenders, Elton John), Geoff Emerick (Legendary Beatles engineer), plus McCartney, Harrison & Rundgren -- if 5 songs is all you can get, then the blame lands solidly on the shoulders of Badfinger themselves.

To put this in perspective… The Bay City Rollers arguably also have 5 great songs plus 10 top 10 UK hits and they are never spoken with the reverence given to their English brothers Badfinger.

The 5 classic songs:

Drumroll please… 10 out of 10 drumsticks!!!

The 4 remastered Apple CDs:

Drumroll please… 2 out of 10 drumsticks!!