Twisted Tales: Badfinger Members Commit Career and Literal Suicide

As the practically handpicked successors to the Beatles' pop throne, the 1970s Welsh/English foursome Badfinger had it all: Three highly talented songwriters, a sound that bridged '60s British beat music with '70s pop-rock -- and a direct and strong connection to the Fab Four themselves. The most successful of the many recording artists signed to the Beatles' Apple label, they played on John Lennon's 'Imagine,' had their first hit written by Paul McCartney, were produced by George Harrison and sang backing vocals on Ringo Starr's 'It Don't Come Easy.' Unfortunately, the parallels with their musical mentors also extended to Badfinger's dissolution, as a result of internal bickering and gross -- and most likely criminal -- financial mismanagement, yet the band's story took a turn for the tragic that the Beatles themselves managed to avoid.

The core of Badfinger -- Welshmen Pete Ham on guitar and Mike Gibbins on drums, soon to be joined by Liverpudlian guitarist Tom Evans -- originated in the Welsh city of Swansea in the mid-'60s as the Iveys, where they were discovered by Beatles assistant Mal Evans (no relation) and signed to Apple, releasing a low-charting single, 'Maybe Tomorrow,' and a barely distributed LP of the same title in 1968. It was Apple Records exec and longtime Beatles assistant Neil Aspinall who suggested the band change its name to Badfinger, stemming from 'Bad Finger Boogie,' John Lennon's working title for 'A Little Help From My Friends.'

Their first taste of success came when Paul McCartney offered his composition 'Come and Get it' to the band. The song, which first appeared on the soundtrack of the Peter Sellers film 'The Magic Christian,' was released as a single in late 1969, reaching No. 7 in the U.S. and No. 4 in the U.K. Adding Liverpool guitarist Joey Molland (to accommodate him, Evans switched to bass), the band recorded several successful singles, including a song that would become one of the templates for what was later termed power pop, 'No Matter What' (No. 8 U.S., No. 6 U.K. in 1970). The hits continued into 1971 with the sweeping ballad 'Day After Day' and the melodic pop-rocker 'Baby Blue' (Nos. 4 and 14 U.S., respectively). Ham also wrote the album track 'Without You,' which Nilsson covered and took to No. 1 in 1972; Mariah Carey's version reached No. 3 in 1994.

Having achieved dizzying success in such a short time span, Badfinger's downward spiral was precipitous and fast. In part due to dissatisfaction with their relationship with Apple, the band took on new management in New Yorker Stan Polley, who secured the band a new contract, with Warner Bros. Records. But not long after, the hits dried up, and the musicians began squabbling with one another, as well as leveling accusations of financial malfeasance at Polley, causing Ham to quit the group in 1974. He soon rejoined, but Molland then immediately departed. Once the lawsuits started flying, and with millions of dollars in earnings unaccounted for, the band filed for bankruptcy. Things naturally became tense, than unbearable for the band members, especially Ham.

In April 1975, a despondent Pete Ham took to his garage in Surrey, England, where he summarily hanged himself, his suicide note placing the blame at the feet of manager and accused embezzler Stan Polley. This naturally led to the group's dissolution. However, Evans and Molland reunited under the Badfinger name in 1979, and achieved minor success with a pair of albums before separating into two competing Badfingers in 1981. During this period, the band's tangled state of affairs was still unsettled, which contributed to another member taking to the noose: In November 1983, after a phone argument with Molland, Tom Evans, like Pete Ham before him, hanged himself at his home.

In recent years, Joey Molland has carried on with sundry dubious projects involving the Badfinger name. Drummer Mike Gibbins died of natural causes at his Florida home in late 2005. At this point of the story, it's best to just conclude with these prophetic words from Badfinger's first hit:

If you want it
Here it is, come and get it
But you better hurry 'cause it's going fast.