Like everyone else in the rock world, Badfinger also had the same influencer The Beatles. The Fab Four has been the face of entertainment, and influence for so many artists around the world. Their significance can only be measured in the imagination. Badfinger was greatly influenced by The Beatles in their early days as a band.
They first started out under the name The Iveys. In their earlier days, they were mentored by The Beatles. The band changed its name after it landed and signed with Apple Records. Apple Records was established in 1968, and many artists were eager to sign The Beatle’s own record label.
The Iveys were a group with strong vocals and they also performed all around the UK. They also embodied Beatles songs and finally broke out on the mainstream. The Beatles began writing songs for the band and even their biggest hit ‘No Matter What’ was produced by the Beatles’ road manager Mal Evans. The producer for the band on the song ‘Day After Day’ was George Harrison, who also played slide guitar. Paul McCartney gave them ‘Come and Get It’ which was the band’s first top ten hits in both the UK and US. In Anthology, McCartney recalled,
“I’d written the song ‘Come and Get It’, and I’d made a fairly decent demo. Because I lived locally, I could get in half an hour before a Beatles session at Abbey Road – knowing it would be empty and all the stuff would be set up – and I’d use Ringo’s equipment to put a drum track down, put some piano down, quickly put some bass down, do the vocal, and double-track it.”
He added, “I said to Badfinger, ‘OK, it’s got to be exactly like this demo,’ because it had a great feeling on it. They actually wanted to put their own variations on, but I said, ‘No, this really is the right way.’ They listened to me – I was producing, after all – and they were good. The song was a hit in 1970.”
According to Far Out, seems like McCartney auditioned for each member to sing the lead vocal and eventually chose Tom Evans. Before ‘Come and Get It’, the band’s singles like ‘Maybe Tomorrow’, and ‘Dear Angie’ had failed to make any impact. However, ‘Come and Get It’, climber to number four in the UK and number seven in the US.
Let’s talk about how the band got its name too. It was the Beatle’s song that gave Badfinger their name. The band was signed to Apple, and it was John Lennon who would be the inspiration behind the name ‘Badfinger’. When Lennon and Paul had a task to write a song for Ringo Starr, the duo came up with the song, ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’. However, the working title of the son was ‘Bad Finder Boogie’ as Lennon had hurt his pointer finger while composing the song. Their name was proposed by Apple head Neil Aspinall.
The Iveys faded away from that moment, and the group was known as Badfinger.
