Hotfooting it into eil Towers this week is this so-rare-it-hurts Badfinger LP – so, what makes it so rare?
Badfinger were one of a succession of groups touted as ‘the next Beatles’, whilst this phrase was used a lot in the early ’70s, perhaps Badfinger had a greater claim than most – why? Well, they were signed to Apple Records, performed with George Harrison, by all accounts they were a formidable live act and not forgetting the considerable songwriting chops of Pete Ham (he wrote Without You as covered by Nillson and, err, Mariah Carey). So, to paraphrase the Beatles, in the early ’70s, they really did look to go to the ‘toppermost of the poppermost’ .
However, more recently Badfinger are often singled out as a cautionary music biz tale, highlighting the pitfalls that can beset those choosing a career in music – why? Well, not only were they championed as the next Beatles (usually a death-knell for a young band), their management was notoriously bad, they were victim of many a rock ‘n’ roll rip off and tragically chief songwriter Pete Ham committed suicide aged just 27.
Okay – so why is this record so rare? Well, ironically it is the Beatles connection (and not the fact that it’s a Badfinger record – is that another example of bad luck following them?) which ensures that, on the very, very rare occasions it does come up for sale, it goes for mega bucks. It is now seen as one of the rarest official items available on Apple, originally intended as an Australian only ‘Best Of’ just ten (count ’em ten!) were pressed up for review purposes. According to The Apple Log book, the album was assembled by someone from EMI who wanted a ‘Best of’ Badfinger LP! However, because of ongoing legal problems that Apple were experiencing at the time, the project was scrapped even before any sleeves were printed – just a 12″ insert printed on green paper, declaring the album to be ‘A Memorial To Pete Ham, Tom Evans And Mal Evans’. All tracks are from master tapes except ‘Without You’ which was clearly taken from vinyl – this copy originally came directly from a senior executive at EMI Australia.
So, for the Beatles/Apple completist this is the holy grail, an official Apple product with tantalising Apple catalogue number and finished labels and unfinished sleeve – needless to say, it’s on the ‘wants list’ of many a Beatles collector and rare record collectors world-wide and we are very proud to be able to offer a copy for sale – full sales info here
£1,995.00 though