On this day after the holiday celebration, I’ll bring you down some with this sad little twofer. It features a couple folks you have probably never heard of but know them by their great songs: Pete Ham and Tom Evans of Badfinger. They wrote and recorded several great songs such as No Matter What You Are, Day After Day, and Baby Blue. Their first hit was with a Paul McCartney song Come and Get It.
However, the most famous song that they wrote may just be one of my all time least favorites – Harry Nilsson’s “Without You.” It was a depressing song to begin with, but now that I know who the writers were, it makes me even sadder. Ultimately, both Ham and Evans committed suicide because they were having money problems. It makes the “Without You” downer a little too prophetic and self fulfilling in a way.
Here is the full story of how 2 great musicians got done in by the music business in general but by one shyster in particular (click here.) Ham became a member of the 27 Club when he hanged himself in 1975 while Evans waited until he was 33 to hang himself in 1983. In the sordid history of musicians being ripped off by greedy managers (click here) Badfinger’s experiences may just be the most tragic of them all.