Badfinger

Badfinger was a pop/rock (or "power pop") band that orginated in mid-60s pop bands around Swansea, Wales. Adopting the name Badfinger in 1969, the band was touted as the 'heir apparent' to The Beatles, in part because of their close working relationship with the "Fab Four." Badfinger's meteoric rise and demise (marked by the suicides of founder-member and leader Peter Ham on 24 April 1975, and later of band-member Tom Evans on November 19, 1983) remains a cautionary tale for the rock music industry. They're probably best-remembered for the Ham/Evans-penned Badfinger song, "Without You", which became an international hit for Harry Nilsson in 1971 and later a hit for Mariah Carey in 1994. Other popular singles include "Baby Blue", "Come And Get It", and "No Matter What".

Badfinger originated with guitarist/keyboardist Pete Ham (27 April 1947 – 24 April 1975) and a group called The Panthers. Ham, Ron Griffiths (bass guitar) (b. October 2, 1946) and David 'Dai' Jenkins (guitar) went on to form The Iveys, named after a street in Swansea, Wales (and a pun on influential British Invasion group, The Hollies). By 1965, Mike Gibbins (March 12, 1949 - October 4, 2005) had joined as the drummer, and the band began playing locally with such groups as the Spencer Davis Group, The Who, The Moody Blues and The Yardbirds. The following year, The Iveys moved their base to London, performing both for David Garrick, a local singer, and as a solo act. In 1967, David 'Dai' Jenkins left, and was replaced by Liverpudlian guitarist Tom Evans (June 5, 1947 - November 19, 1983). The Iveys recorded and released a single, "Maybe Tomorrow" (1968) which reached the lower levels of Billboard Hot 100. An album of the same name was issued in some European countries, and Japan, in 1969 (See Maybe Tomorrow), although plans to release the LP in the U.K. and U.S. were halted.