Come and Get It (1970)

Performer: Badfinger                                             Writer: Paul McCartney
Highest US Chart Position: #7                               Label: Apple Records
Musicians: Pete Ham, Tom Evans, Mike Gibbins and Ron Griffiths

If you’re looking for real tragedy in rock and roll it’s not in the stories of Morrison, Joplin and Hendrix. Those stars had achieved real success but destroyed themselves. Badfinger, on the other hand, was literally destroyed by the music business. Not only were they the most talented discovery of the Beatles’ Apple Records, but they were one of the most creative rock groups of the entire decade. Yet despite the popular appeal of their music all of their money was stolen by unscrupulous managers and record executives, leading to the suicides of the two creative geniuses of the group, Pete Ham in 1975 and Tommy Evans in 1983. In the beginning, however, no one could have foreseen the their tragic end. Discovered by the Beatles' longtime roadie and friend Mal Evans, the group was known as The Iveys and when their first independent LP was purchased by Apple they were brought into the studio by none other than Paul McCartney to record some new songs to give the album more commercial appeal. One of those songs had been written by McCartney himself, the bouncy “Come and Get It.”

The song being given to Badfinger came about because of a confluence of events. McCartney had promised to record the soundtrack for a film starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr called The Magic Christian. But the Beatle had other commitments as well and was willing to give the project to Badfinger . . . provided he was happy with the results. He had already written the song and when he first broached the idea of them covering it Pete Ham was unhappy. Nevertheless, there was the undeniable fact that this was a way for the group to break into the charts and give them a powerful beginning to what had, up to this point, been a real struggle in their career. The song begins simply enough, with just the piano, bass and drums. Pete had made an attempt at the vocals, but when Tommy Evans gave it a try it was obvious that he was the perfect singer for the number. McCartney singled out Mike Gibbins' drum fills for praise as well. The song is brief at less that two and a half minutes, and it is incredibly simple, but the end result is magical. It’s a catchy number about a fool and his money, and while it’s clearly a McCartney tune it also bears the undeniable stamp of Badfinger’s tremendous talents.

I came to The Beatles very late, in 1981 when a bass player I was in a band with introduced me to all of their albums. After thoroughly digesting the Fab Four and hungry for more, he gave me Magic Christian Music by Badfinger and I was hooked. But that album, made up of many tracks the group had recorded as The Iveys, was very much a product of the sixties. It was only by pure coincidence that I was in a second-hand store a few months later when I ran across all of Badfinger’s Apple LPs and picked them up for almost nothing. That was another transformative musical experience for me and I have been a fan of their music ever since. While the song was released in Britain in the last month of 1969, it was released in the U.S. on January 12, 1970 and instantly became one of the first great hits of the seventies rising to number seven on the charts two months later. The B-side was an all-out three-chord rocker called “Rock of All Ages,” another of the McCartney produced numbers and one of the highlights of the album. “Come and Get It” is a fantastic song and begins the seventies the way it ought to, ushered in by the greatest group of the sixties.