All That Glitters Is Not Gold

On July 23, 1968, The Iveys got their big break. Any up-and-coming band would have traded places with them because they were the first band signed to The Beatles’ new record label, Apple with the contract signed 56 years ago today. What could be better?

Paul McCartney had written a song called Bad Finger Boogie so, at his urging, they changed their name to Badfinger and shot straight into stardom with Paul’s Come and Get It. More hits followed including No Matter What and the achingly beautiful ballads, Without You and Day After Day. Then the real pain started.

Apple collapsed. Their manager ran off with their royalty money. Their final album was withdrawn only weeks after release due to their crooked management suing the record company. Both co-writers of Without You, Pete Ham, their guitarist/lead singer, and Tom Evans, their bassist/lead singer, died destitute, with Pete hanging himself at 27 and Tom hanging himself at 36.

Arguably the luckiest, and unluckiest, band ever.