Badfinger Albums Ranked

Badfinger was a Welsh/English rock band formed in Swansea that was active from the 1960s to the 1980s. Their best-known lineup consisted of Pete Ham, Mike Gibbins, Tom Evans, and Joey Molland. They are recognized for their influence on the 1970s power pop genre.
The band evolved from an earlier group called The Iveys, formed in 1961, which became the first group signed by the Beatles’ Apple label in 1968. The band renamed themselves Badfinger, after the working title for the Beatles’ 1967 song “With a Little Help from My Friends” (“Bad Finger Boogie”). From 1968 to 1973, Badfinger recorded five albums for Apple and toured extensively, before they became embroiled in the chaos of Apple Records’ dissolution.
Badfinger had four consecutive worldwide hits from 1970 to 1972: “Come and Get It” (written and produced by Paul McCartney, 1970), “No Matter What” (produced by Mal Evans, 1970), “Day After Day” (produced by George Harrison, 1971), and “Baby Blue” (produced by Todd Rundgren, 1972). Their song “Without You” (1970) has been recorded many times, and became a US number-one hit for Harry Nilsson and, decades later, a UK number-one for Mariah Carey.
Here are all of Badfinger’s albums ranked.

Don’t miss out on the music of Badfinger! Click to enjoy some of the music produced by The Beatles!

9. Airwaves (1979)

“One good (actually very good) track is here, Joey’s “Love Is Gonna Come At Last”.  The production sounds more like Bread than Badfinger, but it’s listenable enough (even Bread had their moments).  Still, this is not at all the same band that it was in the early 70’s, before Pete Ham’s tragically preventable suicide.  You can get the one good song on The Best of Badfinger Vol. II and give this a pass.”

8. Say No More (1981)

“I am surprised by the quality and performance of the songs, given thus their last release of a disintegrating band. I buy CDs by the tens and rarely dies one so quickly receive repeated plays. That’s what I remember of Badfinger and they pull it off again. Its no Straight Up, but its close in appeal to Airwaves or Ass in terms of song quality.”

7. Head First (2000)

“I have never heard a Album by “Badfinger” I considered a ” Lemon” … even under their original name ” The Ivey’s”. For most fans finding ” Badfinger” Album’s had become a nightmare & almost impossible because of all the legal problem’s caused by Stan Polley ” Badfinger’s” manager/ thief !!! Badfinger had a extremely prolific year in 1974 which in the U.K. saw the release of three studio album’s & of course these now legendary recordings ” Badfinger” had recorded after the release of ” Wish you were here”!!! From what I have read ” Badfinger” ran back to Apple recording studio’s apparently a place where they felt comfortable enough to make these recordings that under proper management & promotions should have been released as a double album which would have meant “

6. Badfinger (1974)

“This album was the first by Badfinger on Warner Brothers. It has now been re-relased on ”Real Gone Music”. For me this is real great news for several reasons. Firstly contains some of my all-time Badfinger favourites such as ”Lonely You”, ”Shine On”, ”Song for a Lost Friend” and ”Where Do We Go From Here”. Then it has the previously unreleased song ”Love my Lady”, written by Tom Evans. It’s a cool solid song; a bit in the vein of ”Blind Owl” from the previous album ”Ass”. Moreover it has 9 bonus tracks of songs in progress, all of which are really interesting, not least those where the instrumentation was changed for the final version. These alt. versions sound really great. Also great to have the original album in a re-mastered version, as the sound on some tracks on the original album was slightly dull.”

5. Ass (1973)

“”Ass” is an incredible collection of songs, characterized by memorable melodies, sometimes-incomprehensible lyrics, heavenly harmonies and first rate playing. Their strength came from the fact that they truly functioned as a group, sharing songwriting and lead vocal duties amongst themselves. They are also great rock vocalists and instrumentalists. Opening with the touching ballad “Apple Of My Eye”, the album runs the gamut from the light pop of “Cowboy”, the blistering hard rock of “Constitution”, and the infectiously uptempo “Blind Owl”. It ends on an epic note with the extended jam of “Timeless”.”

4. Magic Christian Music (1970)

“Overall this album there lies a fun loving, laidback go with the flow groovy attitude, which precedes what Wings grew into on ` At The Speed of Sound1976′ most notably on Denny’s and Jimmy’s material on that particular LP. The cool thing about Badfinger is that judging from the sound picture of this 1970’s debut they were kind of like the Supergrass of their day. Badfinger may not have been the pioneers or standard bareers of their decade (1970) and their sense of arrangement still was far from being as slick, skilled perfection laden and multifaceted as say Electric Light Orchestra but Badfinger compensated this only one flawif you must by remaining committed, to their own cause and in doing their own thing, no matter what was going on around them.”

3. Wish You Were Here (1974)

“Its about time! This is Badfinger’s Best album!! Anybody that knows this band’s story, knows how important this album is. Produced by thee Chris Thomas. Know One Knows is an Amazing song!! Pete’s guitar line is as genius as it is emotional and with this new mix, the incredible tone is as sharp as could be. This is my kids favorite song on the album.. I can’t wait to play it for them. One of my favorite Badfinger songs is In The Meantime/Some Other Time. This song is Mike Gibbins Grand Opus. This is the kind of Badfinger song that I always wanted to hear a Dan Matovina mix on & I think this song just got better! 

2. No Dice (1970)

“No Dice was Badfinger’s first masterpiece ( and my first Badfinger album!). The inspiration from The Beatles can be heard on most of these songs, but this album shows that they’re much more than just a Beatles rip off. Some changes had been made since the recording of Magic Christian Music. Geoff Emerick (known from his work with The Beatles) produced most of the album; the rest of it was produced by Mal Evans who also produced some of Magic Christian Music. Ron Griffiths had already left before the release of the previous album so Tom Evans had now taken over the bass. Joey Molland ,who had played with Gary Walker, was chosen for a new guitarist. The material (the songs) on this album is very strong.”

1. Straight Up (1971)

“By far there best album. Vocals are unsurpassed. Only a few songs produced by George Harrison. Then he abruptly left. He even dumped a sin because it sounded too much like the Beatles. Personally, I feel he had fears of Badfinger becoming the new Beatles. Listen to the vocals and Harmonies. I wish they had included the original take of Suitcase. A result of hippish sound and uncensored by the industry. “