TNB Night Owl – Badfinger and Todd Rundgren

So much great music came out of the seventies, it seems to be the sweet spot or zenith of popular music. In 1968, Badfinger (known as The Iveys from 1961 to 1969) signed on with the Apple Records label (founded by the Beatles). Paul McCartney took them under his wing, guiding them to success. Their first hit, Come and Get It (1970), was written by McCartney. They wrote all their other hits themselves, including Without You (1970), a song that Nilsson covered the following year and made famous. Many other artists have covered it since. McCartney and Rolling Stone magazine both declared it one of the greatest songs ever written.

Todd Rundgren and George Harrison produced Badfinger’s fourth studio album, Straight Up, including two of their biggest hit singles, Day After Day, and Baby Blue. Unfortunately, Apple floundered in financial and legal tangles that embroiled the band, leading to their demise. With their songwriting talent, Badfinger could have been huge had things with Apple not been such a chaotic mess.

When Todd Rundgren wasn’t producing music for others, he was making hits of his own: his most well known from this era are blended into the mix below. But first, let’s top it all off with a little Marmalade, another underrated band that should have met with greater success.

1969
Reflections Of My Life (4:20)
The Marmalade