Badfinger were a British pop band signed to the Beatles’ label Apple. One of their best songs was Without You which appeared on their second album No Dice. It was released as a single on November 9, 1970. Paul McCartney once described the ballad as “the killer song of all time“.
Harry Nilsson started a four week run at No.1 cover of the Badfinger song Without You on the Billboard charts on this date in 1972. Nilsson first came across this song at a Laurel Canyon party in 1971 and thought it was a Beatles song. Badfinger was signed to Apple Records, The Beatles‘ label, and their version of Without You was produced by Beatles associates Geoff Emerick and Mal Evans.
Nilsson’s version added an orchestra and gave the song a dramatic production. When Nilsson recorded it, he initially played the song slow and dark, accompanied only by piano. Producer Richard Perry recalled to Mojo magazine April 2008 that he had to persuade an unwilling Nilsson to record it as a big ballad: “I had to force him to take a shot with the rhythm section. Even while we were doing it, he’d be saying to the musicians, ‘This song’s awful.’“
A very odd piece of trivia: Mariah Carey had her first UK No.1 with her version of the Badfinger song Without You on this date. (Carey’s version was released on January 24, 1994, just over a week after Nilsson had died following a heart attack). Both As the song’s writers, Peter Ham and Tom Evans should have been set for life, but Badfinger’s label, Apple Records, collapsed in 1973 and they never got their due. Peter Ham and Tom Evans (members of Badfinger and writers of the song) committed suicide, (Ham in 1975 and Evans in 1983) after an ongoing battle to receive royalties from the song.
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