EDINA, Minn. (AP) — Joey Molland, a guitarist with the Welsh pop-rock band Badfinger that was identified for such Nineteen Seventies hits as “No Matter What” and “Day After Day,” has died at age 77.
Molland was the final to hitch and had been the final survivor from probably the most well-known lineup of the group, which recorded for the Beatles ’ Apple label. His demise was confirmed Tuesday by Sam Sheffield-West, the funeral director at Washburn-McReavy Funeral Chapels in Edina, Minnesota. Molland had lived within the state for many years. Further particulars about his demise weren’t instantly obtainable.
Badfinger was a quartet that additionally included singer-guitarist Pete Ham, bassist Tom Evans and drummer Tom Gibbins. They have been among the many first acts signed to Apple after the Beatles launched it in 1968 and would stay intently related to the Beatles — not all the time to Badfinger’s liking — all through their transient years of success. Molland even grew up close to Liverpool’s Penny Lane, immortalized within the Beatles music of the identical title.
Badfinger’s breakout hit, “Come and Get It,” was written and produced by Paul McCartney, and one other high 10 single, “Day After Day,” was produced by George Harrison and featured Harrison’s slide guitar. “No Matter What” was produced by Apple official/Beatles assistant Mal Evans, and one other Badfinger music, “Without You,” turned a success for Beatles pal Harry Nilsson. Molland and his bandmates would additionally seem at Harrison’s 1971 profit live performance for Bangladesh and supply backing on two Beatles member’s solo albums: Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass” and John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
Critics couldn’t cease likening Badfinger’s catchy melodies, layered harmonies and tight preparations to their benefactors: “It’s as if John, Paul, George, and Ringo had been reincarnated as Joey, Pete, Tom, and Mike of Badfinger,” Rolling Stone wrote of them in 1970. Even the band’s name originated from the Beatles. Badfinger had called itself the Ivies in the years preceding their joining Apple, but, at the suggestion of Apple official/Beatles assistant Neil Aspinall, agreed to change it to Badfinger. (The working title of the Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends” was “Bad Finger Boogie”).
Their time on high ended after 1972. Amid cutbacks at Apple and allegations of economic mismanagement, Badfinger left for Warner Bros., pale commercially and sustained a tragic loss when Ham took his life in 1975. After initially breaking apart, the remaining members periodically reunited however by no means approached their early success.
Evans took his personal life in 1983 and Gibbins died of a mind aneurysm in 2005.
Molland remained energetic nicely after Badfinger’s prime, touring till his well being started to fail final yr and releasing such solo albums as “This Way Up” “After the Pearl” and “Be True To Yourself.”
“I was raised to go to work — to get up in the morning and go to work,” he instructed The Related Press in 2001.
