Joey Molland's Badfinger

It's the summer of '69. Paul McCartney is working on a movie called The Magic Christian and trying to break The Iveys, the best band on his bruised Apple label. The three Welshmen (Pete Ham, Mike Gibbons and Ron Griffiths) and a Liverpudlian (Tom Evans) are as talented as they are mismanaged, so Paulie offers them a song, "Come and Get It." With it the band finally channels all their Motown and British Invasion urges into something nobody thought of before. That something was power pop; that band became Badfinger.

And here you thought they were a Beatles knock-off. Right, them and every other pop band since 1965. But the best of Badfinger's '70s singles -- "Come and Get It," "Without You," "No Matter What," "Day After Day," "Baby Blue" and "Hold On" -- are as sparkling and weightless as satellites -- and just as doomed to burn. Lawsuits and depression gutted the band; Ham and Evans wound up suicides. Only Joey Molland (who joined the band in 1970) remains, which may not be enough for some, though hearing a set of perfect rock songs should be. Respect, power-pop people, respect.

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