"Day After Day" by Badfinger (1971) with producers George Harrison and Todd Rundgren

Todd Rundgren Creator Series

Today is the eighth post in our series about music-maker Todd Rundgren, continuing to cover his career as a producer.

We’ve already reviewed his early years, up to and including The Nazz.

We’ve listened to his pop hits — “We Gotta Get You a Woman” (here), “Hello It’s Me,” (here), and “I Saw the Light” (here).

We’ve covered his first major gig as a producer, The Band’s Stage Fright album (here), as well as a record that appeared to cement Todd’s reputation as a hit-maker, We’re an American Band by Grand Funk (Railroad) (here).

Yesterday we talked about one of Badfinger’s hit singles off their Straight Up album, “Baby Blue,” produced by Todd (here), and today we hear the other one, “Day After Day,” produced initially by George Harrison and finished by Todd.

To my paid subscribers, please know that I appreciate your support and will be sending out an email about upcoming paid attractions soon, probably Sunday when we finish profiling Todd Rundgren.

Song of the day

Badfinger was signed to Apple Records when the Beatles’ road manager and personal assistant Mal Evans became a fan of the band, at that time called the Ivies, gained approval from all four Beatles to sign them, and convinced Paul McCartney to become their producer.

Recording engineer Geoff Emerick in his Here, There and Everywhere autobiography recalls Paul staying late one night after a recording session for the Beatles’ album Abbey Road to work on a song he said he planned to give to Badfinger. Paul came in the next morning and, in less than an hour, recorded the demo for what came to be Badfinger’s first top ten hit, “Come and Get It.”

Paul said in The Beatles Anthology, “Pete Ham in the group was a very good writer. He wrote the Nilsson song ‘Without You,’ which is a seriously good song… He was a lovely bloke.” As Emerick discovered working with the group, “Badfinger clearly had musical ability, and, like the Beatles, they were blessed with not one, but two lead singers and songwriters: Pete Ham and [bass guitarist] Tom Evans.”

Pete and Tom both wrote or co-wrote eight tracks that appeared on the band’s second album with Apple and their first under the name Badfinger, Magic Christian Music (1970). The album contained three songs from the film The Magic Christian in which Beatle Ringo Starr co-starred with Peter Sellers, including the title track “Come and Get It.”

After this album, Paul made the decision to pass producing duties for Badfinger back to Mal Evans, who had no real experience in record production. As Geoff Emerick noted, “he was clearly in over his head. The band needed guidance — they were really just boys, and they were heavy drinkers to boot.”

The recordings Mal made with the band were considered by management and the Beatles to be unreleasable, and producing duties were turned over to Emerick, who viewed it as a great opportunity in his nascent career as a record producer and “I really liked the band and believed in their music.” He proceeded to produce their next album, No Dice, which went to #28 on the Billboard Hot 200 and had the first Top 10 single penned by Badfinger (Pete Ham), “No Matter What.” (Take a listen here.)

As we know from the post I wrote two days ago on the band’s song “Baby Blue,” Emerick continued to work with the band on their next album, and the 12 tracks that they laid down together were rejected. One key factor appears to be the two-month U.S. tour foisted on the band that forced them and Emerick to rush the recording. Emerick alludes to this when he says “…there were all kinds of internal and external pressures being brought to bear, and our work ended up being shelved. Later on, George Harrison took over as the band’s producer; then, when he got fed up, the American musician Todd Rundgren was brought in.” (I expect to write more on the “pressures” that derail bands like Badfinger in a paid post.)

This is the apparently fraught context into which Todd stepped, out of which he managed to produce what became the Straight Up album and not one but two hit singles, “Day After Day” and “Baby Blue.”

Today’s song, “Day After Day,” was their only single to be certified gold, going to #4 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and #10 on the Easy Listening chart.

It’s a brilliant song and, I believe, shows what Badfinger could have continued to turn out under the original line-up if their circumstances had been more conducive and supportive to their artistry. Let’s listen to this exemplar of power pop:

Song credits

Songwriter - Pete Ham

Producers - George Harrison, Todd Rundgren

Badfinger:

• Pete Ham – lead vocals, acoustic guitar, slide guitar

• Tom Evans – backing vocals, bass guitar

• Joey Molland – backing vocals, acoustic guitar

• Mike Gibbins – drums, percussion

Additional musicians:

• George Harrison – slide guitar

• Leon Russell – piano