October 9, 2025 • 15 mins
Please give me your feedback at Jonny@3wsradio.com
"They had the sound of legends, the blessing of gods, and a future written in gold—until it all vanished."
They started with a golden ticket—championed by the most famous musicians in the world. Their songs were flawless, their future unstoppable. But what happened behind closed doors turned their dream into a nightmare, leaving a trail of silence, unanswered questions, and loss that still haunts decades later. This is the story of a band the world should have known… but never truly did.
Written by Jonny Hartwell
Voiced by Jonny Hartwell
Music Credit: Reel World Audio.
A iHeart Radio Production
LISTEN TO MORE STORIES AT: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/jonny-s-dead-air-podcast--6708743
DISCLAIMER: This podcast contains discussions of sensitive topics...Listener discretion is strongly advised. While the stories you’ll hear are rooted in real events, not every detail is strictly historical—some moments are dramatized with creative license to bring the narrative to life. Please keep this in mind as you listen.
"They had the sound of legends, the blessing of gods, and a future written in gold—until it all vanished."
They started with a golden ticket—championed by the most famous musicians in the world. Their songs were flawless, their future unstoppable. But what happened behind closed doors turned their dream into a nightmare, leaving a trail of silence, unanswered questions, and loss that still haunts decades later. This is the story of a band the world should have known… but never truly did.
Written by Jonny Hartwell
Voiced by Jonny Hartwell
Music Credit: Reel World Audio.
A iHeart Radio Production
LISTEN TO MORE STORIES AT: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/jonny-s-dead-air-podcast--6708743
DISCLAIMER: This podcast contains discussions of sensitive topics...Listener discretion is strongly advised. While the stories you’ll hear are rooted in real events, not every detail is strictly historical—some moments are dramatized with creative license to bring the narrative to life. Please keep this in mind as you listen.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, Danny, go get a real nice face, now, don't you. Johnny. Well, actually,
I'm Johnny. That's what Johnny. That's we're gonna tell the
boys about. Johnny Doctor Johnny air fever and I am
burning up in here, Johnny. All right, welcome in, Johnny Heart.
(00:21):
Well here. Now, I had the day off, but what
I thought i'd do is deliver. As we've talked about
this week on the podcast is give you a little
preview of my new podcast called Johnny's Dead Air Podcast.
And basically what it is, it's it's the eerie happenings
behind rock and Roll. It says if behind the music
met the Twilight Zone. Now, some of these topics are
(00:46):
a little sensitive, so listener discretion is advised. So I'm
really glad you had a chance to preview this. So
once you listen to it, there's other stories. There's twelve
other stories, so please check that out. It's called Johnny's
Dead Air Podcast, available on the iHeartRadio AP and I
would love to get your feedback. So here you go.
(01:06):
Here's Johnny's Dead Air Podcast. Script one. The band that
had all the breaks in the music business. There's a
rule as old as rock and roll. For every hit single,
there's someone waiting to take more than their share. One
band found this the hard way. They have the songs,
the look, the blessing of the biggest names in music.
(01:29):
For a moment, it seemed like nothing could stop them.
But what fame gave them Greed took away shady contracts,
vanishing money, endless tours with empty pockets, And for the
musicians who gave everything, every lyric, every harmony, every ounce
of themselves, the costs became unbearable. This is not a
story about overnight success. It's a story about how quickly
(01:53):
success can sour, and how the very thing you love
the most, the music, can become the weight that pulls
you under. This is Script one, the band that had
all the brakes, Act one, the Spark. Let's rewind to
the late nineteen sixties, I mean really rewind. Hear the
faint hiss of a needle, finding the groove, smell the vinyl,
(02:16):
see the album cover in your hands. This is the
golden age of the British Invasion. The Beatles are bending
the rules. One month it's Indian citars, the next it's
string quartets. The Stones are snarling through blues rifts that
sound dangerous. The who are taking apart their instruments like
demolition crews. Rock has grown up. It's no longer just
(02:36):
teenage singalongs. It's a canvas of big ideas, big risks
and bold statements. Now pull the camera back, way back.
Hundreds of miles from London's bright lights, we land in
Swansea Whales. The smell of coal smoke drifts over terraced houses.
The steel works loom in the distance. It's a place
of hard work and harder winters, but in a basement,
(02:59):
low ceiling, bare babs, secondhand amps buzzing. There's a small
band of young guys who are making something beautiful. They
got it. The harmonies tight enough that you'd swear they
shared a childhood bedroom. The songs melodic and muscular, the
lyrics equal parts hopeful and haunted, like they've already lived
more than their years. They'll play anywhere. Pubs where you
(03:22):
can reach the bar without leaving the stage, dance halls
where half the crowd is already drunk. And in between
there's stuffing padded envelopes with demo tapes, licking stamps and
sending them off into the void. Weeks pass, then months silence,
then everything changes. It's a damp Tuesday night. You're in
(03:43):
a pub in Swansea. The room smells a beer and
cigarette smoke. The jukebox in the corner is broken. The
band takes the stage. No fanfare, no lighting cues, just
a quick nod between them. Account in one, two, three, four, boom,
the harmonies hit like sunlight breaking through the clouds. You
glance around. Even the blokes in the bar stop talking
(04:05):
mid sentence. For three minutes, everyone in the room knows
they're hearing something rare act too. The door opens. Break
number one, one of those demo tapes, makes its way
into the hands of Mal Evans. If you've never heard
of Mal Well, you've definitely heard of the people he
works for. The Beatles. Yeah, the Beatles. Mal isn't just
(04:27):
their road manager. He's part friend, part fixer, part bodyguard.
He's Bennett Schey Stadium in the studio during the White album.
He was even there during the famous rooftop performance. He
listens to the tape and here's the thing. He doesn't
just hear potential, he hears kinship. These songs feel like
they belong in the same orbit as Lennon McCartney, not copies,
(04:48):
but cousins. Mal takes it to Apple Records, The Beatles
shiny new label. Apple's a mix of idealism and chaos.
Free milkshakes in the cafeteria, secretaries and mini skirts, famous
faces drifting in out. And here's the magic moment. The
Beatles themselves listen. Yeah, all four, not a junior exect,
not a committee, the actual Beatles. And here's the thing.
(05:11):
They like it, They really like it. That's break too soon.
The band is offered a deal of a lifetime, the
sign with Apple Record in the world's most famous studio,
and if they're lucky, get a little direct help from
the Beatles themselves. Break number three, Now, break number four.
One of the Beatles, Paul McCartney, himself, arguably the greatest
(05:34):
songwriter of the twentieth century, hands them a brand new song.
He doesn't just give it to them. He sits down
at the piano, plays it through and through and says, now,
I want you to record it just like that. They
follow his instructions exactly. The song comes out. The UK
loves it, the US loves it even more. Almost overnight,
(05:54):
they've gone from nobody's to international chart contenders. Imagine walking
into Abbey Road Studios for the first time. The smell
of warm tape, crushed out cigarettes and coffee, the soft
hum of amps in the corner, the knowledge that this
is where a day in life was recorded. And engineer
points at a set of headphones and says John Lennon.
(06:15):
Use those. You sit down and for a second you
just breathe. You finally made it. Act three, the band
gets a name. Next Act three, the band gets a name.
(06:38):
Working with the Beatles isn't just flattering, it's a masterclass
and how to make records that last forever. They watched
George Harrison sculpt a slide guitar part here Ringo's Uncanny
Naka playing exactly what a song needs and not a
beat more. They see how arrangements change in real time,
how great songs are built brick by brick. In nineteen
(06:59):
seventy one, they got a call from George. He's organizing
the concert for Bangladesh, the first ever rock benefit of
its kind, Madison Square Garden, an all star cast Eric Clapton,
Bob Dylan, Ringo, Starr, Leon Russell and Moore, and George
wants them to be Everybody's backing band. They rehearse in
New York, long days, cramp rooms, laughter and nerves. And
(07:22):
then the shows, two sold out crowds, forty thousand people,
the air electric with history being made. Can you imagine it?
You're backstage at Madison Square Garden. The set list are
taped to amps. The crowd's roar leaks through the walls
like a living thing. Someone hands you a paper cup
of coffee. You don't drink, You're too nervous. You hear
(07:44):
Dylan's harmonica warming up in the next room. Someone calls
your name. You're on back home. They're now more than
Beatles proteges. They're carving their own identity, releasing shimmering, perfect
pop rock singles that critics start calling the best in
the business. So who is this mysterious band? Well, first
(08:06):
of all, there's Pete Ham lead singer, the quiet architect
of their sound. Tom Evans the voice that soared above his,
Mike Gibbons the heartbeat, Joey Mullen the guitar that cut
through the name of the band, bad Finger. That's right,
Bad Finger. The song Paul McCartney wrote was called Come
(08:27):
and Get It. It sold over a million copies and
was a top ten smash worldwide. Other hits followed no
matter what, day after day, another million Sellar and Baby Blue.
Everything seemed to be going their way, but beneath the surface,
trouble is creeping. In Act four, Trouble in Paradise. Next
(08:55):
Act four Trouble in Paradise. Well after the Beatles broke up,
records starts to unravel, lawsuits, infighting, money disappearing, albums delayed
until the momentum is gone. They need a lifeline. In
nineteen seventy three, they signed with Warner brother Records, and
along with their new label comes a new manager, a
(09:16):
man named Stan Polly. Polly was a classic music industry hustler,
presenting himself as a smooth operator who would protect the
band from chaos. In reality, he was bleeding them dry.
He set up complicated shell accounts, diverting their earnings so
that even as the band toured and sold records, the
musicians themselves were left with little more than perdems. Polly
(09:38):
was notorious for avoiding direct answers, burying contracts in legalies,
and making himself nearly untouchable. Warner executives eventually realized money
was missing, but by then the damage had been done.
For bad Finger. Polly wasn't just a bad manager. He
was a parasite, tightening his grip at the very moment
they needed someone to fight for them them millions of
(10:01):
dollars vanish Warner Brothers, suspicious of missing funds, refuses to
release their new album head First. The band's income stops cold.
They're touring on the radio, adored by fans, and can't
pay rent. They've sold millions of records, but they're broke.
No royalties, no savings, and no way forward to rub
(10:23):
salt into their wounds. A song two members had written,
Without You, is covered by Harry Nielsen. It becomes a
global phenomenon, number one everywhere. The royalties could have saved them.
Instead the money evaporates. Can you imagine if you were
in this band. You're in a hotel in the Midwest.
(10:43):
You've been on the road way too long. You're alone,
alone with just your thoughts. The radio is on you
hear a familiar song Nielsen's version of without You. You
wrote that song, crafted it, nurtured it in to exist.
You want to turn it off, You really want to
turn it off, but you can't you know it's the
(11:06):
number one song in America, And now you're facing to
having to sell your instruments to get back home while
everyone else is getting rich on your work. Now comes
break number five, and this time it's heartbreak at five tragedy,
(11:27):
next at five tragedy. By April nineteen seventy five, Pete
Ham is just twenty seven, His daughter is just weeks old.
The bills are stacked, The band is broke, The band
is broken. On April twenty third, he meets Tom Evans
(11:48):
at a pub. They talk about the band, about Polly,
about the future. Pete is quieter than usual, and Tom notices.
On the early hours of April twenty fourth, Pete walks
into his garage. The smell of motor oil and damp
woods surrounds him. He writes a note, part love letter,
(12:08):
part indictment, apologizes to his girlfriend and baby girl, naming
Stan Polly as a soul as bastard. He ties an
electrical cord to a beam and steps off. When the
news reaches the band, it's like the air is punched
out of the room. Could you imagine getting that phone call?
(12:31):
You're sitting on your bed, The phone rings The voice
on the other end is shaking. You don't remember the
first words, just a part where they say Pete is gone.
Now another tragedy. The band stumbles forward. Tom tries to
keep the flame alive, but Pete's absence is a hole
(12:53):
that just can't be filled. In nineteen eighty three, another
fight erupts over without you. Tom still not seeing the money.
The wound is still raw. He's broke, he's scared, he's depressed.
He starts thinking of his bandmate and best friend, Pete.
He never got over the loss of his musical brother.
(13:13):
He tells his wife, I want to go where Pete is.
It's a better place than this. She doesn't realize what
he's truly trying to say, though. On November nineteenth, he
goes into his backyard. The trees are bare, the air
is cold, and Tom Evans hangs himself from a willow tree.
(13:33):
Two voices silenced, both by their own hand. The Band
that had All the Breaks dies of a broken heart.
When we return the epilogue of the Band that Had
All the Breaks, the epilogue what remains well? The lyrics
(13:57):
to come and Get It foreshadow the fate of the band.
Did I hear you say that there must be a catch?
Will you walk away from a fool in his money, Sonny?
If you want it here it is, come and get it,
but you'd better hurry because it's going fast. Well. The
band didn't last, but their songs refuse to die. In
(14:17):
twenty thirteen, Baby Blue closes breaking bad million Shazamin in
real time. Their albums, once cut out Bend Fodder, are
now collector's items. The album straight Up is held as
a power pop masterpiece. Musicians from Cheap Trick to the
Bengals to the Flaming Lips cite them as an influence.
Without You is a standard recorded in almost every decade
(14:41):
since it was written. Mariah Carey took it to the
top of the charts, and the story spreads not just
the tragedy, but of the brilliance, the kind that just
can't be erased, because in the end, Badfinger wasn't just
a band that got chewed up by the record industry.
They were proof that sometimes the purest art from people
(15:01):
who never got the reward they deserved. And maybe that's
why the song still hit so hard, because they weren't manufactured,
they weren't chasing trends. They were writing straight from the
heart through every high, every betrayal, and every loss. But
when you hear those harmonies, remember you're not just hearing music.
(15:22):
You're hearing survival. You're hearing friendship. You're hearing what's left
when the system fails but the art doesn't. They should
have been huge, and they deserve better. I hope you
enjoyed Script One, the band that had all the breaks,
the story of Bad Finger. This has been Johnny's Dead
(15:44):
Air podcast. I'm Johnny Hartwell, thank you so much for listening.
Oh, Danny, go get a real nice face, now, don't you. Johnny. Well, actually,
I'm Johnny. That's what Johnny. That's we're gonna tell the
boys about. Johnny Doctor Johnny air fever and I am
burning up in here, Johnny. All right, welcome in, Johnny Heart.
(00:21):
Well here. Now, I had the day off, but what
I thought i'd do is deliver. As we've talked about
this week on the podcast is give you a little
preview of my new podcast called Johnny's Dead Air Podcast.
And basically what it is, it's it's the eerie happenings
behind rock and Roll. It says if behind the music
met the Twilight Zone. Now, some of these topics are
(00:46):
a little sensitive, so listener discretion is advised. So I'm
really glad you had a chance to preview this. So
once you listen to it, there's other stories. There's twelve
other stories, so please check that out. It's called Johnny's
Dead Air Podcast, available on the iHeartRadio AP and I
would love to get your feedback. So here you go.
(01:06):
Here's Johnny's Dead Air Podcast. Script one. The band that
had all the breaks in the music business. There's a
rule as old as rock and roll. For every hit single,
there's someone waiting to take more than their share. One
band found this the hard way. They have the songs,
the look, the blessing of the biggest names in music.
(01:29):
For a moment, it seemed like nothing could stop them.
But what fame gave them Greed took away shady contracts,
vanishing money, endless tours with empty pockets, And for the
musicians who gave everything, every lyric, every harmony, every ounce
of themselves, the costs became unbearable. This is not a
story about overnight success. It's a story about how quickly
(01:53):
success can sour, and how the very thing you love
the most, the music, can become the weight that pulls
you under. This is Script one, the band that had
all the brakes, Act one, the Spark. Let's rewind to
the late nineteen sixties, I mean really rewind. Hear the
faint hiss of a needle, finding the groove, smell the vinyl,
(02:16):
see the album cover in your hands. This is the
golden age of the British Invasion. The Beatles are bending
the rules. One month it's Indian citars, the next it's
string quartets. The Stones are snarling through blues rifts that
sound dangerous. The who are taking apart their instruments like
demolition crews. Rock has grown up. It's no longer just
(02:36):
teenage singalongs. It's a canvas of big ideas, big risks
and bold statements. Now pull the camera back, way back.
Hundreds of miles from London's bright lights, we land in
Swansea Whales. The smell of coal smoke drifts over terraced houses.
The steel works loom in the distance. It's a place
of hard work and harder winters, but in a basement,
(02:59):
low ceiling, bare babs, secondhand amps buzzing. There's a small
band of young guys who are making something beautiful. They
got it. The harmonies tight enough that you'd swear they
shared a childhood bedroom. The songs melodic and muscular, the
lyrics equal parts hopeful and haunted, like they've already lived
more than their years. They'll play anywhere. Pubs where you
(03:22):
can reach the bar without leaving the stage, dance halls
where half the crowd is already drunk. And in between
there's stuffing padded envelopes with demo tapes, licking stamps and
sending them off into the void. Weeks pass, then months silence,
then everything changes. It's a damp Tuesday night. You're in
(03:43):
a pub in Swansea. The room smells a beer and
cigarette smoke. The jukebox in the corner is broken. The
band takes the stage. No fanfare, no lighting cues, just
a quick nod between them. Account in one, two, three, four, boom,
the harmonies hit like sunlight breaking through the clouds. You
glance around. Even the blokes in the bar stop talking
(04:05):
mid sentence. For three minutes, everyone in the room knows
they're hearing something rare act too. The door opens. Break
number one, one of those demo tapes, makes its way
into the hands of Mal Evans. If you've never heard
of Mal Well, you've definitely heard of the people he
works for. The Beatles. Yeah, the Beatles. Mal isn't just
(04:27):
their road manager. He's part friend, part fixer, part bodyguard.
He's Bennett Schey Stadium in the studio during the White album.
He was even there during the famous rooftop performance. He
listens to the tape and here's the thing. He doesn't
just hear potential, he hears kinship. These songs feel like
they belong in the same orbit as Lennon McCartney, not copies,
(04:48):
but cousins. Mal takes it to Apple Records, The Beatles
shiny new label. Apple's a mix of idealism and chaos.
Free milkshakes in the cafeteria, secretaries and mini skirts, famous
faces drifting in out. And here's the magic moment. The
Beatles themselves listen. Yeah, all four, not a junior exect,
not a committee, the actual Beatles. And here's the thing.
(05:11):
They like it, They really like it. That's break too soon.
The band is offered a deal of a lifetime, the
sign with Apple Record in the world's most famous studio,
and if they're lucky, get a little direct help from
the Beatles themselves. Break number three, Now, break number four.
One of the Beatles, Paul McCartney, himself, arguably the greatest
(05:34):
songwriter of the twentieth century, hands them a brand new song.
He doesn't just give it to them. He sits down
at the piano, plays it through and through and says, now,
I want you to record it just like that. They
follow his instructions exactly. The song comes out. The UK
loves it, the US loves it even more. Almost overnight,
(05:54):
they've gone from nobody's to international chart contenders. Imagine walking
into Abbey Road Studios for the first time. The smell
of warm tape, crushed out cigarettes and coffee, the soft
hum of amps in the corner, the knowledge that this
is where a day in life was recorded. And engineer
points at a set of headphones and says John Lennon.
(06:15):
Use those. You sit down and for a second you
just breathe. You finally made it. Act three, the band
gets a name. Next Act three, the band gets a name.
(06:38):
Working with the Beatles isn't just flattering, it's a masterclass
and how to make records that last forever. They watched
George Harrison sculpt a slide guitar part here Ringo's Uncanny
Naka playing exactly what a song needs and not a
beat more. They see how arrangements change in real time,
how great songs are built brick by brick. In nineteen
(06:59):
seventy one, they got a call from George. He's organizing
the concert for Bangladesh, the first ever rock benefit of
its kind, Madison Square Garden, an all star cast Eric Clapton,
Bob Dylan, Ringo, Starr, Leon Russell and Moore, and George
wants them to be Everybody's backing band. They rehearse in
New York, long days, cramp rooms, laughter and nerves. And
(07:22):
then the shows, two sold out crowds, forty thousand people,
the air electric with history being made. Can you imagine it?
You're backstage at Madison Square Garden. The set list are
taped to amps. The crowd's roar leaks through the walls
like a living thing. Someone hands you a paper cup
of coffee. You don't drink, You're too nervous. You hear
(07:44):
Dylan's harmonica warming up in the next room. Someone calls
your name. You're on back home. They're now more than
Beatles proteges. They're carving their own identity, releasing shimmering, perfect
pop rock singles that critics start calling the best in
the business. So who is this mysterious band? Well, first
(08:06):
of all, there's Pete Ham lead singer, the quiet architect
of their sound. Tom Evans the voice that soared above his,
Mike Gibbons the heartbeat, Joey Mullen the guitar that cut
through the name of the band, bad Finger. That's right,
Bad Finger. The song Paul McCartney wrote was called Come
(08:27):
and Get It. It sold over a million copies and
was a top ten smash worldwide. Other hits followed no
matter what, day after day, another million Sellar and Baby Blue.
Everything seemed to be going their way, but beneath the surface,
trouble is creeping. In Act four, Trouble in Paradise. Next
(08:55):
Act four Trouble in Paradise. Well after the Beatles broke up,
records starts to unravel, lawsuits, infighting, money disappearing, albums delayed
until the momentum is gone. They need a lifeline. In
nineteen seventy three, they signed with Warner brother Records, and
along with their new label comes a new manager, a
(09:16):
man named Stan Polly. Polly was a classic music industry hustler,
presenting himself as a smooth operator who would protect the
band from chaos. In reality, he was bleeding them dry.
He set up complicated shell accounts, diverting their earnings so
that even as the band toured and sold records, the
musicians themselves were left with little more than perdems. Polly
(09:38):
was notorious for avoiding direct answers, burying contracts in legalies,
and making himself nearly untouchable. Warner executives eventually realized money
was missing, but by then the damage had been done.
For bad Finger. Polly wasn't just a bad manager. He
was a parasite, tightening his grip at the very moment
they needed someone to fight for them them millions of
(10:01):
dollars vanish Warner Brothers, suspicious of missing funds, refuses to
release their new album head First. The band's income stops cold.
They're touring on the radio, adored by fans, and can't
pay rent. They've sold millions of records, but they're broke.
No royalties, no savings, and no way forward to rub
(10:23):
salt into their wounds. A song two members had written,
Without You, is covered by Harry Nielsen. It becomes a
global phenomenon, number one everywhere. The royalties could have saved them.
Instead the money evaporates. Can you imagine if you were
in this band. You're in a hotel in the Midwest.
(10:43):
You've been on the road way too long. You're alone,
alone with just your thoughts. The radio is on you
hear a familiar song Nielsen's version of without You. You
wrote that song, crafted it, nurtured it in to exist.
You want to turn it off, You really want to
turn it off, but you can't you know it's the
(11:06):
number one song in America, And now you're facing to
having to sell your instruments to get back home while
everyone else is getting rich on your work. Now comes
break number five, and this time it's heartbreak at five tragedy,
(11:27):
next at five tragedy. By April nineteen seventy five, Pete
Ham is just twenty seven, His daughter is just weeks old.
The bills are stacked, The band is broke, The band
is broken. On April twenty third, he meets Tom Evans
(11:48):
at a pub. They talk about the band, about Polly,
about the future. Pete is quieter than usual, and Tom notices.
On the early hours of April twenty fourth, Pete walks
into his garage. The smell of motor oil and damp
woods surrounds him. He writes a note, part love letter,
(12:08):
part indictment, apologizes to his girlfriend and baby girl, naming
Stan Polly as a soul as bastard. He ties an
electrical cord to a beam and steps off. When the
news reaches the band, it's like the air is punched
out of the room. Could you imagine getting that phone call?
(12:31):
You're sitting on your bed, The phone rings The voice
on the other end is shaking. You don't remember the
first words, just a part where they say Pete is gone.
Now another tragedy. The band stumbles forward. Tom tries to
keep the flame alive, but Pete's absence is a hole
(12:53):
that just can't be filled. In nineteen eighty three, another
fight erupts over without you. Tom still not seeing the money.
The wound is still raw. He's broke, he's scared, he's depressed.
He starts thinking of his bandmate and best friend, Pete.
He never got over the loss of his musical brother.
(13:13):
He tells his wife, I want to go where Pete is.
It's a better place than this. She doesn't realize what
he's truly trying to say, though. On November nineteenth, he
goes into his backyard. The trees are bare, the air
is cold, and Tom Evans hangs himself from a willow tree.
(13:33):
Two voices silenced, both by their own hand. The Band
that had All the Breaks dies of a broken heart.
When we return the epilogue of the Band that Had
All the Breaks, the epilogue what remains well? The lyrics
(13:57):
to come and Get It foreshadow the fate of the band.
Did I hear you say that there must be a catch?
Will you walk away from a fool in his money, Sonny?
If you want it here it is, come and get it,
but you'd better hurry because it's going fast. Well. The
band didn't last, but their songs refuse to die. In
(14:17):
twenty thirteen, Baby Blue closes breaking bad million Shazamin in
real time. Their albums, once cut out Bend Fodder, are
now collector's items. The album straight Up is held as
a power pop masterpiece. Musicians from Cheap Trick to the
Bengals to the Flaming Lips cite them as an influence.
Without You is a standard recorded in almost every decade
(14:41):
since it was written. Mariah Carey took it to the
top of the charts, and the story spreads not just
the tragedy, but of the brilliance, the kind that just
can't be erased, because in the end, Badfinger wasn't just
a band that got chewed up by the record industry.
They were proof that sometimes the purest art from people
(15:01):
who never got the reward they deserved. And maybe that's
why the song still hit so hard, because they weren't manufactured,
they weren't chasing trends. They were writing straight from the
heart through every high, every betrayal, and every loss. But
when you hear those harmonies, remember you're not just hearing music.
(15:22):
You're hearing survival. You're hearing friendship. You're hearing what's left
when the system fails but the art doesn't. They should
have been huge, and they deserve better. I hope you
enjoyed Script One, the band that had all the breaks,
the story of Bad Finger. This has been Johnny's Dead
(15:44):
Air podcast. I'm Johnny Hartwell, thank you so much for listening.
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.