Writers: Tom Evans and Pete Ham
Producer: Geoff Emerick
Recorded: July 15 and 29, 1970 at Abbey Road Studios, London
Released: Fall 1970
| Players: | Pete Ham — vocals, guitar Tom Evans — bass, vocals Mike Gibbins — drums Joey Molland — guitar, vocals |
| Album: | No Dice (Apple, 1970) |
“Without You” is one of the most ironic entries in Badfinger's catalog. Though the group wrote and recorded the original version of the song for its second album, No Dice, it did not have a hit with it. That honor went first to Harry Nilsson, whose 1972 cover of the song hit Number One on theBillboard Hot 100 and won an Ivor Novello song of the year award in Britain.
Pop singer Mariah Carey also had a hit remake, which peaked at Number Three in February 1994.
Interestingly, Nilsson — who heard the song during a drunken evening at a friend's house while he was gathering material for his Nilsson Schmilssonalbum — first thought the song came not from Badfinger but from one of his Beatles buddies. “After sobering up the next day, I said, 'What was that (John) Lennon tune we were listening to last night?' We went through a bunch of (Beatles) albums and couldn't find it. Finally I said, 'No! It wasn't the Beatles. It was another group. It was Grapefruit or something.'”
Nilsson had reason to be confused — Badfinger, which first formed as the Iveys, was the first band signed to the Beatles' Apple Records label, and its first hit, “Come And Get It,” was written by Paul McCartney. George Harrison also used the group to back him up on the album All Things Must Pass.
“Without You” actually combined bits of two songs being worked on by Badfinger's principal writers. The verses come from Pete Ham's “If It's Love,” a musical apology to his girlfriend for reneging on a promise to take her to a party. The chorus comes from a Tom Evans song that was titled “I Can't Love.” “My song was OK, but Pete fell in love with the chorus,” Evans remembered.
Ironically, Badfinger was in the studio recording its third album, Straight Up, while Nilsson was recording his version of “Without You.” Learning of this, he invited the group in to hear his version of the song. Ham remembered telling a roadie, “'There's some guy down the hall doing one of our songs, and it sounds amazing!' That was the way we wanted to do it but never had the nerve.”
Thanks to other hits such as “No Matter What” and “Better Days,” the No Dice album peaked at Number 28 on the Billboard 200.