5. Baby Blue
Artist: Badfinger
Album: Straight Up (1971)
Todd's role(s): producer
Writer(s): Peter Ham
The song: My highest-ranked song that was not released by Todd or a band he was part of is also what I ranked #10 in the British Isles countdown. What I said there:
Another perfect power pop song. The guitar lines have a "winding effect" to them that propels the song in a different way than some of the other touchstone songs of the genre. Even though this was a hit, for whatever reason, by the time I started listening in the '80s, the FM stations in Philly were playing "No Matter What," "Day After Day" and "Come and Get It," but not this. So I hadn't heard it a whole lot when it was used in the final scene of Breaking Bad, one of the best song/TV scene combos ever devised. "Guess I got what I deserved," indeed.
"Baby Blue" was released as a single in the US and hit #14, but amazingly it was not released as a single in the UK due to the dysfunction going on at Apple Records. It did not chart in the UK until 2013, just after its appearance in Breaking Bad, when it hit #73. Of the Badfinger lineup that recorded the song, only guitarist Joey Molland lived to see the song's renaissance. (It was also used in The Departed.)
The song is not about meth, but about a musician whose girlfriend leaves him when he is on tour, and was inspired by singer/songwriter/guitarist Peter Ham's experience on Badfinger's US tour of early 1971.
The song inspired a hilarious Rundgren-related story from Rick Springfield on his 2016-2017 tour, when he covered it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esbUBOcNnk0 In his introduction, he said that in 1981, just after he had broken big, he became obsessed with "Baby Blue" and the album it came from,
Straight Up, and decided he wanted to work with Rundgren. When he was in San Francisco, he dropped in on Rundgren, who was living there at the time, and asked if they could work on song ideas together. They fiddled around on guitars for a few hours and came up with nothing of interest. At which point Rundgren told him, "oh yeah, I should have told you, I'm not into pop music anymore." (1981 was the year Rundgren recorded and released
Healing, one of his most experimental solo albums.)
The album: As with most everything Badfinger did for Apple, their third album
Straight Up had a difficult birth. They recorded twelve tracks with producer Geoff Emerick, rushing to meet a deadline before they had to leave for a tour, but Apple rejected the proposed single "Name of the Game," and George Harrison, a champion of theirs, offered to take over production, which prompted the band to decide to scrap the Emerick recordings and try again after their tour.
For a month in the spring, the band completed four tracks with Harrison, including a new version of "Name of the Game" and "Day After Day," which became the album's other hit single. Harrison played guitar on some of the tracks, including one of the slide guitar parts on "Day After Day."
But after that, Harrison became preoccupied with putting together the Concert for Bangladesh (at which Badfinger appeared) and preparing the recordings from it for release, and he no longer had time to finish the Badfinger album. Harrison had met with Rundgren in New York, at which time Todd said he would be interested in working with Badfinger, so Apple hired him to fly to London and finish the album.
True to the working methods he would become known for, Rundgren was efficient and ruthless, finishing the remaining tracks (including "Baby Blue") in two weeks and demanding things be done his way. "According to the band, he was totally domineering and had little respect for their ideas," Badfinger biographer Dan Matovina wrote. "Todd made the album slick and simple, and an abundance of the group’s natural energy was lost."
"Day After Day" became the band's biggest US hit, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and also hit the top 10 in the UK. But promotion beyond that was hampered due to the chaos going on at Apple, and contemporary reviews were mixed. Retrospective reviews have been glowing, as the album has been recognized as one of the first post-Beatles power pop records. Reissues include some of the tracks from the Emerick sessions, making all three legendary producers represented.
Rundgren was hired to produce their follow-up album, but quit after 1 week due to a dispute with Apple over payment.
I'm not getting into what happened to Badfinger subsequently because it's too depressing.
You Might Also Like: Album opener "Take It All" is slow, anguished and gorgeously arranged, and sports what may be Ham's best vocal.
https://open.spotify.com/track/0y6mhgH8GPKn7cb2xYFuE3?si=19c09a49811949bf
Rundgren covered this song on the (re)Production album.
https://open.spotify.com/track/36rjDDIutmAqXsdgORn2mt?si=84d5b95781b441bd
At #4, an unexpected collaboration that occurred late in Rundgren's career.
m.youtube.com
(We bought tix to the fest and hope we'll be able to go.)
