Wish You Were Here (Badfinger album)

Wish You Were Here
Studio album by Badfinger
Released November 1974
Recorded 9 April–7 May 1974
Caribou Ranch, Nederland, Colorado; AIR Studios, London
Genre Rock, power pop[1]
Length 36:00
Label Warner Bros.
Producer Chris Thomas
Badfinger chronology

Badfinger
(1974)		 Wish You Were Here
(1974)		 Airwaves
(1979)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic [2]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music [3]

Wish You Were Here is the sixth album by rock band Badfinger and their third consecutive album produced by Chris Thomas. It was recorded in the spring of 1974 at Colorado's Caribou Ranch and released in November of that year on Warner Bros. Records. Wish You Were Here was the second and last album the band released on the Warner's label.

History

Although the album received a favourable review in Rolling Stone magazine and is sometimes considered to be the band's best work, it was withdrawn from record stores in early 1975,[4] seven weeks after release, because of a lawsuit between Warner music publishing and Badfinger's management. The album's abbreviated manufacturing run and short tenure on the market has made the original LP relatively rare.

Before being recalled, Wish You Were Here had time enough to chart, peaking at number 148 in the United States. In the 1990s it was re-released in CD format in Japan and Germany only. The album was eventually issued on CD in the US in 2007. Many of the tracks have appeared on Badfinger compilation albums.

After completing Wish You Were Here, Pete Ham decided to quit Badfinger; he was replaced by keyboardist/guitarist Bob Jackson. However, after Warner's indicated that it would drop the band if Ham quit, he agreed to return, and Badfinger completed a tour as a five-piece group. Following this tour, Joey Molland resigned from the band.

Although the next Badfinger release was the Molland–Evans reunion album Airwaves, in 1979, Ham, Evans, Gibbins and Jackson recorded an album titled Head First in December 1974. The latter album was the band's seventh and last with the original Ham–Evans–Gibbins nucleus that dated back to the late 1960s, when the group was known as the Iveys. Head First was not released until 2000, however, because of further lawsuits between Warner Bros. and Badfinger's management.

Track listing

Side one
  1. "Just a Chance" (Ham) – 2:58
  2. "You're So Fine" (Gibbins) – 3:03
  3. "Got to Get Out of Here" (Molland) – 3:31
  4. "Know One Knows" (Ham) – 3:17
  5. "Dennis" (Ham) – 5:15
Side two
  1. "In the Meantime/Some Other Time" (Gibbins/Molland) – 6:46
  2. "Love Time" (Molland) – 2:20
  3. "King of the Load (T)" (Evans) – 3:32
  4. "Meanwhile Back at the Ranch/Should I Smoke" (Ham/Molland) – 5:18

Personnel

Additional contributors

References

  1. ↑ "Wish You Were Here" at AllMusic
  2. ↑ Wish You Were Here (Badfinger album) at AllMusic
  3. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th edn), Volume 1. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 358. ISBN 0-19-531373-9.
  4. ↑ Borack, John M. (2007). Shake Some Action: The Ultimate Power Pop Guide. Fort Collins, CO: Not Lame Recording Co. p. 50. ISBN 9780979771408.

Dan Matovina, Without You: The Tragic Story Of Badfinger.