[MikeNoun]

Badfinger was a byproduct of The Beatles. They never would have made it anywhere, except they were signed by Apple, and their albums bore the famous Apple label. They only had 4 hits, none of which were chart toppers. First hit was written by McCartney, recorded as a demo by The Beatles, and given to Badfinger to record verbatim, with absolutely no changes. Their 2nd hit was produced by one of The Beatles inner circle (Mal Evans), their 3rd hit was basically crafted by George Harrison (Day After Day), and Harrison's slide guitar is all over the track. Their 4th (and last) hit was their own (Baby Blue). Then they sank like a stone after that. They were all done by 1973.

I believe I read a long time ago that Pete Ham quit the band because a girlfriend of another member began managing the group (shades of Spinal Tap), then their new label (Warner) refused to promote the band without Pete Ham. He rejoined, but it was all downhill after 1973 anyway.

I put them in the same category as The Raspberries. Great sound, but not enough songwriting talent.

And I like them. People forget that probably their biggest hit, which was a flop when they wrote it, was "Without You", a song that Harry Nilsson (the guy who did "Everybody's Talking", heard on Oldies Stations all the time) heard and thought it was a Beatles song. Nilsson recorded it and took it to #1 (and his version was much better than Badfingers), then Mariah Carey sent this same song again to #1 again in the mid-1990's.

Since I'm a fan of The Beatles, I love all the "satellite" acts too.