Head First (Badfinger album)

Head First was the seventh album recorded by rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the 1960s. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country music and also drew on folk music, jazz and classical music....

 band Badfinger

Badfinger

Badfinger was a rock band formed in Swansea, Wales in the early 1960s and was one of the earliest representatives of the power pop genre. During the early 1970s the band was tagged as the heir apparent to The Beatles, partly because of their close working relationship with the 'Fab Four' and...

, and the last album to feature the original "Iveys" core of Pete Ham, Tom Evans

Tom Evans (musician)

Thomas Evans , was a musician who was most notable for his work with the band, Badfinger.- Early life :Evans was born in Liverpool, England. He started his music career as a member of "The Inbeateens" in 1961. Evans was a regular down at the Cavern to watch The Beatles when they would play...

 and Mike Gibbins. It was recorded in December of 1974 at The Beatles' Apple Studios in London

London

[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...

 and remained unreleased for 25 years. Originally intended to be Badfinger's third album under its six-album contract with Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records

Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label that operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group. It is also affectionately known as Warners or the Bunny, based on the Bugs Bunny cartoons released by Warner Bros. Pictures.-History:...

, the recordings were shelved when legal difficulties erupted between the band and WB that year, and the version that was finally released (as Badfinger's eleventh album, including two live albums) was a rough mix of the album made by Phil McDonald, one of the engineers at Apple.

History

Shortly before the group entered the studio, long-time member Joey Molland

Joey Molland

Joseph "Joey" Charles Molland is an English composer and rock guitarist whose recording career spans four decades...

 quit Badfinger, due in part to band disagreements regarding management. Because Badfinger's longtime producer Chris Thomas

Chris Thomas (record producer)

Chris Thomas , is a British record producer who has worked extensively with The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, Badfinger, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Pulp and The Pretenders. He has also produced breakthrough albums for The Sex Pistols and INXS.-Early career:Thomas was born in Perivale,...

 felt that the band had had too little time to recover after making Wish You Were Here

Wish You Were Here (Badfinger album)

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...

, Badfinger's management replaced him as producer with Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise, who had just become successful by producing KISS

KISS (band)

Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in December 1972. Easily identified by its members' trademark face paint and stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid and late-1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...

.

The remaining members and recently-added keyboardist/guitarist Bob Jackson

Bob Jackson

Robert 'Bob' Jackson , is a keyboardist/guitarist whose career has been interwoven with various rock and pop bands since the early 1970s....

 recorded the album in two weeks. The difficult circumstances that surrounded Badfinger at this time contribute to the album's tone and provide the theme for two of its songs.

An investigation by WB's publishing division discovered that approximately $100,000 was missing from a Badfinger escrow account. Inquiries made by WB as to the whereabouts of the money were reportedly met with silence by Badfinger's manager, American Stan Polley

Stan Polley

Stanley H. Polley , is a retired entertainment manager from the 1960s and 1970s. His clients included rock band Badfinger, musician Al Kooper, singer Lou Christie, singer-producer Hank Medress, arranger Charles Calello, composer Sandy Linzer, WABC disc jockey Bob Lewis, among others.Polley served...

. Suspicions were aroused, and, fed up with what it claimed was a lack of cooperation, WB launched a breach of contract suit against Polley and Badfinger almost simultaneous to the Head First recordings.

Although the tapes of Head First were delivered to and accepted by WB's recording division in Los Angeles, the publishing arm there refused to accept them. With a lack of publishing protection, the record division shelved the tapes and the album was not released.

Unaware of the lawsuit at the time, the group had long argued amongst themselves regarding Polley's honesty and his handling of their money. These sentiments came to the surface in the lyrics for two Head First tracks, "Rock & Roll Contract" and "Mr. Manager", which are indictments by bassist Tom Evans of Polley.

Badfinger became aware of the lawsuit in early 1975, simultaneous to a discontinuation of the group's salary checks from Polley. As financial turmoil mounted for the band and its future became more uncertain, group leader Pete Ham

Peter Ham

Peter William Ham was a Welsh singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known as the leader of the group Badfinger.- Early life :...

 committed suicide only four months after the album was completed. Also due to financial difficulties, Evans followed suit in 1983.

It appeared for many years that Head First would never be released, as the master tapes had been misplaced and the recording quality of copies was so poor as to be unusable. The master tapes were eventually located at WB in the late 1980s (and were used in the preparation of Rhino's The Best of Badfinger, Vol. 2 in 1990, which included remixed versions of "Lay Me Down", "Passed Fast", "Keep Believing" and "Moonshine" from this album), but WB refused to permit their remix or use for this album because of the possibility of new lawsuits with regard to them.

After several months of negotiations with WB, Bob Jackson was given permission to release the album using a rough mix of the tapes that had been made in 1974 by Apple engineer Phil McDonald for the "wrap party" at the end of the recording sessions. The CD was then released on the Snapper label in 2000.

Track listing

Head First's original tracking order, compiled by Kerner and Wise, was not used on the Snapper release. The following is the Snapper CD order. The songs on the second CD are demo bonus tracks.

CD 1

1. "Lay Me Down" (Ham) – 3:35
2. "Hey, Mr. Manager" (Evans) – 3:34
3. "Keep Believing" (Ham) – 4:09
4. "Passed Fast" (Evans, Jackson) – 4:19
5. "Rock 'N' Roll Contract" (Evans) – 4:44
6. "Saville Row" (Ham) :36
7. "Moonshine" (Evans, Gibbins, Jackson) – 3:53
8. "Back Again" (Gibbins) – 2:54
9. "Turn Around" (Jackson) – 4:17
10. "Rockin' Machine" (Gibbins) – 1:32

CD 2

1. "Time Is Mine" (Ham) – 1:45
2. "Smokin' Gun" (Ham) – 1:22
3. "Old Fashioned Notions" (Gibbins) – 4:12
4. "Nothing to Show" (Ham) – 1:03
5. "You Ask Yourself Why" (Gibbins) – 2:17
6. "Keep Your Country Tidy" (Ham) – 2:23
7. "To Say Goodbye" (Jackson) – 3:46
8. "Queen of Darkness" (Evans) – 2:13
9. "I Can't Believe In" (Ham) – 2:10
10. "Thanks to You All" (Gibbins) – 2:41
11. "Lay Me Down" (Ham) – 2:55

Original track listing

The original track listing consisted of the 10 songs on disc one and was originally compiled by Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise.

Side Two

1. "Saville Row"
2. "Moonshine"
3. "Rock And Roll Contract"
4. "Back Again"
5. "Hey, Mr. Manager"

Personnel

• Pete Ham: guitar, keyboards, vocals
• Tom Evans
  Tom Evans (musician)
  Thomas Evans , was a musician who was most notable for his work with the band, Badfinger.- Early life :Evans was born in Liverpool, England. He started his music career as a member of "The Inbeateens" in 1961. Evans was a regular down at the Cavern to watch The Beatles when they would play...
  
  : bass, synthesizer, vocals
• Bob Jackson
  Bob Jackson
  Robert 'Bob' Jackson , is a keyboardist/guitarist whose career has been interwoven with various rock and pop bands since the early 1970s....
  
  : guitar, keyboards, vocals
• Mike Gibbins: drums, percussion, vocals