Badfinger - Subsequent Iveys and Badfinger Releases and Activities

Subsequent Iveys and Badfinger Releases and Activities

Badfinger's first collection entitled Shine On, spanning their two Warner Brothers albums, was released in the UK in 1989. In 1990, Rhino Records released another Warner Brothers-era compilation, The Best of Badfinger, Vol. 2, including material from both Airwaves and the previously unreleased Head First. A greatest hits collection taken from Badfinger's four albums on Apple, Come and Get It: The Best of Badfinger, appeared in 1995 on the EMI/Apple/Capitol, which was the band's first release since 1973's Ass to be assigned a standard Apple catalogue number: SAPCOR 28. A more comprehensive collection, with tracks from both record labels, was 2000s The Very Best of Badfinger.

In 1990, Rykodisc released Day After Day: Live, billed as a Badfinger live recording from 1974. The album underwent substantial re-recording, and a rearranged track order by the album's producer, Molland, and had a mixed critical reaction. The album's release then sparked a lawsuit filed by Molland. The band's accounting firm, collecting for a 1985 court order settlement, had re-adjusted against Molland's Apple royalty income by deducting away the percentage amounts of that court order, then reimbursing those amounts to the other Badfinger parties. The Rykodisc contract did not include artist royalty payments, because Molland had advised Rykodisc he would take care of that distribution himself under another company name. Molland subsequently sued the other members and their estates to recoup his expenses plus a producer's royalty. He was awarded a partial settlement, as the judge stated the evidence against Molland was insufficient to justify a severe penalty, also noting that since both parties had conceded the original tapes were of a poor quality, Mollands' salvaging of them to a commercial level merited consideration.

While in a 1988 readers poll for Goldmine magazine Straight Up ranked as the most-requested CD release among out-of-print albums, the album made it to CD only in 1993. In 1995, Molland was paid to re-record the ten most popular Badfinger songs. These recordings were variously packaged in the market, often showing the original 1970s line-up of the band with little or no disclaiming information, despite Molland being the only original member of Badfinger who performed. A detailed biography of Badfinger by Dan Matovina was published in 1998, entitled Without You: The Tragic Story Of Badfinger. The 2000 update of the book was accompanied by a CD of rare material and interviews.

In 2000, a rough mix version of Head First (prepared by Apple engineer Phil McDonald, in December 1974) was released on CD. Warner Brothers had refused access to the original master tapes for remixing, despite never having paid for the original sessions. In 2002, Gibbins released a two-disk set of a Badfinger performance recorded in Indiana, on 19 October 1982, which had been captured on a basic cassette recorder, which was initially (and inaccurately) entitled Live 83 — DBA-BFR. The band at that time had consisted of Evans, Gibbins, Jackson, Kailing and Dacus. In 2003, and again in 2006, two separate CDs of related Apple Publishing music, 94 Baker Street, and An Apple a Day, were released. The CDs contain nine songs by the pre-Badfinger Iveys. In 2008, another CD of Apple-related songs, Treacle Toffee World: Further Adventures into the Pop Psych Sounds from the Apple Era 1967–1969, included two more Iveys demos.