TOPS 1971 BADFINGER STRAIGHT UP Beatles Day After Day

$

56

 IN ORIGINAL FACTORY SHRINK WRAP + STICKER

        1971 ORIGINAL APPLE RECORDS COLLECTIBLE

                                               BADFINGER

                STRAIGHT UP

\                                              USA - APPLE RECORDS - SW 3387

CLEAN original 1971 first pressing of the peak collectible album on the Apple label featuring the timeless smash hit "Day After Day" produced by George Harrison.

***STILL IN ORIGINAL FACTORY SHRINK WRAPPER + the very rare "BADFINGER ~ STRAIGHT UP" sticker on the outside of the cellophane -- most folks tore off the shrink wrap of the first pressing, and there went this now rare sticker!

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The closest anyone ever came to crossing Revolver with Abbey Road:  a set of excellent, emotional, diverse pop songs with pristinely lush production.  Badfinger got criticized in their day for sounding like the Beatles, but time has shown that emulating that sound, in your own way, is pretty cool.  In the '70's, with the former Beatles doing a somewhat patchy job of sounding like their old band, Badfinger came the closest of anyone.  And pretty consistently, too: 

Three of Badfinger's five best songs are here, all Pete Ham compositions:  the heartstrings-tugging "Day After Day", the power-pop gem "Baby Blue", and the soaring "Name of the Game".  (The fourth is Joey Molland's "Some Other Time", and the fifth... ah, impossible to narrow it down from so many great tunes.)  In fact, Pete could do no wrong during this period; "Take It All" and "Perfection" are also standouts, and the diversity and quality of his contributions here recollect Paul's Revolver songs.

Like the Beatles, Badfinger was blessed with several great songwriters.  Pete Ham was the giant, most comparable to McCartney, but Tom Evans (bass) and Joey Molland (guitar) were talents analogous to George Harrison, and Mike Gibbins (drums) came up with a good song every album or so.  On this album, Joey contributes some pretty good pop/boogie songs ("I'd Die Babe" sounds kind of like Wings from this period) and a very cool, Allman Brothers-esque acoustic ballad, "Sweet Tuesday Morning".  And Tom has the nice medley of "Money/Flying" on side 1 and the dramatic, foreboding "It's Over" closing out side 2.  So, it's mostly Pete's show, with a couple more excellent tracks from Joey and Tom, and several more good ones that are a little too good to be just "filler".

It's impossible to listen to this stuff, especially the opening and closing tracks, without feeling the profound sadness and desperation that was gripping the band.  Blessed with abundant talent and cursed by awful management, Badfinger got about as screwed over as you can get in the music business; Pete and Tom ended up commiting suicide by hanging themselves over monetary woes.  You can hear this in their music, much of which sounds like a call for help.  Despite or because of the pressures Badfinger faced, they came up with one of the best bodies of pop from the early '70's. The "Straight Up" album, their shining star...

Take It All

4:25

Baby Blue

3:38

Money

3:31

Flying

2:37

I'd Die Babe

2:05

Name of the Game

5:49

B:

Suitcase

2:53

Sweet Tuesday Morning

2:31

Day After Day

3:02

Sometimes

2:57

Perfection

5:10

CONDITION: The Cover: is MINT and so hard to find clean, usual shelf (ring) wear is found, and this one is MINT  solid all over and still in the original factory shrink wrap with the rare sticker   =

A nice keeper collectible. 

The vinyl  is all glossy and clean on both sides, near "EX" (excellent) with only very light paper sleeve scuffs = expect to play nice and enjoyable. CLEAN Apple labels too....                  

      A cool addition to anyone's music library!

SEE: SELLERS OTher items for similar cool sounds for "head" people...

EFFICIENT/CAREFUL GRADING

All imperfections are noted both cover & record