I don’t know the details of Pete Ham’s story as well as some people do. The band was basically groomed by the Beatles’ Apple Records label to be their heirs after the Beatles broke up, and Badfinger did achieve almost instantaneous global success after their first album release.īut that level of initial success and heightened expectation can create pressure, and Badfinger didn’t help their cause by going into business with Stan Polley, a shady business manager who contributed to the band going broke (despite their many recent hits), the collapse of their musical career, and according to the note he left, Pete Ham’s suicide at the age of 27 in 1975. Kept you waiting there too long my love…”ĭo you see a pattern there? Each one of them reads like a love-letter with Pete Ham confessing his regrets and sorrows to a woman he pines for but is no longer there each time he implores her directly with “you”.įrom the outside looking in, being in Badfinger must have seemed like a pretty sweet gig.
The first lyric to “Baby Blue” is “ Guess I got what I deserve.Bring it home baby make it soon, I give my love to you.” Looking out of my lonely gloom, day after day. The first verse to the Badfinger hit, “Day After Day” is “ I remember finding out about you.
#Baby baby blue song movie#
The song was briefly featured in the 2006 movie The Departed, directed by Martin Scorsese.While most acts associated with early ’70s rock and roll were singing about snorting lines off of ceiling mirrors, loving the ladies, and then hopping in the tour bus and blowing out of town, Pete Ham wore his heart on his guitar strap and rendered the heartbreak of leaving into chart-topping lyrics. Singer-songwriter Barbara Manning covered the song with her band, S.F. Tom Evans – backing vocals, bass guitarĪimee Mann covered the song as the B-side to her 1993 single " I Should've Known".As a result, the song charted in the UK for the first time, reaching #73. It became a top-selling song on iTunes following the broadcast. Joey Molland, the last surviving member of the classic line-up of Badfinger, took to Twitter to express his excitement at the song's use in the finale and subsequently began to retweet news articles about the song's usage in the finale. According to Nielsen Soundscan, 5,300 downloads were purchased the night of the broadcast, and the song appeared on the Billboard Digital Songs chart at #32 the week ending October 19, 2013. Online streams increased in popularity immediately following the broadcast.
#Baby baby blue song series#
The song experienced a resurgence of popularity in 2013 when it was featured in the television program Breaking Bad during the closing scene of the series finale. Although the single was assigned a release number for the UK (Apple 42), and had a scheduled release date of 10 March 1972, "Baby Blue" was never actually released as a single in the UK. While Apple US gave the song a picture sleeve and a remix to ensure that it was a hit, Apple UK remained unaware of its commercial potential. However, the chaos that was enveloping the Apple UK operation at the time was strongly evident with regard to this song. It was the group's last Top 20 single, peaking at #14 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. Because Al Steckler, the head of Apple US, felt that it needed a stronger hook in the opening, he remixed the track with engineer Eddie Kramer in February 1972, applying heavy reverb to the snare during the first verse and middle eight. "Baby Blue" was released as a single in the US on 6 March 1972, in a blue-tinted picture sleeve and featuring a new mix.
Ham composed the song on acoustic guitar and Molland claims to have helped streamline the song's linking parts. I don’t know whether they fell in love straight away, but he invited her on the road with us and she came along." Ham ultimately ended the relationship, partially as a result of Armstrong's lack of interest in Badfinger's recording and touring activities. Guitarist Joey Molland recalled, "She came to one of the shows, they got talking and Pete really liked her. Ham wrote the song about a woman named Dixie Armstrong, whom he had dated during Badfinger's last US tour.