1969 Song of the Day is– “Come And Get It” by Badfinger.  Come And Get It was written and produced by The Beatles Paul McCartney for the movie The Magic Christian. It was given to a band that The Beatles had signed to their new Apple label- Badfinger. The single was issued in December 1969- so it makes the cut for a 1969 song!

Paul McCartney recorded a version himself while they were making the Abbey Road album. One day he arrived early- he lived just down the street, and recorded it playing all the instruments- he is the only Beatle on that recording- which came out with Anthology 3. It had been called by Beatles critic Ian MacDonald ‘by far the best unreleased Beatles recording.” No doubt The Beatles would have had a hit with it. Back in the early days The Beatles wrote or gave away a number of scraps to other English bands- Peter and Gordon being the best example- but for the most part they weren’t great songs- they were good for sure but not up to Beatles standards for the most part- this has to be the best song that they wrote and gave away. As I said- if Paul had kept it it would have probably been a #1 hit for them.

In early August of 1969 McCartney met with the Iveys as they were called then and told them they could have the song but had to be exactly like the demo- and he offered to produce this and two other Iveys originals for the movie “The Magic Christian” since Paul owed the movie three songs. They started working on the song- Paul auditioned every member of the band for the lead vocals before picking Tom Evans. They had their first hit- as Badfinger- the song peaked at #7 in the US  and #4 in the UK. Badfinger’s career was off to a great start.  Badfinger would go on in the early 70’s to have four big hits-Come And Get It, No Matter What, Day After Day and Baby Blue [which you might remember being played at the end of the final episode of Breaking Bad.} After that string of hits- Badfinger became one of the most tragic bands in history with the suicides of Pete Ham and Tom Evans.