I like this band a little. This was Badfinger’s second big hit after Come and Get It. This one was written by Pete Ham. The song was released in 1970 just a few months after the Beatles had officially broken up. Some people thought that perhaps the Beatles had gotten together again and issued a new song after hearing this. It has a fantastic crunchy guitar opening the song up.
The producer of the song was Mal Evan…Beatles roadie and overall helper. The song peaked at #8 in the Billboard 100 and #5 in the UK in 1971. The song was on the album No Dice which peaked at #28 on the Billboard Album charts. Reviews of the album were mostly positive but they could not shake the Beatle comparisons. They tried to break it live by stretching songs out and playing long solos…becoming more of a jam band.
From Songfacts
Badfinger was signed to The Beatles label, Apple Records. Peter Ham used one of George Harrison’s Gibson guitars on this.
Many people thought this was The Beatles when they heard it. Badfinger was one of the first groups signed to The Beatles record label, Apple Records.
In 2001, The Gap wanted to use this in a commercial. Apple Records, which owns the rights to it, asked for an enormous sum of money and were turned down.
No Matter What
No matter what you are
I will always be with you
Doesn’t matter what you do girl, oh girl with you
No matter what you do
I will always be around
Won’t you tell me what you found girl, oh girl won’t you
Knock down the old grey wall, and be a part of it all
Nothing to say, nothing to see, nothing to do
If you would give me all, as I would give it to you
Nothing would be, nothing would be, nothing would be
No matter where you go
There will always be a place
Can’t you see in my face girl, oh girl don’t you
Knock down the old grey wall, and be a part of it all
Nothing to say, nothing to see, nothing to do
If you would give me all, as I would give it to you
Nothing would be, nothing would be, nothing would be
No matter what you are
I will always be with you
Doesn’t matter what you do girl, oh girl want you
Oh girl, you girl, want you
Oh girl, you girl, want you
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 
Always, loved this song and sound! Good memories!
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I’m so sorry…this ended up in my spam filter. Thank you for reading
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No worries! The pleasure is always mine!😁
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Just LOVE this song!!!! Always loved these guys!
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Insanely catchy track. Did you ever hear Jellyfish’s cover?
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Yes I have and I like the laid back atmosphere of it.
I’m going to post something by them coming up soon.
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They are one of those bands that should have been bigger
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Yes I agree…I found this long powerpop band list…page and I’m going down it getting songs for Fridays…many of them are unknown…the Jellyfish are in their top 20…I saw them years back open for someone.
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I always wondered what the old grey wall was all about.
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My guess would be she would not open up to him and formed a wall between them.
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Great song. One of my faves from that era, and I dare say better than maybe half of the Beatles output from the preceding couple of years.
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It had a sound of the Beatles of 1966…more than the last years. The guitar is just awesome sounding…that crunch but not too distorted.
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Hi badfinger20! My comment isn’t specifically about this post. I’ve been enjoying all of your posts for the past week or so and wanted to contact you. I’ve just completed an activity book (puzzles and games) on the music of the 1970s and would love to have you take a look at it and maybe provide a quote for me to use. I’m not asking you to blog about it (though that would be wonderful – not expected). Please let me know if you’re interested. Regardless, I will continue to read and enjoy your blogs. I love that they’re succinct (bite-size) and always provide interesting tidbits. I love powerpop!!
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Thank you. I try to keep all of them short and not novels so thanks again.
Sure I would look at it no problem. It will probably be tomorrow but I would like to.
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Thank you! Although I’ve completed the actual puzzles and games, I’m working on the Answer Key today (and maybe tomorrow), so I wouldn’t get it to you till tomorrow, anyway. Please let me know how to get it to you. You can provide me with a contact via my FB messenger. Thank you, again. (I tried posting this a couple of minutes ago, so if this is a duplicate post, my apologies.)
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Great song and, yes, very Beatle-esque. A guitarist friend of mine said he’s never had the song fail to go over well during a live show.
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I’m not sure why Badfinger was trying to distance themselves from The Beatles sound. To me that would be a good thing. Maybe in later albums they could experiment with other sounds…
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Well the critics kept comparing them and they wanted their own identity but they were too closely tied with them by then. They should have just went along with it by then.
It would be hard living in that shadow… to me though they had their own sound…
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Great record, loved it as a 13-year-old, love it still. Shame about the advert, it needs rediscovering by a new audience….
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Yes it does…that band needs to be redicovered. Baby Blue was featured in the last scene of Breaking Bad…that helped introduce them to more people.
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