• Writer: Pete Ham
• Producer: George Harrison and Todd Rundgren
• Recorded: June 1971 at Abbey Road Studios, London
• Released: 1971
• Players:
  Pete Ham — vocals, guitar
  Tom Evans — bass, vocals
  Mike Gibbins — drums
  Joey Molland — guitar, vocals
  George Harrison — guitar
  Leon Russell — piano
• Album: Straight Up (Apple, 1971)
• Also On:
  Day After Day Live (Rykodisc, 1990)
  Come And Get It: The Best Of Badfinger (Apple, 1995)
  The Very Best Of Badfinger (Capitol, 2000)
• “Day After Day” was the first single from Badfinger‘s Straight Up album. It hit Number Four on the Billboard Hot 100 and Number 10 on the U.K. chart.
• It was, however, a Number One hit on the Cashbox magazine charts, thanks to sales of more than a million copies of the single.
• Interestingly, Harry Nilsson‘s cover of Pete Ham and Tom Evans‘s “Without You” was scaling the charts at the same time.
• Melody Maker called “Day After Day” “a song for those troubled in heart and mind. It has a cooling quality and, as a love song, has strength and optimism.”
• In addition to producing the sessions for “Day After Day,” George Harrison contributed slide guitar parts as well. Singer-guitarist Joey Molland remembered, “After we finished the backing track for ‘Day After Day,’ we knew we had to do the slide guitars on the front and do the solos and do the fills. Pete and I were working on the slide and George said, ‘Would you mind if I played on this?’ I said, ‘No man, sure, go ahead.’ I mean, this man’s a Beatle, this man’s a hero.”
• Leon Russell‘s guest appearance on the song was by chance, as Russell happened to be at Abbey Road when Badfinger was working on it. Molland said, “He listened to it and said, ‘I could play a little piano on this. What do you think?’” At that point, “George got really excited,” according to engineer Richard Lush. “He leaned over to me and said, ‘This guy’s a genius. He’s the best. We’re lucky to have him.’”
• Straight Up was one of the most dramatic albums in Badfinger’s history. After scoring two hit albums in 1970 with the Magic Christian Music soundtrack and No Dice, the label was unhappy with what they’d heard of the album — which was being produced by longtime Beatles cohort Geoff Emerick — and planned to reject it.
• It was Apple executive Al Steckler‘s idea to bring Harrison in as producer.
• Though Harrison got the album back on track, Apple still felt it needed more work and brought Todd Rundgren in to finish up the project.
• Rundgren and the members of Badfinger often butted heads, according to Molland. “Todd was too intense… very difficult to work with, very rude.” Ham said that Rundgren “restricted a lot of our own creativity.”
• Straight Up did reach Number 31 on the Billboard 200 but was considered something of a flop.

FAST FORWARD:

• Ham committed suicide on April 23rd, 1975, hanging himself in the garage at his London home.
• Molland left Badfinger in 1975 and was replaced by Bob Jackson.
• Badfinger broke up after Ham’s death but reunited in 1978, only to disband again four years later.
• Singer-bassist Tom Evans, despondent over the group’s lack of success and financial dire straits, hanged himself on November 23rd, 1983.

Molland and drummer Mike Gibbins still take a version of Badfinger on the road from time to time, including last year’s Hippiefest package tour with Mountain, Country Joe McDonald, and Animals singer Eric Burdon, among others. But they’ve been criticized by many fans for continuing the name.