Straight Up by Badfinger

Straight Up, Badfinger's fourth album, came out on the Beatles' Apple label in December 1971 in America and a couple of months later in Britain, and it took nine months and three producers to get there. The band first cut a whole album with Geoff Emerick, which Apple shelved; George Harrison stepped in, then got swept up organizing the Concert for Bangladesh, where Badfinger played; and Todd Rundgren finished the job, overseeing most of what you hear.

The result trades the band's rockier edge for gleaming, heart-tugging pop, partly because Apple leaned on them to change course, and Pete Ham's songs shine brightest: "Day After Day", produced by Harrison, "Baby Blue", produced by Rundgren, and "Name of the Game". Ham sings and plays rhythm guitar, with Tom Evans on bass, Joey Molland on lead guitar and Mike Gibbins on drums. Critics shrugged at the time; plenty now call it the band's finest hour.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.