Badfinger тобының «Straight Up» альбомы тарихы

Straight Up is the fourth studio album by the Welsh rock band Badfinger, released in December 1971 in the United States and February 1972 in Britain. Issued on the Beatles' Apple record label, it includes the hit singles "Day After Day" and "Baby Blue", and the similarly popular "Name of the Game", all of which were written by singer and guitarist Pete Ham. The album marked a departure from the more rock oriented sound of Badfinger's previous releases, partly as a result of intervention by Apple Records regarding the band's musical direction. Production on what became Straight Up lasted nine months, at the start of which the group made an album's worth of recordings with producer Geoff Emerick, in between their touring commitments. Once Apple had decided to shelve these recordings, George Harrison took over production, only for him to become indisposed with events associated with the Concert for Bangladesh, at which Badfinger also performed. Harrison then handed the project to American producer Todd Rundgren, who oversaw recording for most of the album. Although Straight Up received a mixed response from critics on release, many reviewers now regard it as the band's best album. Rolling Stone critic David Fricke has referred to it as "Badfinger's power pop apex". and a series of acclaimed shows at Urgano's in New York that helped establish the group in America. Out of appreciation for the band's contributions to his first post Beatles solo album, All Things Must Pass, George Harrison introduced Badfinger on their opening night at Urgano's, about which Janis Schacht of Circus reported: "For a while, most people watched George Harrison watching Badfinger, then everyone noticed how good Badfinger were – good enough to draw attention away from a former Beatle." In other areas of the group's operation, all four members signed a management deal with American agent Stan Polley in November 1970, The band also worked at Command Studios in central London and at AIR Studios, the facility owned by former Beatles producer George Martin. Twelve tracks from these Emerick produced sessions were completed by March, with the band rushing to finish the untitled album before reluctantly leaving for a two month US tour that Polley had booked. Although Badfinger guitarist Joey Molland has said that Harrison was responsible for the Emerick recordings being rejected, the band's biographer, Dan Matovina, writes that the rejection had in fact come from Allan Steckler, head of Apple's US operation, where most of the record label's decisions were now made. Spector and Harrison submitted a remixed version of "Name of the Game" on 23 April, which also met with disapproval from Steckler. While the band were in New York during the tour, they attended a session at Bell Studio, where Al Kooper overdubbed piano and organ onto the track; Apple thereby shelved the Emerick produced album, six songs from which Badfinger would re record for the eventual release.

Harrison was keen to see the band create a more mature work in the style of the Beatles' 1969 album Abbey Road, a vision that Ham shared. Badfinger worked with their new producer at Abbey Road, taping four of the twelve songs eventually issued on Straight Up. Molland later recalled that Harrison virtually "joined the band", by contributing on guitar during these sessions. Harrison was particularly drawn to "Day After Day", on which he performed a slide guitar duet with Ham. Later, he added a piano overdub by Leon Russell, whom Badfinger had supported on their recent US tour. Harrison played acoustic and electric guitars on "I'd Die Babe", as Harrison worked in Los Angeles with Indian musician Ravi Shankar, producing the soundtrack to Raga. At Shankar's urgent request, Harrison agreed to stage the Concert for Bangladesh in New York, and so flew back to London on 12 July to explain to Badfinger that he would be unable to complete his work on Straight Up, while inviting them to play at the benefit concerts on 1 August. Reprising their roles from the All Things Must Pass sessions, Ham, Tom Evans and Molland performed as acoustic rhythm guitarists at the shows and Mike Gibbins played percussion. In addition, despite having had no rehearsal beforehand, Ham duetted with Harrison on an acoustic version of "Here Comes the Sun".

During September 1971, with Harrison embroiled in preparing the Bangladesh live album and concert film for release, Apple hired Todd Rundgren to finish Badfinger's album. According to Ham, Rundgren had met Harrison in New York and expressed interest in working with the group. While Ham was especially positive about working with Harrison,

Apple released Straight Up on 13 December 1971 in America (with Apple catalogue number SW 3387) and on 11 February 1972 in Britain (as Apple SAPCOR 19). The album's lead single, "Day After Day" backed with "Money", was issued on 10 November 1971 in the United States, but the single was delayed until 14 January in the UK, where the B side was "Sweet Tuesday Morning". The album's art design was credited to Gene Mahon and Richard DiLello, the last of whom took the group photographs used on the front and rear of the cover. A note on the sleeve offered "special thanks" to Geoff Emerick. The front cover portrait encouraged further comparison with the Beatles, as one commentator described the album as Badfinger for Sale in reference to the similarly titled 1964 release by the Beatles. In America, Straight Up peaked at number 31 during a 32 week run on Billboards Top 200 LPs, while it placed inside the top twenty on albums charts in Canada and was certified gold by the RIAA on 4 March. Although the album failed to place on the UK's top 40 albums chart, "Day After Day" was the band's third top ten hit there, peaking at number 10. As the follow up single, "Baby Blue" peaked at number 14 on the Hot 100, and "Name of the Game" became another popular track on US radio. When belatedly issued as a UK single that year, the song peaked at number 73. and released on CD in June 1993. As bonus tracks, this reissue included the original, Emerick produced recordings of "Name of the Game", "Suitcase", "Money", "Flying" and "Perfection".