Badfinger’s ‘Come and Get It’ Launches a New Era for British Rock-Pop in 1969-2 - Page 2 of 2 - StoryPulse
The Beatle Who Wrote a Hit, Recorded It Alone, and Told Another Band Exactly How to Copy It
In July 1969, Paul McCartney had a problem: he owed the producers of the film "The Magic Christian" three original songs, and time was running short. Arriving early at Abbey Road Studios one afternoon, ahead of the Beatles' own session, he quietly used Ringo Starr's drum kit and the empty studio to record a complete demo of a new song called "Come and Get It" entirely alone — laying down piano, drums, bass, maracas, and double-tracked vocals, start to finish, in under an hour.
He had the perfect recipient in mind: The Iveys, a struggling Welsh-English band newly signed to the Beatles' Apple label, who Apple executives felt had so far failed to live up to expectations. McCartney offered them the song on one condition, telling them plainly it had to be recorded exactly like his demo, convinced the arrangement itself was what would make it a hit. Nine days later, he personally produced their studio version, auditioning all four band members to decide who would sing lead. Passing over Pete Ham — the band's regular songwriter and usual frontman — McCartney instead chose bassist Tom Evans, whose voice he felt suited the track best.
The band, who'd nearly named themselves after an old Beatles in-joke ("Bad Finger Boogie," a nickname for an early version of "With a Little Help from My Friends," coined after John Lennon injured a finger and had to play piano with one hand), officially rebranded as Badfinger just before the single's release. "Come and Get It" hit UK shops in December 1969, reaching No. 4 in Britain and No. 7 in the US, and became the opening theme for "The Magic Christian" itself, starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr.
It was Badfinger's breakthrough — proof that a note-for-note replica of someone else's vision could still launch a career. Their sound and success helped define what would later be called power pop, influencing acts for decades afterward. The band's story would take a far darker turn years later, entangled in punishing financial mismanagement that left members fighting for royalties they were owed; both Pete Ham and Tom Evans — the very singer McCartney had personally chosen for this breakout hit — died by suicide, in 1975 and 1983 respectively, driven in large part by that financial despair. It remains one of the more sobering footnotes in the story of a song that began as one Beatle's solo demo, built in under an hour, and handed off exactly as written.
Barbara Mandrell Retired From Music at 18 — One Night at the Grand Ole Opry Changed Her Mind
Long before Barbara Mandrell became one of the biggest stars in country music, she had already decided her music career was over.
She was only 18.
That decision sounds almost impossible in hindsight.
Because Barbara Mandrell had been preparing for the stage practically since childhood.
Born in Houston on Christmas Day in 1948, she learned accordion and how to read music before entering first grade. After her family moved to California, she began studying steel guitar at about ten years old while also learning saxophone at school.
Then someone important noticed her.
Country guitarist Joe Maphis saw the young Mandrell performing at a music trade convention in 1960.
He was impressed enough to bring her into his Las Vegas act.
Barbara was still a child, yet she was already sharing a musical world populated by professional country performers.
Before long, she appeared on the Los Angeles television program Town Hall Party and joined a national package tour headlined by Johnny Cash.
By 14, she was performing with her family band at military bases in the United States and Asia. Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
It looked as though music had already chosen her.
Then Barbara walked away.
She had fallen in love with Ken Dudney, the drummer in the Mandrell family band.
Dudney eventually joined the Navy and trained as a pilot.
The couple married in 1967.
Barbara decided that was enough.
At 18, she retired from music.
For someone who had spent much of her childhood performing, it was an extraordinary choice.
But the retirement did not last.
When Dudney was away with the Navy, Barbara visited her family in Tennessee.
One evening, she attended a taping of The Porter Wagoner Show before the Grand Ole Opry.
As Barbara watched the performers, something came back.
She leaned toward her father, Irby Mandrell.
She told him she could do what she was watching onstage.
More importantly, she wanted to do it again.
She asked whether he would manage her.
Her father believed in her.
The decision made that night changed everything. Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Barbara soon signed with Columbia Records.
In 1969, she entered the Billboard country chart with her version of Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.”
More hits followed.
By 1972, she had joined the Grand Ole Opry — the same institution connected to the night that helped convince her to return.
Then the career accelerated.
“Sleeping Single in a Double Bed” reached No. 1.
Her version of “If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don’t Want to Be Right)” also topped the country chart.
But Mandrell was becoming more than a recording artist.
She could sing.
She could dance.
She could play multiple instruments.
And onstage, she could move between traditional country, pop, soul, gospel, and show-business spectacle without losing her identity.
By the beginning of the 1980s, Barbara Mandrell was everywhere.
From 1980 to 1982, she starred with her sisters Louise and Irlene on NBC’s Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters, bringing country music into millions of American homes every week.
And the industry recognized what was happening.
The Country Music Association named Mandrell Entertainer of the Year in 1980.
Then she won again in 1981.
She became the first artist in CMA history to win the award in consecutive years. Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
That same period produced the song that would become inseparable from her name.
“I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool.”
The song looked back at a time when openly loving country music was not always fashionable.
Then country culture exploded into the American mainstream.
George Jones appeared on the recording, and the song became another No. 1 country hit for Mandrell
The title almost seemed to describe Barbara herself.
She had been playing steel guitar as a child long before television superstardom.
She had toured before she was old enough to drive.
She had quit.
She had started again.
And she had reached the top.
Her life would still bring serious challenges.
In 1984, a devastating automobile accident left Mandrell with multiple injuries and required a long recovery.
Yet she returned again, continuing to record, tour, and act before eventually retiring from performing in 1997. Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
In 2009, Barbara Mandrell was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
It was a remarkable ending to a story that could easily have stopped decades earlier.
At 18, Barbara Mandrell thought she was finished with music.
Then she sat in an audience in Nashville and watched other performers doing what she had once done.
Something inside her changed.
She told her father she wanted another chance.
He believed her.
And the young woman who had retired before her career truly began eventually became one of country music’s defining entertainers.
