This came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Badfinger’s Pete Ham is one of rock’s unsung heroes, and his story is one of its saddest tragedies.
A gifted songwriter who was victimized by the music business — despite putting out two acclaimed albums on The Beatles’ Apple label, financial mismanagement left him destitute and depressed — Ham hanged himself in 1975 at age 27. This second posthumous album of home-studio recordings goes a long way to finally giving him his artistic due. Along with demo-style snippets of future Badfinger classics like Without You, tunes like Makes Me Feel Good — a glimmering diamond of summery harmonies and jangling guitars that may be the first power-pop song ever recorded — show how far ahead of his time Ham truly was. If only he’d lived to see it.
