Joey Molland of the Power-Pop Band Badfinger Dies at 77
Joey Molland, a guitarist and songwriter who was the last surviving member of Badfinger, one of the first acts signed to the Beatles' Apple Records and a power-pop force in the early 1970s on the strength of hits like 'Day After Day' and 'No Matter What,' died on March 1 in St. Louis Park, Minn. He was 77.
His partner, Mary Joyce, said he died in a hospital from complications of diabetes.
Mr. Molland joined Badfinger — originally called the Iveys — in 1969. The band had been signed the year before as a marquee act for Apple Records, the much-publicized label formed by the Beatles in 1968 as part of the parent company Apple Corps.
'Badfinger gave me the opportunity to do everything a musician could want,' Mr. Molland said in a 2020 interview with Guitar World magazine. 'I got to make records. I heard my music on the radio, and I toured all over. I couldn't believe the luck we were having. For a time, everything was great.'
Apple Corps was a high-minded, if financially dubious, initiative to tap the Beatles' millions to fund unknown talents in music, film and electronics. It was created so that, as John Lennon said at the news conference announcing the venture, 'people who just want to make a film about anything don't have to go on their knees in somebody's office — probably yours.'
This experiment in 'Western Communism,' as Paul McCartney called it, involved no shortage of misfires. (The company's retail shop, known as the Apple Boutique, hemorrhaged 200,000 pounds — the equivalent of millions in today's dollars — in a little more than a year.) But Badfinger was a gamble that worked, and its members enjoyed their new status as rock stars. Badfinger in about 1970. From left: Pete Ham, Tommy Evans, Mike Gibbins and Mr. Molland. Credit... via Getty Images
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