After Apple Records folded in 1973, Badfinger struggled with a host of legal, managerial, and financial problems mostly due to their fraudulent manager Stan Polley, leading to Ham's suicide in 1975.

[7] In December 1966, the group moved into Collins's home at 7 Park Avenue, Golders Green, London, sharing space with an act called the Mojos.

[10] The group performed a wide range of cover tunes on the London circuit,[8] from Motown, blues, and soul to Top 40, psychedelia, and Beatles hits, which garnered interest from record labels.

[10] After receiving an invitation from Collins, Beatles roadie/assistant Mal Evans and Apple Records A&R head Peter Asher saw the Iveys perform at the Marquee Club, London, on 25 January 1968.

[18] The US manager of Apple Records, Ken Mansfield, ordered 400,000 copies of the single—considered to be a bold move at the time in the music business—and pushed for automatic airplay and reviews from newspapers, which he secured.

[20] The chart success of "Maybe Tomorrow" in Europe and Japan led to a follow-up single release in those markets in July 1969: Griffiths's "Dear Angie", also produced by Visconti.

'"[22] After the unexpectedly limited releases of "Dear Angie" and Maybe Tomorrow, Griffiths complained about Apple's handling of the Iveys in an interview for the Disc & Music Echo magazine, saying: "We do feel a bit neglected.

[10] Producing the track in under one hour,[25] McCartney made sure that they copied his own demo note-for-note:[26] "They were a young band ... they said, 'We want to do it a bit different, wanna get our own thing in'.

After unsuccessfully auditioning a number of bassists, they hired guitarist Joey Molland, who was previously with Gary Walker & the Rain, the Masterminds,[33] and the Fruit-Eating Bears.

[37] The Mal Evans-produced track "No Matter What", as re-mixed by Emerick, was finally released as a single,[36] and reached numerous Top Ten charts around the world—peaking at #8 in the US and #5 in the UK.

[40] An Emerick-produced album track from No Dice titled "Without You" became even more successful after Harry Nilsson covered the song in 1972; his version became an international hit, reaching #1 on Billboard in the US, and also spending five weeks at the top of the UK chart.

[44] In April 1970, while in the US scouting prospects for a tour, Collins was introduced to New York businessman Stan Polley,[33] who signed Badfinger to a business management contract in November 1970.

[10] It bound the band members to various contracts dictating that income from touring, recording, publishing, and even songwriter performance royalties would be directed into holding companies controlled by Polley.

"The thing that impressed me so much was how similar their voices were to The Beatles," Tony Visconti (producer, "Maybe Tomorrow") said; "I sometimes had to look over the control board down into the studio to make sure John and Paul weren't singing lead vocals ..."[48] Rolling Stone critic Mike Saunders opined in a rave review of No Dice in 1970: "It's as if John, Paul, George, and Ringo had been reincarnated as Joey, Pete, Tom, and Mike of Badfinger.

Various members of Badfinger also participated in sessions for fellow Apple Records labelmates, most notably playing acoustic guitar and percussion on much of Harrison's All Things Must Pass triple album (1970), including the hit singles "Isn't It a Pity", "My Sweet Lord".

[52] Most famously, on 26 July 1971, all four members of Badfinger arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, to rehearse for Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh, which took place on 1 August 1971.

According to Molland, Polley told the band that Klein wanted to cut Badfinger's royalty rate and make them pay for their own studio time.

[70] Sessions for Badfinger's fourth and final album for Apple, Ass, had begun as far back as early 1972 and would continue at five recording studios over the next year.

"[77] The deal gave the band 12% of retail in the US—the price Warner Brothers received from record outlets—and 8.5% for the rest of the world, with a $225,000 advance for every album delivered.

[37] However, over the previous year, Warner Brothers' publishing arm had become increasingly troubled by a lack of communication from Polley regarding the status of an escrow account of advance funds.

[92] The legal action also led to the company stopping the promotion of Wish You Were Here after seven weeks,[43] and ending its distribution worldwide, thus completely halting Badfinger's career.

[93] With their current album suddenly withdrawn and their follow-up rejected, Badfinger spent the early months of 1975 trying to figure out how to proceed under the unclear legal situation.

He had shown growing signs of mental illness over the past months, with Gibbins remembering Ham burning cigarettes on his hands and arms.

[106] Gibbins joined the Flying Aces,[107] and performed session drumming for various Welsh acts, including Bonnie Tyler's international hit "It's a Heartache".

[113] After advertising for new occupants, he was contacted by Malcolm McLaren, manager of the Sex Pistols, who gave Collins £650 (equivalent to £6,900 in 2023[114]) and a Fender Rhodes piano as down payment.

The songs were briefly promoted but failed to generate strong interest, despite the involvement of Don Powell, who was a manager for musicians such as David Bowie and Stevie Wonder.

[126] In 1984, Molland, Gibbins and Jackson reunited as Badfinger, along with Al Wodtke and Randy Anderson, playing 31 dates as part of a "20th Anniversary of the British Rock 'N' Roll Tour", which included Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Troggs, Billy J. Kramer and Herman's Hermits.

[129] In 2013, a new compilation titled Timeless was issued by EMI/Universal both to capitalise on the use of "Baby Blue" in the finale of Breaking Bad and to include the 2010 remastered versions of Badfinger's songs on a greatest-hits album.

[134] After the success of Mariah Carey's recording of "Without You" in 1994, Molland and Gibbins collected an award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1995, incurring the anger of the Ham and Evans families.

In 2008, another CD of Apple-related songs, Treacle Toffee World: Further Adventures into the Pop Psych Sounds from the Apple Era 1967–1969, included two more Iveys demos.