Without You (Badfinger song)
"Without You" is a song written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans of British rock group Badfinger, and first released on their 1970 album No Dice.
The power ballad[1] has been recorded by over 180 artists,[2] and versions released as singles by Harry Nilsson (1971) and Mariah Carey (1994) became international number one hits.
[4] In 1972, writers Ham and Evans received the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.
"[9]Both Ham and Evans said they did not consider the song to have much potential at the time Badfinger recorded it, and the track was slotted to close the first side of their 1970 album No Dice.
Badfinger's recording of the song, which is more brusque than its successors' versions, was not released as a single in Europe or North America.
"[7] Ultimate Classic Rock critic Michael Gallucci rated it as Badfinger's 4th-best song, calling it a "quiet gem" that "hits all the right emotional notes.
"[10] Classic Rock critic Rob Hughes rated it Badfinger's 6th-best song, saying it is "less saccharine and more understated [than the Nilsson and Carey versions], delivered with a genuine sense of anguish.
According to Breihan, "He wanted his version of the song to be a stark, heavy solo-piano thing, but [producer Richard] Perry convinced him to turn it into a grand, crashing, theatrical monster-ballad, complete with orchestra.
Also featured are Klaus Voormann (bass), Jim Keltner (drums) and John Uribe (acoustic guitar).
The record spent five weeks at number one on the UK singles chart, beginning on 11 March, eventually selling almost 800,000 copies.
"[19] Cashbox said of the single "Couple a winning Badfinger tune with Gary Wright's piano and Nilsson's wideranging voice, and you've got Harry's biggest hit since 'Everybody's Talkin'.
[24] While Nilsson rarely gave live concerts, he did perform the song with Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas in September 1992.
According to the 1971 LP credits:[46] American singer and songwriter Mariah Carey's version, based on Harry Nilsson's version rather than the Badfinger original, was released as the third single off Music Box in the first quarter of 1994, its US release date of 21 January 1994 by Columbia Records, falling a week after Nilsson had died following a heart attack on 15 January 1994.
While she had heard Nilsson's version as a very young girl, Carey's decision to remake his hit was based on a chance hearing during the time she was recording Music Box: "I heard that song in a restaurant and just knew it would be a huge international hit" recalls Carey.
On 15 May 1995, at ASCAP's twelfth annual Pop Music Awards in Beverly Hills, California, "Without You" was recognised as one of the 50 most-played songs of 1994 (due largely to Mariah Carey's recording).
Discrepancies in ASCAP's books, resulting from a lawsuit against the Ham and Evans estates by their former manager, incorrectly attributed the song as being composed not only by Ham and Evans, but also by Badfinger's other bandmembers, Mike Gibbins and Joey Molland, and their former manager, Bill Collins.
