Come and Get It Recording facts
Paul McCartney was commissioned to do the soundtrack for Magic Christian by himself, but Abbey Road work was pressing, and he turned to The Iveys (to soon be Badfinger) for the music. After he convinced the movie company they would do a good job, but he would still oversee, they agreed.
McCartney completed his demo of “Come And Get It” in 20 minutes of recording time before a Beatles session. He then took it to The Iveys and asked if they would like to record it. The band gotten a letter from McCartney that summer of 1969, requesting a meeting, and asking if he could drop by to talk to them.
Naturally the band said to come on over, and McCartney asked them if they would record a song he’d written, and they should record it just as he had arranged it. He then had them take a copy home to practice, acknowledging they were songwriters and arrangers in their own right, but try it his way for just this time.
Paul took them into Abbey Road a week later on August 2, and said he would audition each band member for the lead vocal. The first order of business was to lay down the track. As the band gathered around a piano, and began to discuss the arrangement, suddenly John and Yoko appeared. Tom recalled: “They were kind of walking through and Lennon stopped and looked over at Paul, bowed his h ead, and said, “Oh wise one, oh sage, show us the light.” They next thing I knew he walked out the door. “I thought, “Wait a minute, that was John Lennon!”
The group kept going, and Pete, Tom, and Ron each took a try (Ron was soon to quit, and be replaced by Joey Molland). Paul selected Tom Evan’s as the best voice for the song, and the song was recorded. Paul added tambourine also, and they recorded the song with the simple arrangements.
The group and McCartney traveled to Apple to play the track, and Pete Ham told the story of George Harrison coming in to listen. The Beatle said nothing after the song was played, and pulled out a lump of has and said: “Smoke this. And then go see what you can do!”
McCartney then played “Come And Get It” for Commonwealth United Films, who was producing The Magic Christian, which was to star Peter Sellars, Ringo Starr, Raquel Welch, and others. They loved the song, and gave Paul the go ahead for more music from The Iveys.
The band watched the first few minutes of the film, and Paul asked for a “Simon and Garfunkel” kind of style for the music. Pete and Tom went off and wrote “Carry On Till Tomorrow,” and brought it back to Abbey Road. McCartney hired George Martin to write the strings, and he finished it over a weekend. It does not say who decided that there would be two modulations, the song starts in Cm, goes to Dm for the last chorus, and finishes in Ebm with the breathtaking harmonies that reach to the heavens, and so define Badfinger.
Badfinger finds member at Beatlemania birthsite
I just read in “Without You” an interesting bit of information. Badfinger was losing a key member just as they were taking off, Dai Jenkins, and were scouting around for a replacement. They had done a few dates in Liverpool, and during a night off, they went around to scout the local talent. They went to the Litherland Town Hall, and saw Tommy Evans playing with his band, the Calderstones in July, 1967, and soon after he joined Badfinger.
Litherland Town Hall (http://www.music.indiana.edu/som/courses/rock/clubs.html) has a great history for the Beatles and other Merseyside bands. This website states: “The Litherland Town Hall was the site of the “Birth of Beatlemania,” the December 1960 concert that demonstrated the group’s remarkable improvement after several months in Hamburg and sparked the first stirrings of fan hysteria in their hometown.” So you could say the key member of Badfinger’s songwriting team was first spotted at the place where Beatlemania was first observed.
Matovina’s book “Without You” details Evan’s absolute obsession with the Everly Brothers, it was his first band to really listen to and learn from. The book goes on to relate a story about seeing the Beatles. When he was fourteen, he went to see the Shadows with the Beatles at the Cavern Club. He was stunned by the show, and from then on, Evans went out and bought a guitar and never looked back.
Once when he was nine years old, he was being taken to visit his grandfather, whom he was very close to, and whom he play music with, including his biggest passion, the Everly Brothers.
Just before they arrived, according to his mother, May, Tommy was saying “Oh, I’d like to learn this Everly Brothers song. But then he walked in with his mother and her sister to find his beloved grandfather dead, the gas light had blown out and the teapot was on the stove, according to Matovina’s book.
May Evans said it traumatized Tommy. It is interesting that on the last night of Tommy’s life, he played Everly Brothers songs, and sang them with his wife, and wrote down the lyrics, according to “Without You.”
Obviously, The Everly Brothers played a serious role in his life, whether it was helping build the majestic harmonies they did in Badfinger, and the aspect of death connected to Everly Brothers, and his grandfather. And on the eve of committing suicide, he decided to play those beloved records again, maybe there is some significance or connection. Or maybe not.
