Badfinger-Wish You Were Here (1974)

Badfinger's last great album was anything but lucky. Despite containing a dreamy repertoire of power pop-rock, it suffered a series of setbacks that hampered its promotional reach and ultimately led to its complete failure. But to understand this story, we must go back to the end of 1973, when Badfinger left The Beatles' Apple Records to sign with the powerful Warner Bros. label. With Warner Bros., they released the brilliant "Badfinger" (1974), but due to poor planning, it was released almost simultaneously with their last album for Apple Records, "Ass." This significantly diminished its promotional impact, as two different works by the same band were competing for the same label. To mitigate this failure, the band released "Wish You Were Here" nine months later, Badfinger's sixth album chronologically. It showcased the group's astonishing ability to create captivating and irresistible songs with exquisite instrumentation, as demonstrated by tracks like "Dennis", "Just A Chance", "You're So Fine", "Got to Get Out of Here", "Love Time", and "King of the Load". However, at the time of the album's release, Warner Bros. learned that Badfinger's manager, Stan Polley, had misappropriated over a quarter of a million dollars of the band's advances for unclear reasons, ignoring a formal demand for their return. The band's contract was frozen, meaning all promotional activity for the album was halted, condemning it to complete obscurity and commercial failure.