Who Wrote the song "Without You?
Joey is at it again, using his trademark combination of subterfuge and poor memory to muddy Badfinger's history. If you read his interview with "Interview Haven" and were confused by it, allow me to untangle his mess. Please refer to the article for direct quotes.
The song "Without You" was originally sections from two different songs that were written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans. At Pete's suggestion, they combined the sections to create the final song. This has been the official corroborated story of "Without You" for the past 40 years. Now, Joey wants to alter history.
Joey is now asserting that it was manager Bill Collins who suggested putting the two halves of the song together, and that this was done in the studio when the band was recording their album No Dice. This is quite typical of Joey and it is a case where I do not believe his poor memory is the culprit. He is attempting to confuse the songwriting of "Without You" because of the royalties distribution of the song. In the 1970s, Tom Evans said: "My song was OK. The verse was a bit like "Help!" but Pete fell in love with the chorus. He said 'I'd like to try that bit on a song I have and see what you think.'" (Badfinger book page 99) Bill Collins never once made any claim even remotely close to Joey's statement - and Collins would have had good reason to make such a claim if it were true. But he didn't.
Regarding putting the “song together” in the studio, it's possible it took the band two hours to record the song or for other musicians to learn their parts, but they didn't "put that together." The song was already complete. Even the arrangement was complete, as is evidenced by the two early demo versions that subsequently have been released, and Matovina's book also makes mention of a home band version done prior to entering any recording studios.
Again, this is Joey's revisionist history and an attempt to justify the distribution of the song's publishing royalties. You see, although Pete and Tom wrote the song, Joey gets a cut of the royalties because of a suspect verbal agreement the band had in the 1960s to share publishing revenue. The agreement was never committed to paper and the divisions were never clear, but the estates for Pete and Tom decided not to fight the issue in 1985 and divisions for "Without You" have been in force ever since. It is a very lucrative song and it makes sense the other band members fought for a piece of it. Is it fair? Of course not. Pete's and Tom's children are being forced to share revenue generated by their fathers' creativity with people who performed on a single recording of the song 40 years ago.
Because Joey is the last man standing (Badfinger-wise) he believes that anything he says should be accepted without challenge. But his attempt to diminish Pete and Tom for the purpose of justifying his claim to "Without You" is simply shameless.
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