From last week’s look at the early ’80s we jump back a decade to the early ’70s, and today’s classic early ’70s song of the day is “No Matter What” by Badfinger. This single was released in October of 1970 and hit #8 on the Billboard Hot 100. It did even better in the band’s native England, peaking at #5 on the UK Singles chart.
“No Matter What” was written by Pete Ham, the band’s guitarist and lead vocalist. It was produced by Mal Evans, the Beatles’ former road manager, and mixed by Geoff Emerick, who engineered many of the Beatles’ later recordings. The song was recorded in May of 1970 at Abbey Road Studios.
The song is in the key of A. The verse starts on the I chord (A), then moves to the ii7 (Bm7), then has a little waffle between IV and V (D and E), on the words “do girl, ooh girl,” before settling back to the I. The bridge shifts to the relative minor with an F#m7 chord, shifting through a host of dominant seventh chords that keep leading to home to the next one (B7, E7, A7, D7) and a little more before ending on an E, which brings it all back to the A of the verse. It’s simple but works.
I particularly like Mike Gibbons’ little clap-and-drum break before the final verse. I used to play along with that single in my bedroom when I was twelve years old, after I got my first drum kit (a red sparkle Polaris made-in-Japan job) but before I had a real ride cymbal; I used the metal shade on a hanging lamp as my makeshift cymbal.
“No Matter What” was the band’s second big hit, following 1969’s Paul McCartney-penned “Come and Get It.” They had another decent hit in 1971 with “Day After Day” and followed that with 1972’s “Baby Blue,” which was much bigger in the U.S. than it was in the UK. The band broke up in 1975 amidst a bevy of financial troubles that were so bad it led Pete Ham to commit suicide. He was just 27.
