Hi, everyone. Welcome to this week’s edition of Music Monday.

(Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

Bread released their second album, On the Waters, in July 1970. The lead single came out three months earlier and became the #1 song in the U.S. for one week on August 22, 1970. The band had six Top Ten hits but this was their only top selling record. It was one of my mother’s favorite songs and she played the 45 so much it actually warped. And I still know every word by heart. A hundred years later, as soon as I hear the opening chords, I am transported back to that time so fast I lose my breath. On the series “Mad Men”, Don Draper likened “nostalgia” to a time machine, taking us to a place where we wish to go again. This song makes me long for a home I no longer have. And I ache for it.

(Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

Welsh musician Pete Ham was best known as the lead vocalist, primary songwriter, guitarist & pianist for the band Badfinger. Their first hit, “Come & Get It”, was written & produced by Paul McCartney as the group was the first band signed to The Beatles’ Apple Records label in 1968.

Other hits followed including “No Matter What” and “Baby Blue” along with “Without You” which was covered by Harry Nilsson in 1971 and became a #1 hit for four consecutive weeks in early 1972. Ham co-wrote that song and was one of an array of guitarists who contributed to George Harrison’s solo album, All Things Must Pass, a year earlier. You would think that a musician’s story that started with an affiliation with The Beatles would have a reasonably happy ending. But that was not the case.

A string of fraudulent business deals by an unscrupulous manager who embezzled the band’s money left Ham distraught and he died by suicide 50 years ago on April 24, 1975, three days before his 28th birthday. I prefer not to acknowledge the date of an artists’ death, but Badfinger’s story is one-if not the saddest (a second member of the band, Tom Evans, also died by suicide in 1983)-in musical history. And their incredible contributions to music-and the price they paid-should be remembered.

Peter William Ham: April 27, 1947 – April 24, 1975.

Top: Badfinger circa 1969 (L-R): Pete Ham, Joey Molland, Mike Gibbins and Tom Evans. Bottom: George Harrison (L) and Ham (R) in the studio in 1971. (Images found online.  Original sources unknown.)

Twenty years ago my favorite episode of VH1’s “Storytellers” aired. Bruce Springsteen took center stage in the installment which was broadcast on April 23, 2005. It coincided with the release of his 13th studio album, Devils & Dust, three days later. He debuted the title track and “Jesus Was An Only Son” during the show. He closed his set with the first track off his 1975 masterpiece, Born To Run, which will be celebrating its 50th anniversary this August.

And forty years ago, Springsteen was one part of the all-star group who formed USA For Africa to record “We Are The World”, a philanthropic single which was a #1 hit for four weeks in the spring of 1985. An album by the same name was released on April 1, 1985 which has a live track by Springsteen. Last year Netflix released the documentary, “The Greatest Night in Pop” which provides a behind the scenes look in the studio during the recording of the charity song.

Bruce Springsteen at the piano during VH1’s Storytellers in April 2005. (Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

Bread: “Make It With You” (1970, written by David Gates).

Badfinger “Day After Day” (1971, written by Pete Ham. Produced by George Harrison and Todd Rundgren).

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: “Trapped” (1985, recorded live at Meadowlands Arena in New Jersey on August 6, 1984, written by Jimmy Cliff).

Bruce Springsteen: “Thunder Road” (live performance on VH1 Storytellers, broadcast date April 23, 2005).

Stay safe & well.