Peter Ham

Peter William Ham (27 April 1947 – 24 April 1975) was a Welsh singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known as the prominent songwriter and singer of the 1970s group Badfinger.^[1]

Ham was born in Swansea, South Wales. He formed a local rock group called The Panthers in 1961. This group became The Iveys in 1965. The band was relocated to London by The Mojos manager, Bill Collins, in 1966, and they continued to perform for three years throughout the United Kingdom. Ham especially took to songwriting and Ray Davies of The Kinks took initial interest in producing his group. In 1968, The Iveys came to the attention of Mal Evans (The Beatles personal assistant) and were eventually signed to the Beatles' Apple label after approval from all four Beatles, who were most impressed by dozens of demos recorded at home, mostly by Pete.^[1]

The Iveys changed their name to Badfinger with the single release of "Come And Get It," a song written by Paul McCartney, which became a worldwide Top Ten hit. Ham's hard work paid off eventually as his song "No Matter What" became another worldwide Top Ten hit record in late 1970 . He followed up writing two more huge hits released in 1972, "Day After Day" and "Baby Blue" But the peak came with his co-written song "Without You" - a worldwide No. 1 hit as covered by Harry Nilsson in 1972. The song has since become one of the all-time ballad standards as covered by hundreds of singers including Mariah Carey and Clay Aiken. Ham was also used as a musician on Beatles solo records such as the "All Things Must Pass" LP by George Harrison and the single "It Don't Come Easy" by Ringo Starr.^[1]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Matovina, Dan. Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger, Google Books, 2000. Retrieved 10 October 2008