Straight Up

Resulting from separate sessions overseen by Geoff Emerick, George Harrison and then finally Todd Rundgren, who the band clashed with, Straight Up was famously trashed upon release by various rock critics and later looked on poorly by the band itself. Time has led to a greater appreciation of how Badfinger was still in good creative health at a time when their future looked bright. Certainly the sound has an extra polish courtesy of Rundgren, but songs like “Day After Day” and “Baby Blue” were deserved hits, melodic, emotional but still possessing sonic bite.