meme-o-rama: 2012

A sad song that's even sadder than you could have imagined...

In 1971, Harry Nilsson recorded the stirring ballad "Without You", reaching number 1 in the charts in several countries and earning decades of airplay.

Although made famous by Harry Nilsson, "Without You" was written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans, of the group Badfinger, protegés of The Beatles and originators of the power pop genre. (They had recorded it as an album track, not a single.)

As writers, Ham and Evans should have received a 50-50 split of the royalties for the song's airplay. But Badfinger's manager had registered the credit for the song to the whole band, meaning that everyone (including the manager himself) got a cut from the royalties, not just Ham and Evans who really wrote it.

Moreover their record label, Apple Corps (owned by The Beatles), was an organisational and financial disaster that went bankrupt at the height of Badfinger's success, further tying up any money they were due.

Amid growing personal, financial and legal problems (including the dispute over the stream of royalties due to Nilsson's successful cover of the song), at the age of 27 Pete Ham hanged himself.

Badfinger broke up after Ham's suicide. Tom Evans did a few other things but later reformed Badfinger, although more problems ensued, including a lawsuit against him over a cancelled tour. After arguing with another band member about the royalties from "Without You", at the age of 36 Tom Evans hanged himself. Apparently he had told his wife "I want to be where Pete is. It's a better place than down here...."

So there you have it. The two writers of the song that goes "I can't live if living is without you" both died young. And they both killed themselves. And they both killed themselves partially because of this song.

How could the story behind any song be worse than that? Right?

But then I found out that that it doesn't end there...

Badfinger had been discovered (while they still used their old name The Iveys) by Mal Evans (no relation to Tom), the road manager, factotum and occasional collaborator of The Beatles. He also produced Badfinger's first album on Apple Corps.

Mal Evans & Paul McCartney returning from a trip together to Africa in 1966.

After Evans and his wife separated, he went to live in Los Angeles. One night he was despondent over the separation, doped up on valium and holding a weapon, so his girlfriend called the police. At the age of 40, Mal Evans was shot dead by the LAPD.

(By the way the weapon turned out to be an air rifle.)

But it doesn't end there. One of Evans's last musical works in LA was producing some tracks on The Who drummer Keith Moon's solo album (which has been described as "the world's most expensive karaoke album" and a train wreck).

Moon was notorious for his prolific consumption of drink and drugs, preferably together. After attending a film preview in London with Paul McCartney, an already drunk Moon returned to the flat where he was staying and took a massive quantity of sedatives. At the age of 32, Keith Moon overdosed and died.

And that's it... Oh wait, no it isn't. 4 years earlier, Cass Elliot of the Mamas and the Papas had been staying in the exact same flat, while doing sell-out solo shows at the London Palladium. She went to bed one night and never woke up. At the age of 32, Cass Elliot died of a heart attack.

Cass Elliot, not enjoying a light snack. Hey, I said "not".

The flat belonged neither to Moon nor Elliot, but had been in each case loaned to them by someone they both knew, a fellow music biz star: one Harry Nilsson. That's right, the same Harry Nilsson who covered "Without You" and got this circle of death going in the first place.

The writers and original recording artists of the song dead by suicide at 27 and 36, the band's discoverer and producer shot dead by police at 40, the producer's other artist overdosing in Nilsson's flat at 32, another musical guest dying from a heart attack in the same flat at 32. I'd report Nilsson to the police for this suspicious body count... but then he died at 54 from heart failure. (Either I'd report him.... or ask him to work his magic on Mariah Carey, Simon Cowell and the entire Pop Idol franchise.)