Battle of the Bands – “Without You”

This is my first Battle of the Bands and I’m so excited to be joining in all the other BOTB participants! Thank You Arlee Bird for inviting me! I decided to join Battle of the Bands because with my recent A-Z Challenge being a Musical Tour of My Life, I wanted to continue incorporating music into my blog in some way. Battle of the Bands gives me the opportunity to do just that twice a month.

Here’s how it works: I’ll be posting two versions of the same song and after you give a listen to each, vote for your favorite version. I’ll tally the votes and post the results 6 days later. Dates are the 1^st and 15^th of each month for the Battles and the 7^th and 21^st of each month for the results.

Easy and fun! I hope you enjoy it. Please join me now in considering my first two contenders for the song “Without You.”

I was listening to some Badfinger the other day (Badfinger was a British rock band that was popular in the 70s) and I had forgotten that they wrote and first recorded Without You. The song has quite a backstory which you can read about here if you’d like (or scroll down to be taken to the contestants). Taken from Wikipedia:

“”Without You” is a song written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans of British rock group Badfinger, and first released on their 1970 album No Dice. The song has been recorded by over 180 artists, and versions released as singles by Harry Nilsson (1971) and Mariah Carey (1994) became international best-sellers. Paul McCartney once described the ballad as “…the killer song of all time.”

In 1972, writers Ham and Evans received the British Academy’s Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.

First recorded by the rock group Badfinger, the song was composed by two of its members. Two streams, referring to real events in the songwriters’ lives flowed together to create the song. Pete Ham had written a song originally titled “If It’s Love” but it had lacked a strong chorus. At the time of writing the band shared residence with the Mojos at 7 Park Avenue in Golders Green. One evening, in the midst of the parties, songwriting, touring, in Golders Green, Ham and his girlfriend Beverly Tucker were about to go out for the evening. But just as they were leaving Tom Evans said he had an idea for a song – Ham said, ‘Not tonight, I’ve promised Bev.’ But she thought he would be wondering if he had done the right thing later, if he went out, – she told him – ‘Go into the studio, I’m fine about it…’ He said, “Your mouth is smiling, but your eyes are sad.” The song Ham wrote that night was called ‘If its Love’ and has the verse “Well I can’t forget tomorrow, when I think of all my sorrow, I had you there but then I let you go, and now it’s only fair that I should let you know…if it’s love.” But Pete wasn’t happy with the chorus.”

Events in Evans’ love life would lead to the completion of the track. While Evans was touring in Cologne he had met the woman who would become his future wife, Marianne. She moved to London. It was a sparky relationship. “One evening he went to her friend Karen and told Karen, ‘She’s left me. I need her back. I can’t live without her.’ He flew to Bonn to find her – he wrote a song called ‘I Can’t Live’. Its chorus; “I can’t live, if living is without you, I can’t live, I can’t give any more.” And so the merging of the two songs, Ham and Evans created the hit. Ham’s verse, ‘warm, sweet, sentimental’ and Evans’ chorus, – ‘intense, dramatic, heartbreaking.'” Both Ham and Evans said they did not consider the song to have much potential at the time Badfinger recorded it, and the track was slotted to close Side A of their 1970 No Dice album. Badfinger’s recording of the song, which is more brusque than its successors’ versions, was not released as a single in Europe or North America. In parallel to the song lyrics, both Ham and Evans later committed suicide.” (You can read more about Badfinger’s tragic story in my A-Z “B is for…” post).

I am most familiar with the Harry Nilsson version of the song and I suspect most people are more familiar with his version. Here is that version in case you’re not. NOTE: This is NOT the version in today’s BOTB competition so please don’t choose Harry Nilsson as your pick.

 

 

Instead I’m pitting the original Badfinger version against Maria Carey’s version.

CONTESTANT #1: BADFINGER VERSION:

 

CONTESTANT #2: MARIAH CAREY VERSION:

 

Okay, time to vote! Do you like Badfinger’s version or Mariah Carey’s version? I think both versions are wonderful so I’m going to have a tough time deciding which one I like better. Please vote by commenting below. It would be great to hear why you voted the way you did so please share with us your deciding factors. I’ll add my vote and tally up the results: be sure to come back on the 21^st to see who won this battle.

Thanks for participating!

After you’ve voted, be sure to visit the other Battle of the Bands participants and check out their cool competitions. Click here to be taken to a page with a complete list of links to all BOTB participants or simply click below:

Tossing It Out

StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands

Alex J. Cavanaugh

Far Away Series

THE DOGLADY’S DEN

Your Daily Dose

The Sound of One Hand Typing

Mike’s Ramblings

Curious as a Cathy

DC Relief – Battle of the Bands

This Belle Rocks

Book Lover

Cherdo on the Flipside

Shady Dell Music & Memories

Far Away Series