Remembering When an Excellent Badfinger Album Went Unreleased in 1975

Badfinger recorded *Head First* in late 1974, hoping it would follow their well-received album *Wish You Were Here*. Warner Bros cancelled its planned 1975 release amid financial and legal disputes involving the band’s manager, Stan Polley, leaving the group without the album that might have helped revive its fortunes.

The band recorded the album in under two weeks, with songs by all four members of the lineup: Pete Ham, Tom Evans, Mike Gibbins and Bob Jackson. Warner Bros also stopped distributing *Wish You Were Here* after it could not trace an escrow account containing advances paid to Polley. *Head First* appeared on CD in 2000, but legal problems halted distribution; Jackson later accessed the master tapes and led a remix released in 2024.