"Come and Get It" is a song composed by English singer-songwriter

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

for the 1969 film '' The Magic Christian''. The song was performed by

Badfinger Badfinger were a Welsh rock music, rock band formed in Swansea in 1961. Their best-known lineup consisted of Pete Ham (guitar), Mike Gibbins (drums), Tom Evans (musician), Tom Evans (bass), and Joey Molland (guitar). They are recognised for th ...

, produced by McCartney and issued as a single 5 December 1969 in the UK, and 12 January 1970 in the US, on the Beatles'

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

label. It was the band's first release under the Badfinger name (having previously recorded as The Iveys) and was their international breakthrough, hitting the top 10 in both the UK and US singles charts.

The Beatles (Paul McCartney) version

recorded a solo demo of the song on 24 July 1969, after arriving early for a

Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

recording session for their ''

Abbey Road ''Abbey Road'' is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969, by Apple Records. It is the last album the group recorded, although '' Let It Be'' (1970) was the last album completed before th ...

'' album. Singing the double-tracked lead vocal and playing all the instruments, he laid down the vocals and

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

on the first take, sang again and played maracas on the first overdub, then added

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

, and finally put in the

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

track. It took less than an hour to finish. The biggest differences between the McCartney and Badfinger versions are a slower tempo and slightly higher key on the demo, and the use of three-part harmonies on the Badfinger single. Though McCartney was the only Beatle performing on the track, it was officially released as a Beatles song on the 1996 '' Anthology 3'' compilation album and the 2019 ''Abbey Road'' re-release, having already appeared on various bootlegs. The 2019 re-mix featured a significant improvement in the recording's sonic quality.

Badfinger version

On 2 August 1969, McCartney produced the studio version at EMI's

Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a music recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, London, Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of ...

by the

band Badfinger (then called the Iveys) telling them, "Okay, it's got to be exactly like this demo." His "carrot" for the band was his offer to produce this song and two other Iveys' originals for the movie '' The Magic Christian'', since he had a contract to supply three songs for it. The band followed his instructions. McCartney auditioned each of the four Iveys to sing lead on "Come and Get It". Ultimately, he picked Tom Evans over the other three band members, Pete Ham, Ron Griffiths, and Mike Gibbins. The single was released on Apple Records on 5 December 1969 in the UK, but not until 12 January 1970 in the US. "Come and Get It" was a hit single for the band, peaking at number 7 in the United States, and number 4 in the United Kingdom. It was the opening theme for the film ''The Magic Christian'', starring

Peter Sellers Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show''. Sellers featured on a number of hit comi ...

and

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, us ...

(it was also repeated during the movie's closing credits, with an additional string arrangement added). The UK picture sleeve for the single shows a kaleidoscopic montage of all four members of Badfinger that appear on the song, although bassist Ron Griffiths left the band before the single was released. ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', is an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' called it "a fine teen track." ''

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'' called it "powerful." ''Ultimate Classic Rock'' critic Michael Gallucci and ''Classic Rock History'' critic Janey Robert both rated "Come and Get It" as Badfinger's greatest song. Gallucci called it the highlight of ''Magic Christian Music''. Roberts called it Badfinger's

signature song A signature (; from , "to sign") is a depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. Signatures are often, but not always, handwritten or styliz ...

. ''Classic Rock'' critic Rob Hughes rated it as Badfinger's 3rd greatest song, saying that the band "added lustrous three-part harmonies" to McCartney's original. In 1978 a re-formed version of Badfinger re-recorded "Come and Get It" for K-tel Records, with Evans again singing lead. This served to provide a demo recording to give to

Elektra Records Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the ...

, and resulted in the '' Airwaves'' album in 1979.

Personnel

The Beatles (Paul McCartney) version *

– double-tracked lead vocals, piano, maracas, drums, bass Badfinger version * Tom Evans – lead vocals, maracas * Pete Ham – backing vocals, piano * Ron Griffiths – backing vocals, bass guitar * Mike Gibbins – drums *

– tambourine, production * Tony Clark – engineer

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

*, appearing on '' Beat-Club'' (28 February 1970) {{authority control 1969 songs 1969 singles The Beatles songs Apple Records singles Badfinger songs Number-one singles in New Zealand Songs written by Paul McCartney Song recordings produced by Paul McCartney Songs written for films