Badfinger mainstay Pete Ham should have become one of the 1970's brightest singer-songwriters. Instead, he became one of the decade's tragic musical footnotes. Caught in the spiraling financial turmoil spawned by the dissolution of the Beatles' Apple Records (Badfinger's label), Ham took his life at age 27. Among the music Ham left behind was a treasure trove of demo recordings, from which this compelling follow-up to 7 Park Avenue was compiled. Covering a decade of songwriting from the mid-'60s Iveys (Badfinger's original name) to the fading glory of Badfinger, Ham's melodic gift often overshadowed that of his one-time patron, Paul McCartney. The early version here of Badfinger's "Without You" (later a worldwide hit for Harry Nilsson) features a discarded chorus and provides a good snapshot of Badfinger in its prime. But it's in Golders Green's unfamiliar songs that Ham really shines, be they the jazzy ("Dawn"), country-inflected ("Helping Hand"), harmonically haunting ("Where Will You Be") or incandescent ("I'm So Lonely," "Makes Me Feel Good," Goodbye John Frost"). There's even a hilarious song about his manhood, "Richard" ("I hate it when you let me down"). Though it's been revisited by successive tides of New Wave, alternative rock (visit this collection's revealing drums-'n'-vocal fragment, "When the Feeling") and Brit-Pop, Ham's melodic balladry and power-pop has seldom been equaled. --Jerry McCulley