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Badge (song)

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"Badge"
Song
B-side"What a Bringdown"

"Badge" is a pop rock song performed by British rock music group Cream. It was written by Eric Clapton and George Harrison.[1] It was included as a track on Cream's final album, Goodbye. "Badge" was a minor hit in the United States, peaking at number 60 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 after its release as a single in April 1969.[2] The single was much more successful in the United Kingdom, where it reached position 18.[3]

Composition

"Badge" was originally an untitled track.[4] During the production transfer for the album Goodbye, the original music sheet was used to produce the liner notes and track listing. The only discernible word on the page was "bridge" (indicating the song's bridge section). Due to Harrison's handwriting, however, Clapton misread it as "badge" — and the song was titled soon thereafter.[5]

Harrison remembered the story differently: "I helped Eric write "Badge" you know. Each of them had to come up with a song for that Goodbye Cream album and Eric didn't have his written. We were working across from each other and I was writing the lyrics down and we came to the middle part so I wrote 'Bridge.' Eric read it upside down and cracked up laughing-- 'What's BADGE?' he said. After that, Ringo [Starr] walked in drunk and gave us that line about the swans living in the park."[6]

A common legend or misconception is that the name came about because its chord progression is B-A-D-G-E, or simply because an anagram of a guitar's standard tuning (E-A-D-G-B-E) can be arranged to spell "Badge". However, this is not true.[7]

File:Cream Badge DP-1630 Japan.jpg
Japanese 45 picture sleeve release.

Writing/publishing credits

In the USA, Atco Records' initial releases of Goodbye and of "Badge" as a single gave the song's writing credit to Eric Clapton alone, with publishing credit to Robert Stigwood's company Casserole (BMI).[8] Atco would correct this later in 1969 with the release of Best of Cream,[9] which lists both Clapton and George Harrison as the song's authors. The UK single of "Badge" released by Polydor Records gave writing credit to both Clapton and Harrison, with publishing credit going to Dratleaf and Harrisongs Ltd.[10] Since the early 1990s the writing credit has been listed as Clapton/Harrison with publishing credit going to E.C. Music, Ltd. and Harrisongs.[11] Despite his alleged contribution to the song's lyrics, Ringo Starr is not credited as a co-author of "Badge".

Personnel

Charts

Chart (1969) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[12] 43
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[13] 18
Canadian Top Singles (RPM)[14] 49
songid field is MANDATORY FOR GERMAN CHARTS 29
Netherlands (Dutch Tip 40)[15] 14
UK Singles (OCC)[16] 18
US Billboard Hot 100[17] 60
US Cashbox Top Singles[18] 65

References

  1. ^ Castleman, Harry; Podrazik, Walter J. (1977). "1969 – "But If Paul's Alive, How Did He Die?"". All Together Now – The First Complete Beatles Discography 1961–1975 (Second ed.). New York: Ballantine Books. p. 73. ISBN 0-345-25680-8.
  2. ^ "The Billboard Hot 100 - Chart Listing For The Week Of May 03 1969". Retrieved 18 January 2009.
  3. ^ "everyHit.com - UK Top 40 Chart Archive, British Singles & Album Charts". everyhit.com. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  4. ^ Welsh, Chris. Cream: The Legendary Sixties Supergroup.
  5. ^ "'Badge' - Cream". Songfacts.
  6. ^ "George Harrison performs on Badge by Cream". Beatles Bible.
  7. ^ Cream: Selections From Cream - Those Were the Days. Hal Leonard. p. 2. ISBN 0-7935-9084-1.
  8. ^ Atco Records single #45-6668
  9. ^ Atco Records album #SD 33-291
  10. ^ Polydor Records single #2058-285
  11. ^ Cream of Clapton Liner Notes
  12. ^ Kent, David (2005). Australian Chart Book 1940–1969. Australian Chart Book Limited. ISBN 0-646-44439-5.
  13. ^ "Cream – Badge" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  14. ^ "RPM Search Engine" (PHP). Library and Archives Canada. 31 March 2004. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  15. ^ "Cream – Badge | Top 40". Dutch Tip 40 (in Dutch). Stichting Nederlandse Top 40. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  16. ^ "everyHit.com - UK Top 40 Chart Archive, British Singles & Album Charts". everyhit.com. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  17. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2011). Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles. Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research Inc. p. 209. ISBN 0-89820-188-8.
  18. ^ Hoffmann, Frank (1983). The Cash Box Singles Charts, 1950–1981. Metuchen, NJ & London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. p. 135.
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