New York Post - Death of ‘Breaking Bad’ gives a 1972 song new life
Original Link: http://nypost.com/2013/09/30/death-of-breaking-bad-gives-a-1972-song-new-life/
By Billy Heller
September 30, 2013 | 6:44pm
A 41-year-old single by the British band Badfinger is rocketing up the charts thanks to “Breaking Bad,” which played the song, “Baby Blue,” as the series ended.
Chemistry teacher-turned-meth king Walter White (Bryan Cranston) was back in his blue meth lab, collapsing on the floor as the band sang “Guess I got what I deserved . . . Didn’t know you’d think that I’d forget or I’d regret the special love I had for you, my baby blue.” On Monday afternoon, the song was at No. 18 on iTunes’ download charts, just in front of Miley Cyrus’ “We Can’t Stop.” The single reached No. 14 on the Billboard charts in 1972.
“It’s wonderful that a song from 1972 is now having a revival,” “Breaking Bad” music supervisor Thomas Golubic tells The Post. “It’s really nice to know that so many fans of the show felt so connected to the show and this finale that they’re actually going and buying this song.”
But it might have been a different song getting a boost. Golubic says he was also looking at the Byrds’ version of “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” and the Bees’ “No More Excuses,” as well as Nina Simone singing “Little Girl Blue.”
The oldie’s rescue from obscurity is similar to the bump Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” got when the 1981 song played over the final scene of “The Sopranos” in 2007. Sales of the song on iTunes went from 1,000 a day before the show, to 6,531 the day after it aired. Sales jumped again when the song was featured on “Glee” in 2009.
As for closing “Breaking Bad” with “Baby Blue,” Golubic says, “I’d love to take credit for it, but this one is purely [‘Breaking Bad’ creator] Vince Gilligan.”
When the show introduced blue meth a couple of seasons back, “he started looking into different songs with the word ‘blue’ in it,” Golubic says. “But I was a little bit cautious about that because I thought it was a little too on the nose.”
In the end, Golubic says, “It clicked.”
On “Talking Bad,” AMC’s post-show wrapup, Gilligan explained the last scene and song: “[Walter White] is with that meth lab that he and Jesse designed — his baby, so to speak — and the lyrics to the song ‘Baby Blue’ by Badfinger back that up. And I think he is at peace with himself. He has screwed up his life tremendously, and I think he knows that, but he has set out to accomplish the thing he set out to accomplish.”
Badfinger’s Pete Ham, who wrote “Baby Blue,” hung himself in 1975 — when he was only 27.
“I think Pete would be knocked out to see this,” says original Badfinger member Joey Molland (he sometimes tours; Badfinger is playing the Sellersville Theater near Philadelphia in Dec. 13). Molland didn’t know ahead of time his band’s song would be used.
“I sat down and watched a little bit of it, where the guy got shot, and the next thing you know, bam, ‘Baby Blue’ started. It was really surprising.” And that more people are buying the song, he says “It’s always a bonus for guys like me, good news to get plays on the radio or the telly.”
By Billy Heller
September 30, 2013 | 6:44pm
A 41-year-old single by the British band Badfinger is rocketing up the charts thanks to “Breaking Bad,” which played the song, “Baby Blue,” as the series ended.
Chemistry teacher-turned-meth king Walter White (Bryan Cranston) was back in his blue meth lab, collapsing on the floor as the band sang “Guess I got what I deserved . . . Didn’t know you’d think that I’d forget or I’d regret the special love I had for you, my baby blue.” On Monday afternoon, the song was at No. 18 on iTunes’ download charts, just in front of Miley Cyrus’ “We Can’t Stop.” The single reached No. 14 on the Billboard charts in 1972.
“It’s wonderful that a song from 1972 is now having a revival,” “Breaking Bad” music supervisor Thomas Golubic tells The Post. “It’s really nice to know that so many fans of the show felt so connected to the show and this finale that they’re actually going and buying this song.”
But it might have been a different song getting a boost. Golubic says he was also looking at the Byrds’ version of “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” and the Bees’ “No More Excuses,” as well as Nina Simone singing “Little Girl Blue.”
The oldie’s rescue from obscurity is similar to the bump Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” got when the 1981 song played over the final scene of “The Sopranos” in 2007. Sales of the song on iTunes went from 1,000 a day before the show, to 6,531 the day after it aired. Sales jumped again when the song was featured on “Glee” in 2009.
As for closing “Breaking Bad” with “Baby Blue,” Golubic says, “I’d love to take credit for it, but this one is purely [‘Breaking Bad’ creator] Vince Gilligan.”
When the show introduced blue meth a couple of seasons back, “he started looking into different songs with the word ‘blue’ in it,” Golubic says. “But I was a little bit cautious about that because I thought it was a little too on the nose.”
In the end, Golubic says, “It clicked.”
On “Talking Bad,” AMC’s post-show wrapup, Gilligan explained the last scene and song: “[Walter White] is with that meth lab that he and Jesse designed — his baby, so to speak — and the lyrics to the song ‘Baby Blue’ by Badfinger back that up. And I think he is at peace with himself. He has screwed up his life tremendously, and I think he knows that, but he has set out to accomplish the thing he set out to accomplish.”
Badfinger’s Pete Ham, who wrote “Baby Blue,” hung himself in 1975 — when he was only 27.
“I think Pete would be knocked out to see this,” says original Badfinger member Joey Molland (he sometimes tours; Badfinger is playing the Sellersville Theater near Philadelphia in Dec. 13). Molland didn’t know ahead of time his band’s song would be used.
“I sat down and watched a little bit of it, where the guy got shot, and the next thing you know, bam, ‘Baby Blue’ started. It was really surprising.” And that more people are buying the song, he says “It’s always a bonus for guys like me, good news to get plays on the radio or the telly.”