When many of us heard today’s “Great Song of 1970” for the first time, we said to ourselves, “That’s GOTTA be the Beatles.” We were wrong, of course, but we were darn close.

“Come and Get It” was recorded by Badfinger, but the story behind it is “Fab,” in a unique sort of way.

One day in 1969, Paul McCartney arrived at a Beatles recording session a few hours early. None of the other guys were there, so Paul used the time to record a demo version of “a song called Come and Get It,” playing ALL the instruments and singing ALL the vocals.

It turned out pretty good, but it was never released as a Beatles single. Why?

Well, mainly because Paul had been asked to provide a few songs for the 1970 film”The Magic Christian,” starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr…and he promised The Iveys, a new group signed to Apple Records… that they could record “Come and Get It’ for the soundtrack.

But there was one caveat: The finished song had to sound EXACTLY like Paul’s demo! He even had everyone in the group audition to see who could sound the most like him. For the record, the winner was Tom Evans.

Although the Iveys’ version was a bit faster and had a few extra harmonies, Tom did a darn good Paul McCartney impression. And because The Magic Christian soundtrack and the subsuquent single were released on Apple Records…and the movie featured Ringo, many people were convinced it was the Fab Four pretending to be incognito.

By the same token, no one knew it was The Iveys because no one had ever heard of them..and then they changed their name to Badfinger…and no one had ever heard of them either,

So Partly because it sounded like the Beatles, but mostly because it was a “Great Song,” “Come and Get It” reached the Top 10 in several countries, including #1 in New Zealand, #4 in Canada and The UK, and #7 in the US on Billboard’s Hot 100!

Badfinger had a “Fab” debut…and a “Great Song of 1970.” You “might” say, they “Came and Got It” from Paul McCartney.

Paul’s Original studio Demo:

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