Songs from the '70s seem to be in vogue now to be used in commercials, especially for advertising cars like 'All Right Now' by Free (Ford) and 'Come On, Get Happy' by The Partridge Family (Dodge). Even a new generic sounding cover version of Badfinger's hit song 'Come And Get It' (written by Paul McCartney) was used for a few weeks in September of 2007 to promote GM motor vehicles. This time it's for a sports franchise, the NBA, and it's the first original Badfinger recording ever to be used in a TV commercial...

Dan Matovina (music agent for The Estate Of Peter William Ham) fills us in:

Tom Brennan: Tell me about the new commercial featuring 'Day After Day'?

Dan Matovina: During the latter summer months of 2007, the NBA (National Basketball Association) commissioned a company to develop a set of promotional commercials for the NBA's 2007-2008 season. Using the theme 'Where Amazing Happens,' almost a dozen commercial ideas were developed for year-round use on television and the internet.

The promotional CD 'Perfection: The Songs Of Badfinger's Pete Ham and Tom Evans' has been well-circulated to the ad companies. A brainstorm was struck by this particular company regarding the band's classic 'Day After Day' track. They proposed to the NBA a commercial with the the sub-theme 'I Remember.' In this commercial, some Boston Celtic fans ruminate on when they found out about the incredible development of having three NBA all-stars together on their team's 2007-2008 roster: Ray Allen (#20), Kevin Garnett (#5) and Paul Pierce (#34). This team transition has already shown the expected dividends of an "amazing" comeback season for this storied franchise, as they are undefeated at this point in the season.

With a budget given to them by the NBA, the ad company submitted a proposal regarding the synch license and also the Badfinger master use. Myself, along with Bug Music, knew the amount was not likely to be satisfactory to Apple's criteria due to our past experience. Our negotiations followed and led to convincing the ad company to lobby the NBA and ratio more of the master-use-budget of outside songs to one - 'Day After Day.' Pressing how incredibly significant it would be to have the first Apple artist master for a major commercial, plus the fact that this song crosses all boundaries worldwide as a much-loved (yet underexposed) masterpiece, the ad company became convinced and were able to come back and significantly improve their financial offer for Apple Corps Ltd. These overall successful negotiations on the front end greatly pleased EMI and Apple, who then cleared the master at our exact negotiation.

Commercials were subsequently produced using the 'Day After Day' remaster from the 'Perfection' CD. A 60-second spot was developed, along with a shorter 30-second spot. The NBA will also portray the ad on the internet in abbreviated form.

Tom Brennan: This is very exciting news. Tell us more about 'Baby Blue' showing up in the recent Oscar-winning film, 'The Departed.'

Dan Matovina: In that case, director Martin Scorsese wanted to use Badfinger's version of 'Baby Blue' for a particular scene. He is known for his interest in classic rock. He had wanted a lot of guitar-based songs for this late '60s/early '70s era Boston backdrop, and Badfinger's heyday also traversed that era. It was the last song cleared for use regarding the theatrical release, DVD and soundtrack CD. Again, master uses and publishing had to rise to certain levels to satisfy Apple Corps Ltd. standards. I had to push hard to get those deals closed as time was running out or an alternate would have been used. Scorsese's team were very pleased and sent me a very nice "thank you" note. Clearly, though, Badfinger deserve all the credit for putting together two outstanding songs, as does Todd Rundgren for his superb studio work/production on them, George Harrison for his early arranging/production of 'Day After Day' that was so key to its final result, as well as the great engineering work done by Richard Lush.

Tom Brennan: So have you and the Ham/Evans Estates considered this a successful collaboration with Bug Music thus far?

Dan Matovina: Definitely. The communications are far more clarified and comfortable than before, which makes them happy, and there has been a bonanza of licenses and covers in the last two years. Also, some close calls happened regarding other major films and commercials, so the interest in the songs is high, as I expected all along. I will run through more of the history, developments and accomplishments at a later date. For the time being, I hope Badfinger fans, old and new, will enjoy viewing this new NBA ad campaign*.

*Viewers note: the ads could air on either NBA-TV, cable or network TV stations that are showing NBA games.

© Copyright 2007 Tom Brennan's Badfinger Library (TBBL). All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.
All trademarks used on TBBL are the property of their respective owners.