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Badge (song)

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"Badge"
German single picture sleeve
Single by Cream
from the album Goodbye
B-side"What a Bringdown"
Released
  • February 1969 (1969-02) (album)
  • March 1969 (US single)
  • April 1969 (UK single)
Recorded21 November 1968[1]
StudioIBC, London
GenreRock
Length2:43
LabelAtco
Songwriter(s)Eric Clapton, George Harrison
Producer(s)Felix Pappalardi
Cream US singles chronology
"Crossroads"
(1969) 		"Badge"
(1969) 		"Lawdy Mama"
(1970)
Cream UK singles chronology
"White Room"
(1969) 		"Badge"
(1969)
Audio sample
29 second vocal segment

"Badge" is a song written by Eric Clapton and George Harrison,[2] and recorded by British rock music group Cream on their final album, Goodbye. Also issued as a single in March 1969, "Badge" peaked at number 18 in the UK Singles Chart[3] and number 60 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.[4]

Composition

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"Badge" was originally an untitled track.[5] 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 thus titled soon thereafter.

Harrison remembered the story thus: "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."[1]

Common legends or misconceptions are that the name came about because its chord progression was B–A–D–G–E (which is not true) or simply because the notation of a guitar's standard tuning (E–A–D–G–B–E) can be arranged to spell "Badge".[6]

Harrison was present on 21 November 1968 at Wally Heider Studios in Hollywood where the track was recorded, adding rhythm guitar, although for contractual reasons he was credited as "L'Angelo Misterioso" on the Goodbye sleeve. The song received later overdubs (without Harrison present) at IBC Studios a month later.[1]

Reception

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Cash Box said "More subdued drumming and almost conventional instrumental work show the Cream in a new light, one which should have a tremendous impact on listeners of cleaner-cut rock who may not have been into the blues outings that hit earlier."[7] Billboard called it an "easy beat, driving rocker."[8]

Writing and publishing credits

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In the US, Atco Records' initial releases of Goodbye and of "Badge" as a single gave the song's writing credit to Clapton alone, with publishing credit to Robert Stigwood's company Casserole (BMI).[9] Atco later corrected this in 1969 with the release of Best of Cream,[10] which lists both Clapton and 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.[11] Since the early 1990s the writing credit has been listed as Clapton/Harrison with publishing credit going to E.C. Music, Ltd. and Harrisongs.[12]

Personnel

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Cream

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Additional personnel

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Charts

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Chart (1969–1970) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[13] 43
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[14] 18
Canadian Top Singles (RPM)[15] 49
Finnish Albums (Soumen Virallinen)[16] 39
Netherlands (Dutch Tip 40)[17] 14
UK Singles (OCC)[18] 18
US Billboard Hot 100[19] 60
US Cashbox Top Singles[20] 65
West Germany (GfK)[21] 29

References

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  1. ^ a b c "George Harrison Performs on Badge by Cream". Beatles Bible. Retrieved 15 September 2024.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ "UK Top 40 Chart Archive, British Singles & Album Charts". Everyhit.com. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  4. ^ "The Billboard Hot 100 – Chart Listing For The Week Of May 03 1969". Billboard. Retrieved 18 January 2009.
  5. ^ Welsh, Chris (December 2000). Cream: The Legendary Sixties Supergroup. ISBN 978-1-4768-5150-1.
  6. ^ . Later in Clapton's career he added a vocal refrain of "Where is my badge?" to an extended coda when "Badge" was played live. Cream: Selections From Cream – Those Were the Days. Hal Leonard. 1999. p. 2. ISBN 0-7935-9084-1.
  7. ^ "CashBox Record Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. 22 March 1969. p. 18. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  8. ^ "Spotlight Singles" (PDF). Billboard. 22 March 1969. p. 71. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  9. ^ Atco Records single #45-6668
  10. ^ Atco Records album #SD 33-291
  11. ^ Polydor Records single #2058-285
  12. ^ Cream of Clapton Liner Notes
  13. ^ Kent, David (2005). Australian Chart Book 1940–1969. Australian Chart Book Limited. ISBN 0-646-44439-5.
  14. ^ "Cream – Badge" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  15. ^ "RPM Search Engine" (PHP). Library and Archives Canada. 31 March 2004. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  16. ^ Nyman, Jake (2005). Suomi soi 4: Suuri suomalainen listakirja (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Tammi. p. 100. ISBN 951-31-2503-3.
  17. ^ "Cream – Badge | Top 40". Dutch Tip 40 (in Dutch). Stichting Nederlandse Top 40. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  18. ^ "UK Top 40 Chart Archive, British Singles & Album Charts". everyhit.com. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  19. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2011). Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles. Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research Inc. p. 209. ISBN 978-0-89820-188-8.
  20. ^ Hoffmann, Frank (1983). The Cash Box Singles Charts, 1950–1981. Metuchen, NJ & London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. p. 135.
  21. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Cream – Badge" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved 21 May 2019. To see peak chart position, click "TITEL VON Cream"
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