Ass (album)
| Ass | ||||
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| Studio album by Badfinger | ||||
| Released | 26 November 1973 (US) 8 March 1974 (UK) |
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| Recorded | 1972–73 Apple Studio, Olympic Studios, Morgan Studios (all London); The Manor Studio, Oxfordshire |
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| Genre | Power pop, hard rock | |||
| Length | 39:38 | |||
| Label |
Apple SAPCOR 101 SW 3411 |
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| Producer |
Chris Thomas, Badfinger; Todd Rundgren (tracks 4 and 9 only) |
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| Badfinger chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Ass | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | |
| Mojo | |
| Rolling Stone | (favourable) |
| Uncut | |
Ass is the fourth studio album by British rock band Badfinger, and their last album released on Apple Records. The opening track, "Apple of My Eye", refers to the band leaving the label to begin its new contract with Warner Bros. Records. The cover artwork, showing a donkey chasing a distant carrot, alludes to Badfinger's feelings that they had been misled by Apple over the years. The cover was painted by Grammy Award-winning artist Peter Corriston, who would later create album covers for Led Zeppelin (Physical Graffiti) and the Rolling Stones (Some Girls, Tattoo You).
Although recordings for the album began as early as 1972, shortly after the release of Straight Up, Ass wasn't released until 26 November 1973 in the US and May 1974 in the UK. The album was originally delayed because of production quality, as the band attempted to produce the album themselves after producer Todd Rundgren departed the project with just two songs recorded. After a first version of the album was rejected by the label, Apple engineer Chris Thomas was hired as a first-time producer to improve the overall recordings and make new track selections.
The album was further delayed when a disagreement surfaced between Apple and Badfinger's management on publishing copyrights. Half of the tracks on Ass were written by Joey Molland. Molland never signed a publishing agreement with Apple Music, unlike his three bandmates, who had signed such a publishing agreement when still in The Iveys. Instead, Molland assigned the individual copyrights of his songs that were selected for Badfinger albums to Apple Music after production. Badfinger's then-manager, Stan Polley, attempted to use Apple's lack of a publishing agreement with Molland to block release of the album; he told Molland not to agree to any individual assignments, and Molland obliged. Eventually, to circumvent Polley's strategy, writing credits for all songs on the US and UK album releases of Ass were credited by Apple to "Badfinger", not to the actual author of the song.
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