失去你 (1971)

"Without You" is a song written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans of Welsh rock group Badfinger, and first released on their 1970 album No Dice. The power ballad has been recorded by over 180 artists, and versions released as singles by Harry Nilsson (1971) and Mariah Carey (1994) became international number one hits. The Nilsson version was included in 2021's Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Paul McCartney once described it as "the killer song of all time".

In 1972, Ham and Evans received the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.

Badfinger original

First recorded by the rock group Badfinger, the song was composed by two of its members. Pete Ham wrote a song originally titled "If It's Love", but it had lacked a strong chorus. At the time of writing, the band shared residence with the Mojos at 7 Park Avenue in Golders Green. One evening, in the midst of the parties, songwriting, touring, in Golders Green, Ham and his girlfriend Beverly Tucker were about to go out for the evening. But just as they were leaving Tom Evans said he had an idea for a song – Ham said, "Not tonight, I've promised Bev." But she thought he would be wondering if he had done the right thing later, if he went out. She told him, "Go into the studio, I'm fine about it..." He replied, "Your mouth is smiling, but your eyes are sad." The song Ham wrote that night was called "If it's Love" and has the verse "Well I can't forget tomorrow, when I think of all my sorrow, I had you there but then I let you go, and now it's only fair that I should let you know ... if it's love". But Ham wasn't happy with the chorus.

Evans' relationship with his future wife Marianne influenced his lyrics:

One evening he [Evans] went to her [Marianne's] friend Karen and told Karen, "She's left me. I need her back. I can't live without her." He flew to Bonn to find her – he wrote a song called "I Can't Live". Its chorus included "I can't live, if living is without you, I can't live, I can't give any more." And so the merging of the two songs, Ham and Evans created the hit [with] Ham's verse, "warm, sweet, sentimental" and Evans' chorus, "intense, dramatic, heartbreaking."

Both Ham and Evans said they did not consider the song to have much potential at the time Badfinger recorded it, and the track was slotted to close the first side of their 1970 album No Dice. Badfinger's recording of the song, which is more brusque than its successors' versions, was not released as a single in Europe or North America.

Stereogum reviewer Tom Breihan said of Badfinger's version that it "is strummy and direct, but it also sounds like a blueprint, not a final version. They could’ve turned it into a showstopping ballad, but they didn’t."

Ultimate Classic Rock critic Michael Gallucci rated it as Badfinger's 4th-best song, calling it a "quiet gem" that "hits all the right emotional notes." Classic Rock critic Rob Hughes rated it Badfinger's 6th-best song, saying it is "less saccharine and more understated [than the Nilsson and Carey versions], delivered with a genuine sense of anguish." Paul McCartney called it "the killer song of all time."