B-side "What a Bringdown" Genre Rock | Format 7-inch 45 rpm Length 2:43 | |
Released March 1969 (1969-03) (US) Recorded IBC Studios, London, December 1968 | ||
"Badge" is a pop rock song performed by British rock music group Cream. It was written by Eric Clapton and George Harrison. It was included as a track on Cream's final album, Goodbye. "Badge" was a minor hit in the United States, peaking at number 60 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 after its release as a single in April 1969. The single was much more successful in the United Kingdom, where it reached position 18.
Contents
Composition
"Badge" was originally an untitled track. 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 titled soon thereafter.
Harrison remembered the story differently: "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."
A common legend or misconception is that the name came about because its chord progression is B-A-D-G-E, or simply because an anagram of a guitar's standard tuning (E-A-D-G-B-E) can be arranged to spell "Badge". However, this is not true.
Writing/publishing credits
In the USA, Atco Records' initial releases of Goodbye and of "Badge" as a single gave the song's writing credit to Eric Clapton alone, with publishing credit to Robert Stigwood's company Casserole (BMI). Atco would correct this later in 1969 with the release of Best of Cream, which lists both Clapton and George 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. Since the early 1990s the writing credit has been listed as Clapton/Harrison with publishing credit going to E.C. Music, Ltd. and Harrisongs. Despite his alleged contribution to the song's lyrics, Ringo Starr is not credited as a co-author of "Badge".