Although the album received a favourable review in
Rolling Stone magazine and is sometimes considered to be the band's best work, it was withdrawn from record stores in early 1975, seven weeks after release, because of a lawsuit between Warner music publishing and Badfinger's management. The album's abbreviated manufacturing run and short tenure on the market has made the original LP relatively rare. Before being recalled,
Wish You Were Here had time enough to chart, peaking at number 148 in the United States. In the 1990s it was re-released in CD format in Japan and Germany only. The album was issued on CD in the US in 2007. Many of the tracks have appeared on Badfinger compilation albums.
Classic Rock critic Rob Hughes considered two songs from
Wish You Were Here, "Meanwhile Back at the Ranch / Should I Smoke?" and "Dennis", among Badfinger's top 10 songs. Hughes said of "Dennis" "This stately pop-rock beauty, from Badfinger’s most underrated album, remains one of Pete Ham’s very finest pieces, from its elegant intro to its extended fadeout" and said that it is "essentially a warning about the potholes of life" and "an affirmative love song that offers parental guidance." After completing
Wish You Were Here,
Pete Ham left Badfinger; he was replaced by keyboardist/guitarist
Bob Jackson. However, after Warner indicated that it would drop the band if Ham quit, he agreed to return, and Badfinger completed a tour as a five-piece group. Following this tour,
Joey Molland resigned from the band. The next Badfinger release was the Molland–Evans reunion album
Airwaves in 1979. Ham, Evans, Gibbins and Jackson recorded an album titled
Head First in December 1974 before Pete Ham hanged himself in April 1975. The latter album was the band's seventh and last with the original Ham–Evans–Gibbins nucleus that dated back to the late 1960s, when the group was known as the Iveys.
Head First was not released until 2000, however, because of further lawsuits between Warner Bros. and Badfinger's management. Real Gone Music released an "Expanded" version of the album 30 November 2018. A further expanded edition comprising 40 tracks including those from
Badfinger was released 3 January 2020 with the title
Shine On 1974. ==Cover==