The song playing during the final moments of Breaking Bad is \u201cBaby Blue\u201d by Badfinger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The recording originally appeared on the British rock band’s 1971 album Straight Up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But its appearance in the 2013 series finale transformed it into one of television’s most recognisable soundtrack moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The choice wasn’t accidental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Series creator Vince Gilligan believed the recording captured something essential about Walter White.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the song’s title provided a particularly appropriate connection with the programme’s story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walter White returns to a methamphetamine laboratory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has spent years developing an illegal drug business under increasingly dangerous circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the final episode, his personal life has been devastated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many relationships are destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His health is deteriorating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the consequences of his choices have become unavoidable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As he walks through the laboratory, the audience sees him surrounded by the equipment associated with his criminal career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then \u201cBaby Blue\u201d begins playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The music continues as the character’s story reaches its conclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A British rock band associated with the late 1960s and early 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group became known for melodic guitar-driven songwriting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its members included Pete Ham, Tom Evans, Joey Molland and Mike Gibbins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Badfinger were signed to Apple Records, the label established by The Beatles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their recordings included \u201cCome and Get It\u201d, \u201cNo Matter What\u201d, \u201cDay After Day\u201d and \u201cBaby Blue\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The band became particularly influential within the development of power pop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pete Ham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was one of Badfinger’s principal songwriters and vocalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ham developed the composition following a romantic relationship with a woman named Dixie Armstrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The song explores the emotional aftermath of that connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its original subject is therefore romantic regret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It wasn’t written about drugs, crime or television.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those associations developed decades later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The narrator reflects on a relationship that didn’t work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is affection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the recognition that mistakes may have damaged something important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The music sounds comparatively upbeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the emotional message is more complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That contrast made it particularly suitable for Breaking Bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The song sounds warm and melodic while describing the consequences of past decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because its title and emotional subject connected with Walter White.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walter’s methamphetamine became famous within the fictional world for its distinctive blue colour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That makes \u201cBaby Blue\u201d an obvious symbolic connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the choice works on another level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walter eventually admits that he enjoyed the power and identity his criminal enterprise gave him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The laboratory represented something he loved, despite the destruction it caused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The song can therefore be heard as a strange love song to the life he created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not initially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas Golubi\u0107, the show’s music supervisor, has discussed the decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He initially questioned whether a relatively gentle 1970s love song was appropriate for the ending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But once the music was placed beneath the finished footage, the connection became obvious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The recording’s emotional warmth provided an unusual contrast with the character’s final circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sequence didn’t need aggressive music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It needed something that acknowledged Walter’s complicated attachment to his own creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because the laboratory is central to Walter’s identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He began the series as a chemistry teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His knowledge of chemistry became the foundation of his criminal career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the ending, he has lost much of what originally mattered to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But his relationship with the laboratory remains recognisable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The music turns that final encounter into something almost sentimental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It suggests that Walter is looking at the thing he believes he created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And perhaps the thing that ultimately destroyed him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The recording was released as a single in 1972.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It reached No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Badfinger already had a significant audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the song wasn’t necessarily the group’s most internationally recognisable recording.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its appearance in Breaking Bad created a major commercial revival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following the finale, digital sales and streaming activity increased dramatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That gave the recording another life more than forty years after its original release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBaby Blue\u201d appeared in Martin Scorsese’s 2006 film The Departed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That existing cinematic association was one reason the Breaking Bad music team initially had reservations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Gilligan believed the song was right for the final scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The finished sequence established an even stronger connection between the recording and television history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s an interpretation created by the television placement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pete Ham wrote the composition decades before Breaking Bad existed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The original subject was a romantic relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But filmmakers can create new meanings by placing existing recordings within different stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s exactly what happened here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The blue in the title became connected with Walter White’s distinctive product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The romantic regret became connected with his destructive obsession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Power pop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pop rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Classic rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The song combines strong melodic writing with an energetic guitar arrangement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Badfinger were important figures within the development of power pop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That genre frequently combines the accessibility of mainstream pop with the instrumentation of rock music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n