Dan Matovina (10 October, 1957 - 02 June 2023)^[1]) was an American record producer, recording engineer, video producer, publishing agent, author and curator who restored hundreds of hours of tapes by Beatles protegés, Badfinger and its precursor group, The Iveys, along with songwriting demos by Pete Ham and Tom Evans. His 1997 biography of the band, Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger, was considered one of the top rock biographies upon its release.

Matovina was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Beginning in the early 1980s, his production and studio work included artists such as Pete Ham, Badfinger, New Edition, The Monkees, Manhattan Transfer, Frankie Valli, The Beach Boys, The Pandoras, Dean Ford, The Babys, James Lee Stanley, Primetime (band), The Long Ryders, 5 Guns West, Radio Cammon, Easter (band), The Rats, Derrick Anderson, Blood on the Saddle and Jigsaw Seen.

His production work included Dean Ford, House of Freaks, Badfinger, Pete Ham, The Clints, Carman (singer) and On the Air (band). He worked for Bob Crewe (Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons) at his LA Sound Studios.

In the early 1990s, Matovina began his research for his biography of The Beatles protegés and Apple Records artists, Badfinger. Without You: The Tragic Story Of Badfinger (first published in 1997). A revised edition was made available in 2000 with a CD of rarities. In 2022, it is currently available on Kindle through Amazon.

In 2023, two years after the initial symptoms were originally ignored by his doctor, Matovina succumbed to a metastasized cancer. His final weeks were spent completing two projects for release and arranging song placements for video productions.

It was Matovina who negotiated the release of Ham and Evans' publishing rights from The Beatles' Apple Publishing, allowing a more aggressive promotion of the catalogue. Something that was considered a difficult task because of Apple's high prioritization of managing Beatles projects. Once accomplished, he compiled the song demo CD Badfinger: Perfection in cooperation with Bug Music.

Matovina had working relationships with the estate of Pete Ham, along with a then-alive Tom Evans and Mike Gibbins, Ron Griffiths (musician) and others who worked with the band. During this time as the publishing agent for the Pete Ham Estate, he coordinated placements of Badfinger songs in commercials, on television, in movies and, most famously, the final scene of Breaking Bad (the Pete Ham-penned Baby Blue). These placements and reissues generated considerable money for the individual Badfinger members over the years after decades of minimal royalties.