Song of the Day 12/5: Peter and Gordon, “World Without Love”

Guest post by Nathan Arizona

When the sister of aspiring musician Peter Asher started bringing her boyfriend to hang around the house, her brother had somebody to talk music with. The bloke’s name was Paul McCartney and he had already gotten his own career off to a good start in a band he put together with a guy name John.

McCartney had written a song John Lennon didn’t like much, so he gave it to Peter to see if he could do something with it. Peter got his first hit out of it — and a really big one, too. McCartney almost got his first wife, until Jane Asher dumped him years later on live TV.

Asher and singing partner Gordon Waller released the song, “A World Without Love,” in 1963 as Peter and Gordon. They wafted vocal harmonies over their sweetly strummed guitars and rode the song to No. 1 both here and the UK. It was one of the most successful tunes of the British Invasion. A similar duo, Chad and Jeremy, scored around the same time with “Yesterday’s Gone” and “A Summer Song.” It wasn’t always easy to remember which pair was which.

Peter and Gordon followed with “Lady Godiva” and a few other hits. They broke up in 1968, but Asher himself kept going and became one of the most important figures in the pop-rock music business. He was soon heading up the A&R department at Apple Records, where he signed and produced James Taylor. He then moved to Los Angeles and became a go-to producer and manager, dealing with the likes of Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Natalie Merchant and Kenny Loggins.

Working behind the scenes suited him. He didn’t exactly cut a dashing front-man figure (although lookalike fellow ginger Ed Sheeran has done pretty well in that role). Asher has always insisted he was the visual model for Mike Myers’ Austin Powers

Asher did pick up the mic a few years ago after Waller’s death to perform concerts with Jeremy Clyde, who had been half of Chad and Jeremy. So, yes, there was a Peter and Jeremy, too.

Here’s “A World Without Love,” the highest charting Beatles song they never released themselves. It’s not hard to imagine them doing this one.. Session man Vic Flick played the guitar solo. He did the same on the James Bond theme and other well-down songs of the era.

Bobby Rydell covered the song with Philly flare. Maybe too much. But he did have the pipes.

Here are rivals Chad and Jeremy with their big hit. Bonus (I guess): Introduction by Dick Clark. You can decide who wins this battle of fresh-faced duos.