[.ca] A World Without Love/I Don't Want to See You Again

The best Peter & Gordon album and a decent follow-up:
Those of us who grew up on the music of the Fifties and Sixties have been waiting a long time for our favorite albums to be available on CD. One of the problems was that "long-playing" records back them had about 10 or 12 tracks and the songs were all about two or three minutes long so that an entire album lasted about a half-hour. The good news is that this problem has been dealt with by the companies reissuing these albums on CD in two nice ways: tacking on some bonus tracks to the end of the album and/or putting two albums on one CD. This pair of Peter & Gordon albums does both, although there is but a single bonus track. "A World Without Love" is the title of both Peter & Gordon's biggest hit and their best album. The single, written by Lennon & McCartney, hit #1 on the pop charts in 1964. It was the first song from the British Invasion by a group other than the Beatles to reach the top of the charts. How did Peter Asher and Gordon Waller end up with an original song written by Paul McCartney? Because Paul was dating Linda Asher, sister of Peter. This explains why three other songs the Beatles never bothered to record made it on to Peter & Gordon albums as well. Two of those songs, "Nobody I Know" and "I Don't Want to See You Again," ended up on their 1965 follow-up album, which took the latter song as its title. Both of those songs cracked the Top 20. This pretty much explains the Peter & Gordon formula: record a Lennon & McCartney song, make it the title of your album, and sing like a Merseybeat version of the Everly Brothers. The results are not great, but certainly enjoyable. "A World Without Love" and "I Don't Want to See You Again" makes a nice combination of Peter & Gordon albums. The collection of tracks is not as good as one of their greatest hits collections (which usually put the three Lennon & McCartney songs up front) because you are missing "Lady Godiva" and "Woman," a McCartney song written under a pseudonym. But if you like the Peter & Gordon sound and want to get beyond the hits this is an obvious choice for your music library.

First two of six classic albums:
Peter and Gordon recorded six albums together in the mid-sixties. Collectables have released them all on three CD's, including as bonus tracks some singles that didn't appear on any of those original albums. This is the first pairing, containing the first and second of the six albums, with one bonus track (To show I love you). The songs are mainly soft, mid-tempo ballads. The major hits here are A world without love (number one in Britain and America), Nobody I know ( a top ten hit in Britain and a top twenty hit in America) and I don't want to see you again (a top twenty hit in America but a miss in Britain. Nevertheless, if you're thinking of buying this, it's the other tracks that you will be interested in, because you can buy a greatest hits collection if that's all you want.. Apart from the three major hits, this CD includes one minor American hit, To show I love you, written by Tony Hatch who made his name writing hits for Petula Clark. They wrote five original songs here (If I were you, You don't have to tell me, Love me baby, oft as the dawn, Leave me alone), which are enjoyable without being exceptional, rather like all the songs that they wrote for themselves. There are several covers, as you expect on original sixties albums - these include Lucille (Little Richard), Leave my woman alone (Ray Charles), 500 miles, Tell me how, All my trials and Freight train. They are from a variety of sources, yet they are all made to fit Peter and Gordon's easy going style, which contrasts nicely with a lot of the other (more generally upbeat) pop music of the time.

4.5 stars - two excellent albums:
A World Without Love (1964.) Peter And Gordon's first album. I Don't Wan't To See You Again (1965.) Peter And Gordon's second album. In the sixties, tons of pop-rock artists emerged from Great Britain. Though it's tough to remember many of them due to the enormous success of a few artists (Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc), their music was also excellent. Among these "forgotten" bands from the golden age of rock and roll was the pop duo Peter And Gordon. Although the duo's success would never come anywhere close to that of the more popular acts of the day, the songs they shelled out during their fairly short recording career were great. Read on for my review of the band's 1964 debut, A World Without Love, and their 1965 sophomore effort, I Don't Want To See You Again. Peter And Gordon's first album, A World Without Love, was released in 1964. The title track, which had been released as a single around the same time as the album, had some chart success. The track was written by Beatle Paul McCartney, with whom the duo had pretty close ties (he'd also write other songs for them.) This is, perhaps, the song that the boys are most recognized for these days, and why not? It's an excellent song. Although the only really popular track present on the album, it's not the only good one. The album opens with a cover of Little Richard's Lucille, which is a fast-paced bluesy rocker. The ballad 500 miles is also excellent, and worth checking out. Most of the tracks on the album are between two and three minutes long, and they vary from rockers to ballads, and everything in between you'd expect from a sixties pop duo. Overall, this is an excellent album. My rating for it is four and a half stars (out of five.) Next up we have the band's second LP, 1965's I Don't Want To See You Again. Although this LP had some chart success, it never quite measured up to the success of its predecessor. The title track to this release and Nobody I Know were, once again, songs the duo performed that were written for them by Paul McCartney. It's astonishing that McCartney chose NOT to record these songs with the Beatles, because they are VERY good! Oh, well. I don't think he could have given them to better musicians. Like the previous LP, this one has several Peter And Gordon originals, as well as a few covers. One of the covers is of the Willie Dixon tune, My Babe. Dixon was an inspiration to a number of rock stars, past and present, and Peter And Gordon prove to be no exception. Another excellent tune present is Freight Train. This song has somewhat of a country sound to it. Fusing different musical styles often has disastrous conseqences, but the boys manage to do it just fine. The sorrowful Lonely Avenue closes out the LP, and leaves a lasting impression on the listener. Once again, this is an LP that I give a rating of four and a half stars (out of five.) In addition to combining two wonderful albums on a single compact disc, the record company does you one more favor - you get a bomus track! To Show I Love You was a non-LP, single only track that was released in 1966. The song never made it onto an LP, which was unfortunate, because it's a very good song. Still, its inclusion on this release is questionable. I think it would have made more sense to put it on the I Go To Pieces/True Love Ways combo CD, since it was recorded in THAT era. Final verdict? Peter And Gordon are some of the finest musicians to have graced the 1960s with their musical abilities. If you're a fan of pop and/or rock from the sixties, give these guys a listen - I think you'll be glad you did.

• Lucille
• 500 Miles
• If I Were You
• Pretty Mary
• Trouble in Mind
• World Without Love
• Tell Me How
• You Don't Have to Tell Me
• Leave My Woman Alone
• All My Trials
• Last Night I Woke
• I Don't Want to See You Again
• Nobody I Know
• My Babe
• Willow Garden
• Two Little Love Birds
• Land of Oden
• Freight Train
• Love Me, Baby
• Soft as the Dawn
• Leave Me Alone
• Lonely Avenue
• To Show I Love You \o*\c