(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please refer to the "Poor Little Fool" post)
Peter & Gordon - "A World Without Love"
Hit Number 1: June 27, 1964
Stay at Number 1: 1 Week
Even the Beatles' rejects were becoming #1 hits. Some people might not know that the song "A World Without Love" was written by Paul McCartney when he was 16, but was accredited to the Lennon-McCartney team. Obviously, McCartney thought that the song could be one for the Beatles to take a crack at, but John Lennon wasn't having it. He hated the opening line of the song "Please lock me away", because he couldn't take it seriously, and always found himself laughing at that first line. McCartney apparently agreed overtime that the line was pretty corny, and ultimately decided that the Beatles pass on it, and focus on other songs that the two wrote instead. Then, a 20 year old kid with glasses and bright red hair asked McCartney if he could record it.
That kid is Peter Asher, and he had just signed a record deal with a pal of his, Gordon Waller, after the two formed a singing duo named Peter & Gordon. At the time, McCartney was sharing a room with Asher, cause he was living with his then-girlfriend, and Peter's sister, Jane at her home. McCartney agreed to let the kid have a shot at it. This was after McCartney asked a singer named Billy J. Kramer if he would like to record it, but Kramer rejected it. Obviously I wouldn't be sitting here writing about it if it didn't, but "A World Without Love" ended up being huge, topping the charts in McCartney's, Asher's, and Waller's native land of the UK, along with the U.S., and even New Zealand. Obviously, it's pretty tough to hear any Beatles origins on the song, as I've known of this song's existence for a while, and I didn't know for the longest time that McCartney was the one that wrote it.
I think a reason why this song became so popular, is that it still was very different from what the public was getting sick of. It has the structure of how the British Invasion sounded, and anything related to that the public would go crazy over in 1964. In fact, there are little bits and pieces in "A World Without Love" that foreshadow what we would begin to hear later on. The first is the close harmony style that Peter & Gordon sing in, that future duos like Simon & Garfunkel became famous for, and the Hammond Organ that we will eventually here in this blog on "The House of the Rising Sun" and with groups like the Doors, who boasted a very underrated keyboard player in Ray Manzarek. It has that signature 60s sound. It's here that we really start to get away from the remaining sounds of the 1950s, and we are approaching the sound of the 60s that defines the decade.
"A World Without Love" is certainly a fine song, but it's also pretty easy to see why the Beatles decided to pass over it. It isn't a fun and lively song, and that's all the Beatles were interested in doing around this time. In fact, "A World Without Love" is a depressing as hell song. What's funny is that in just the last post, I went over "Chapel of Love", which was a cheerful song about marriage and the perfect wedding day. Well, "A World Without Love" is pretty much the polar opposite. It's a song about a guy who is in a deep depression because of him feeling alone and without a lover, so he asks that everyone leaves him alone, and just let him be his depressing self in his home. Until he meets his lover, that is. (You're not going to meet someone moping around in your home, my dude) But it has all the good qualities that a song needs. I like Peter & Gordon's harmonies, and the Hammond Organ solo is a great addition to it. It isn't the greatest thing Peter & Gordon have ever done, as I would have to give that to "I Go to Pieces" which is another depressing song, but it's more accurate on how a person feels after heartbreak, and in my opinion, is quite the haunting song. (It's an 8) With that being said, all the pieces are there on "A World Without Love" and it gives you some real insight on what we were just beginning to hear out of 60s music.
GRADE: 7/10
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