In 1964 Paul McCartney was writing number 1 hit songs for artists other than The Beatles, including the song A World Without Love for Peter and Gordon, one of the two Lennon-McCartney songs recorded by artists other than The Beatles to make number 1 in the U.S. At the time Paul was dating Jane Asher, sister of Peter and Gordon's Peter Asher, who in recent shows has been featuring a 30-second snippet of the demo, the first occasion where this demo has been made public, which has evaded bootleggers for nearly 50 years.

The home demo began appearing online in January 2013, 49 years to the month after it had been recorded. The version by Peter and Gordon was recorded on January 21, 1964 at Abbey Road Studios (producer: Norman Newell) and released on February 28, with If I Were You as the B-side (written by Peter and Gordon). The song made number 1 in the UK in April 1964 and number 1 in the U.S. in June.

McCartney wrote the song in the 1950s at age 16. When Peter and Gordon were signed to Capitol Records, McCartney offered them the song. At the time McCartney and Peter Asher were sharing a room on the top floor of the Asher home in London where Paul's girlfriend Jane Asher also lived.

The Beatles never recorded a version of the song, and the demo has been in the possession of Peter Asher, who began including it in his recent run of shows.





Peter and Gordon version (stereo):





The B-side, If I Were You (mono version from the 1966 Capitol LP The Best of Peter & Gordon):





Performing the A-side on the UK children's comedy/variety show Crackerjack in 1964, with an introduction by Eamon Andrews:





On the U.S. show Shindig on February 17, 1965:





Various 45 rpm sleeves of the single:













Sheet music for A World Without Love issued by Campbell Connelly & Co. Ltd., UK, 1964:



Two different sleeves of the Capitol Records release of Peter and Gordon's debut album:






Paul McCartney and Peter Asher.

Further details at: [www.rollingstone.com]

Fascinating story. I often wondered what happened to the demo of that song as all the other McCartney song demos for other artists such as Goodbye for Mary Hopkin have surfaced.

On another point - is it not odd that Paul, while enjoying immense fame already in 64, was sharing a room with Peter Asher. I thought he lived in his own "garrett" at the Asher's magnificent house in Harley Street.

He probably wanted instead to be as close to Jane as possible, on a daily basis. Already at 21 (he moved in to the Asher family home in 1963), his later penchant for settled domesticity was showing.

It'd be great if the demos were all collected on official release (of all the McCartney demos of pre-Sgt. Pepper Lennon-McCartney songs written for other artists as well as the Beatles). Would show McCartney's songwriting talent like never before (he seemed to pick up speed following AHDN album and would come up with a ton of songs, good or bad).

McCartney sang a version of P & G's 'Woman' in January, 1969 at Twickenham Studios I believe. But I wonder if there's an earlier demo abailable.

"World Without Love" is one of the best things that Paul ever wrote, and one of the highlights of the British Invasion.

I wish Paul would do a set of some of the songs he gave away during his concerts: He could play this, "Come and Get It" and "Goodbye" (the Mary Hopkins song). All great stuff.


And I'd love to hear him cover George's song, "Blow Away."


Do it Paul!


(Let's hear "Single Pigeon" too!)

The year the song was released, several cover versions were recorded and released by various artists, among them The Supremes, who scored a top 10 hit with A World Without Love in such markets as Hong Kong and the Philippines. The song was part of their 1964 British Invasion tribute album A Bit of Liverpool (released October 16; #21 Billboard Top 200). In the UK, the album was titled With Love (From Us To Yout).

So were all songs released by other artist credited to Lennon/McCartney even if they were written individually? Seems weird if Paul wrote this song at age 16 that it would be a Lennon/McCartney credit? Were there any Lennon songs credited this way, too?

Yes, the shared credit was their agreement, whether within or outside of The Beatles.

There was also indeed a Lennon composition credited this way as well.

Lennon wrote the song Bad To Me for fellow Liverpool singer Billy J. Kramer in 1963, and it went to number 1 in the UK after being recorded by Kramer with his band The Dakotas. Bad To Me was credited to Lennon-McCartney, though it was written solely by Lennon.

This is the original Lennon demo, with acoustic guitar and a second guitar and voice which may be Paul, recorded on May 31, 1963:





The Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas version:





The B-side was also a Lennon-McCartney composition, later recorded by The Beatles for inclusion on their Long Tall Sally EP, I Call Your Name. Both the A- and B-sides were produced by George Martin at Abbey Road Studios and released on July 26, 1963 in the UK and later in 1964 in the U.S., where it reached the top 10, peaking at number 9 on the Billboard singles chart. Bad To Me became the first Lennon-McCartney composition to break the U.S. top 40 singles chart by an artist other than The Beatles:






Billy J. Kramer in 1965.

Incidentally, Peter and Gordon were not the first to be offered the song A World Without Love. It was initially offered to Kramer, who was also managed by Brian Epstein. Kramer turned it down.



Interestingly, McCartney did not think the song was good enough for The Beatles. Perhaps he felt insecure about it since having written it at such a young age.

Man, listening to that raw recording shows what a melodic and chordal genius Macca is...not that I needed any reaffirmation...but wow. Among the best ever.

Quote
DGA35
So were all songs released by other artist credited to Lennon/McCartney even if they were written individually? Seems weird if Paul wrote this song at age 16 that it would be a Lennon/McCartney credit? Were there any Lennon songs credited this way, too?

Paul got solo credit for The Family Way soundtrack in '67, and also had a solo credit for Badfinger's "Come and Get It" in 1970.

While generous John gave his Plastic Ono Band's "Give Peace a Chance" a Lennon/McCartney credit in 1969.

wow, world without love. thanks for sharing.
wasn't paul engaged to jane asher awhile? remember reading accounts they were 'deeply in love.'

Yes, Paul was exclusive with Jane Asher through most of the decade--until he began an affair with American Francie Schwartz.

She announced her split from McCartney publicly on television on July 20, 1968:

"I haven't broken it off, but it is broken off, finished.

I know it sounds corny, but we still see each other and love each other, but it hasn't worked out. Perhaps we'll be childhood sweethearts and meet again and get married when we're about 70."

--from the BBC program Dee Time

In the Anthology book, Paul had this to say:

"I always feel very wary including Jane in The Beatles; history. She's never gone into print about our relationship, whilst everyone on earth has sold their story. So I'd feel weird being the one to kiss and tell.

We had a good relationship. Even with touring there were enough occasions to keep a reasonable relationship going. To tell the truth, the women at that time got sidelined. Now it would be seen as very chauvinist of us. Then it was like: 'We are four miners who go down the pit. You don't need women down the pit, do you? We won't have women down the pit.' A lot of what we, The Beatles, did was very much in an enclosed scene. Other people found it difficult - even John's wife, Cynthia, found it very difficult - to penetrate the screen that we had around us. As a kind of safety barrier we had a lot of 'in' jokes, little signs, references to music; we had a common bond in that and it was very difficult for any 'outsider' to penetrate. That possibly wasn't good for relationships back then."

Further details at: [www.beatlesbible.com]

Here's a clip chronicling their 5-year relationship in photos, set to Beatles music:





Here's an interview with Paul and Jane dating from March 26, 1968, upon their return from India:

Jane Asher in the Old Guys.

While generous John gave his Plastic Ono Band's "Give Peace a Chance" a Lennon/McCartney credit in 1969.[/quote]

it wasn´t generousity, paul helped john recording the ballad of j&y, and this was his thank you..

Quote
bluesinc.
While generous John gave his Plastic Ono Band's "Give Peace a Chance" a Lennon/McCartney credit in 1969.

Quote

it wasn´t generousity, paul helped john recording the ballad of j&y, and this was his thank you..

I don't think it was that simple.

Lennon and McCartney worked together a fair bit on the earlier songs and the songs were just lumped as Lennon/McCartney probably for legal/business convenience (much like Jagger/Richards) and changing this later on after it had already been setup would probably have required a fair bit of legal/business stuff.

[en.wikipedia.org]

Give Peace a Chance
Released 4 July 1969 (UK) 7 July 1969 (US)

Give Peace a Chance falls within the Northern songs contract period before the Beatles sold off.

[en.wikipedia.org]

Northern Songs was a limited company founded in 1963, by music publisher Dick James, Brian Epstein, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, to publish songs written by Lennon and McCartney, as well as songs written by George Harrison and Ringo Starr, who were all members of the Beatles.

Under their publishing contract with Northern Songs, Lennon and McCartney were legally bound to continue their songwriting until 1973. The solution, if they could not gain control, was to sell out to ATV, while still receiving the writer's royalties from their published songs. Lennon and McCartney sold their stock (Lennon's 644,000, and McCartney's 751,000, as he had secretly bought additional shares) in October 1969,[29] for £3.5 million ($5,738,250).[28] Starr chose to keep his shares (0.8%),[30] but Harrison had already sold his 40,000 shares (0.8%) in June 1969, saying,"and paid the capital gains tax",[31] referring to his song, "Taxman".[32]



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 2013-08-13 11:49 by howled.

Del Shannon recorded a cover of A World Without Love that same year.







Peter and Gordon returned the favor the following year, recording a song Del Shannon wrote called I Go To Pieces (UK release date: September 1964; U.S. release date: December 1964; recorded at Abbey Road Studios, with producer John Burgess), which became a top 10 hit in early 1965 peaking at #9 on the Billboard singles chart. Shannon gave the song to the duo after they had toured Australia together in the second half of 1964 on a bill that also included The Searchers. I Go To Pieces became Peter and Gordon's second U.S. top 10 single.





Performing the B-side at the Lock 3 Amphitheater in Akron, Ohio, in 2006:





Performing the A-side on the U.S. television show Shindig on February 3, 1965:





Performing the A-side in 2006 at Lock 3 in Akron, Ohio:

Awesome thread. I've been trying to find that McCartney version of "Woman." I heard it recently on a Beatles radio show, and it was incredible. Any idea where I could dig it up?

There is an unreleased acetate of Woman, featuring two different mixes of the December 1, 1965 recording session and which features McCartney playing drums. The acetate was put up for sale on eBay on August 4. This must surely be the earliest known example of McCartney playing drums on a recording. The Soundcloud link below provides a 35-second clip of the first remix:

[soundcloud.com]

Here is a link for the August 5 story from the Examiner reporting on the find:

[www.examiner.com]

Bidding on eBay for the previously unreleased acetate of the December 1, 1965 recording session of the song Woman by Peter and Gordon with the song's composer Paul McCartney on drums ended on August 11.

There were a total of 26 bids since the two-track (one song with two different mixes) disc went up for sale on eBay on August 4.

The winning bid was for GBP 1,659.09 (approximately US $2,568.27), plus GBP 19.99 for shipping (Parcelforce Global Express) from Wetherby, UK.

Full details at: [www.ebay.com]

The disc is in the 7" format.

U.S.-born singer Bobby Rydell also recorded a cover of A World Without Love, taking the song to number 50 on the U.S. Billboard singles chart in May 1964, a month before the Peter and Gordon version would be topping the U.S. singles charts. Interestingly, both versions entered the Billboard Hot Top 100 on the same day (May 9).





Apparently the Beatles song She Loves You was written with Rydell in mind, according to what Paul McCartney revealed in the Beatles' Anthology book:

"John (Lennon) and I wrote "She Loves You" together. There was a Bobby Rydell song out at the time and, as often happens, you think of one song when you write another. We’d planned an 'answering song' where a couple of us would sing 'she loves you' and the other ones would answer 'yeah yeah.' We decided that was a crummy idea but at least we then had the idea of a song called "She Loves You." So we sat in the hotel bedroom for a few hours and wrote it— John and I, sitting on twin beds with guitars.”

According to The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz, McCartney modeled She Loves You on the Rydell "answering song" Swingin' School from 1959.






Bobby Rydell in 1960.

Here is a clip of Peter Asher from earlier this year discussing the McCartney demo for A World Without Love and presenting it before a live audience.