Some of you will be too young to remember the “British Invasion” when the Beatles opened the floodgates in the early ‘60s for other British pop groups and dominated the charts and concert stages. Certainly the Rolling Stones were part of it, but really they, like the Beatles, occupied their own shelf. But the pop beat was shared by Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Hollies, Herman’s Hermits led by Peter Noone (now a DJ on the Sirius ‘60s channel), Freddy and the Dreamers (remember a dance called the Freddie that made you look like an uncoordinated windmill?), the Searchers, Chad and Jeremy, and my favorites, Peter and Gordon.
Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine have gifted us with a love song to Peter Asher, the Peter of Peter and Gordon, a man who is more than the sum of his parts. Definitely not an up-from-the-wrong- side-of-the-tracks character, Peter’s father was a well-known physician and his mother a cello professor at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Peter and his sisters Clare and Jane, known as the Redheads of Wimpole Street, began acting at an early age, racking up credits in movies and TV. By adolescence, Peter had tired of it, but sister Jane continued on, gaining fame as a movie actress and television personality, and even more famously for my generation, as the girl who took Paul McCartney out of circulation.
School was on Peter’s horizon, and he attended secondary school at the Westminster School where he met Gordon Waller. They immediately gravitated to one another through music and were soon harmonizing and catching the odd gig at local cafes. One fateful evening while they were performing covers of the Everly Brothers, their idols in harmony, a producer in the audience bounded up to them and asked if they’d like to do a try-out recording session at a nearby studio. Oh, he mentioned, the covers are fine, but if you had any original material, he’d love to hear that as well. Original material? They sang but didn’t write. He wondered if his sister’s boyfriend, Paul McCartney, might have something for them. Paul, who was then living in the Ashers’ basement, said he had just the thing, something he wrote but John hated, “World Without Love.” Thus was born the career of Peter and Gordon because they became an immediate hit duo with that song. Jane and Paul may have broken up by 1968, but before that he gifted Peter and Gordon with three other unrecorded Lennon and McCartney songs: “Nobody I Know,” “I Don’t Want to See You Again” and “Woman.”
To quote another contemporaneous duo, Chad and Jeremy, “They say that all good things must end someday” and they did in 1968 when Gordon decided he wanted to go off as a solo. Peter didn’t. He was more interested in the producing end of the business. Expert at putting together the right musicians to play backup for others, this talent did not go unnoticed and he was soon recruited by Lennon and McCartney to head up A&R (Artists and Repertoire—finding talent and developing it) at their new label, Apple Records. One of his first finds was James Taylor, trying to kickstart a solo career after flaming out in New York. He became the first non-British artist signed to the label, and Asher made him his personal project. When Taylor’s first album was commercially unsuccessful, Asher quit Apple to become Taylor’s full-time manager and producer. The result of that collaboration was “Sweet Baby James,” the album that made him a superstar. Asher’s unerring eye and ear had paired Taylor with Carole King on piano. King, one of the most storied pop composers of the ‘50s and ‘60s, had yet to launch a solo career but when she did, with Tapestry, it was Asher who produced it.
Asher was an enormous success, both in managing talent, producing records and even, for short stints as president of his own music label and an art gallerist. Singularly noted by everyone who worked with him were his loyalty, trust and ethics. Having recognized Linda Ronstadt’s talent early on, producing her first hit, “Heart Like a Wheel,” he refused to manage her because, at the time, he was managing James Taylor’s sister Kate. He felt that it would be unfair to put them in competition with one another. The problem was quickly solved because Kate had tired of the life and encouraged him to sign Linda. Their relationship, like the one he had with Taylor, was interrupted only when he joined Sony as an executive vice president of A&R.
Asher is the equivalent of a polymath in music. Management and producing are his main loves and Sony didn’t fulfill that need. He needed to be more hands on and becoming co-president (eventually sole president) of Sanctuary Management brought him back the necessary personal control he needed. Sanctuary became not just a talent management company but also a record label, touring business, with publishing and merchandising also in the mix; a one-stop shop for the talent handled by the company. And what talent. Not only did Taylor and Ronstadt come back to Asher, but also Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Randy Newman, not to mention the talent that had already signed like Elton John, Fleetwood Mac and the still rocking ZZ Top. The list of artists he has produced is too numerous to mention here. Filled with music, one of the many joys of the film is the interviews with the stars he worked with. He’s someone who’s loved and who you would love to meet.
But this documentary isn’t or shouldn’t be about counting the “greatest hits.” It’s about the extraordinary life of a public school (in Britain that means posh private school) boy gone bad in a very very good way. When one career ended he picked up another and another and another and succeeded wildly while being true to himself and the others he guided. He would never say he did this alone. The film opens on a quote: “Obviously a great deal of everything is luck—except there is no such thing. The skill is in taking advantage of what does come your way.” He has moved seamlessly throughout the world he created and the one he graciously created for others. Having once met him at a reception, I can personally attest to the fact that this delightful elfin man with the sparkling eyes has time for anyone who approaches him. Should his one-man memoir show called “A Musical Memoir of the ‘60s and Beyond” ever pop up in Los Angeles again, I’ll be first in line. Or maybe, luck will play a hand and I’ll spot him in Venice where he lives and thank him for the music.
Don’t miss this joyful celebration of a man and the music he helped create.
Now playing at the Laemmle Royal, with video on demand in August.
Neely Swanson spent most of her professional career in the television industry, almost all of it working for David E. Kelley. In her last full-time position as Executive Vice President of Development, she reviewed writer submissions and targeted content for adaptation. As she has often said, she did book reports for a living. For several years she was a freelance writer for “Written By,” the magazine of the WGA West, and was adjunct faculty at USC in the writing division of the School of Cinematic Arts. Neely has been writing film and television reviews for the “Easy Reader” for more than 10 years. Her past reviews can be read on Rotten Tomatoes where she is a tomatometer-approved critic.
