Gordon Waller, of Peter and Gordon

July 21, 2009
Gordon Waller, a Partner in the Band Peter and Gordon, Dies at 64
By DOUGLAS MARTIN

Gordon Waller, who formed half of Peter and Gordon, a successful pop duo that followed the Beatles to America as part of the British Invasion of the 1960s and that scored a No. 1 hit with “A World Without Love,” died on Friday in Norwich, Conn. He was 64 and lived in Ledyard, Conn.

His death was announced on the official Peter and Gordon Web site, peterandgordon.net. It gave the cause as cardiac arrest.

Mr. Waller and Peter Asher played acoustic guitars and brought vocal harmonies reminiscent of the Everly Brothers to their own synthesis of folk, blues and rock ’n’ roll. An important ingredient in their success was a steady supply of songs written by Paul McCartney that the Beatles themselves did not record.

By October 1963, Mr. McCartney was dating Mr. Asher’s sister, the actress Jane Asher, and Peter and Gordon had signed a record contract with EMI. They turned to Mr. McCartney to provide a song for them. Knowing he was writing “A World Without Love,” they asked him to finish it for them so they could record it.

The tune became a Top 10 hit in Britain, where it displaced the Beatles’ own “Can’t Buy Me Love” on the charts. It was then issued on the Capitol label in the United States, where it became one of the most successful singles of 1964.

The song, a lilting, plaintive ballad, opens with the lyrics, “Please lock me away/And don’t allow the day/Here inside, where I hide with my loneliness/I don’t care what they say, I won’t stay/In a world without love.”

Peter and Gordon toured the United States and appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and other network variety shows — part of a wave of British groups that swept the United States, among them Chad and Jeremy, the Dave Clark Five and Herman’s Hermits.

Two more McCartney songs that year brought Peter and Gordon even more success: “Nobody I Know” and “I Don’t Want to See You Again.” (Though Mr. McCartney has been widely cited as having written all these songs, he shared credit with John Lennon, their practice at the time.)

Another hit for the duo was Mr. McCartney’s “Woman” (1966), which he wrote under the pseudonym Bernard Webb to see if he could score a hit without the Lennon-McCartney names attached.

Peter and Gordon toured with the Beatles and other big-name groups, like the Rolling Stones. They had at least nine hits, including Del Shannon’s “I Go to Pieces,” the Buddy Holly song “True Love Ways,” “Lady Godiva” and “Knight in Rusty Armor,” all from the mid-60s.

Gordon Trueman Riviere Waller was born in Braemar, Scotland, on June 4, 1945. He attended the Westminster School in London, where he met Mr. Asher. Of the two, Mr. Waller had the greater interest in rock ’n’ roll at first, and he converted Mr. Asher from “a snooty jazz fan to a true rock ’n’ roll believer as well,” Mr. Asher said in a statement.

The boys got guitars and were soon violating the school’s 9 p.m. curfew by sneaking out to play in coffeehouses and nightclubs. That involved climbing a 12-foot-high, spike-topped wall. They were originally known as Gordon and Peter.

“I am just a harmony guy and Gordon was the heart and soul of our duo,” Mr. Asher wrote.

By late 1967, the hits were no longer coming, and both singers were enjoying the work less, Mr. Asher said in a recent interview with classicbands.com. They split in 1968. Mr. Asher went on to manage stars like James Taylor and produce records, while Mr. Waller tried singing as a solo act.

In the 1970s, Mr. Waller played the part of Pharaoh in the musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” in productions in London and Australia, and released a solo album titled “and Gordon.” He later ran a music publishing business.

In recent years, Mr. Waller and Mr. Asher reunited to perform occasionally as Peter and Gordon.

Mr. Waller is survived by his wife, Jen, whom he married in 2008, and two daughters from an earlier marriage, The Guardian in London reported.

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