Search - Peter & Gordon :: Woman / Lady Godiva

A couple of albums from Peter & Gordon's last stage

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 10/14/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you were wondering who were the first British Invasion group other than the Beatles to have a #1 in the United States the answer is Peter & Gordon, who scored with "A World Without Love." Of course that song was written by Lennon & McCartney because Paul McCartney was dating Jane Asher, the younger sister of Peter Asher who teamed with Gordon Waller to for this relatively successful pop duo. Peter & Gordon had three other Lennon & McCartney penned hits with "Nobody I Know," "I Don't Want to See You Again," and finally, "Woman," which is the title song for the first of the two albums included on this CD representing the latter part of their career. These are not consecutively produced Peter & Gordon albums, but I think the compatibility of the titles might have come into play here in deciding to pair these two up on one CD.



"Woman" was released in 1966 and the title track made it to #14. The song was written by "Bernard Webb," which was really Paul McCartney. Peter & Gordon were being dissed for having the Beatles write their hit songs, so McCartney created Webb as his Richard Backman and Peter & Gordon proved they could have some success without benefiting from the Lennon & McCartney names (a point that "Lady Godiva" would prove even better). The other minor hit from the album is "There's No Living Without Your Loving" (#50). But what stands out on this album are the collection of cover songs, which includes "The Green Leaves of Summer" from "The Alamo," "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)" from "High Noon," and "Somewhere" from "West Side Story." Then toss in another movie theme, "3:10 From Yuma," another Frankie Laine song that was also covered by Sandy Denny. These are interesting enough, but the one original Asher & Waller song, "Wrong From the Start," is the other really good song on the album besides the title track. "The Green Leaves of Summer" is the best of the covers, as you would expect knowing the song and the duo.



The 1967 album "Lady Godiva" continues in the same musical vein, with a cover of "Exodus," which is followed by other familiar songs like "When I Fall in Love" and "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing." This time there is nothing written by the Beatles for the boys but an over-orchestrated cover of "If I Fell," but Peter & Gordon sing a couple of songs the Beatles covered on their early albums with "A Taste of Honey" and "Till There Was You." The problem is that all this is getting too be a bit much at this point and if you want to try something interesting, program your CD player to lose the covers and turn these two average Peter & Gordon albums (which made it to #60 and #80 respectively on the Billboard album charts), into one rather decent one. The two original compositions by the duo, "The Morning's Calling" and "Star Trying Someone Else," are lesser efforts, which is why the novelty hit "Lady Godiva" (#6) stands out. This CD also has a pair of bonus tracks, with "Jokers" (#97) and Knight in Rusty Armour" (#15) the title song from another 1967 album, coming from singles also written by Mike Leander and Charlie Mills, who penned "Lady Godiva." With those additions and the fact you get two albums on one CD I can round up on this one, but it is a close call and only real Peter & Gordon fans are going to want to bother with this instead of a solid collection of their hits."

Last two albums from British invasion duo

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 08/18/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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 final pairing, containing the fifth and sixth of the six albums, with two bonus tracks (Jokers and Knight in rusty armour). The songs are mainly soft, mid-tempo ballads. The major hits here are the two title tracks, but if you're thinking of buying this, it's the other tracks that you will be interested in.Apart from the two major hits, this CD includes three minor hits (There's no living without your loving - a big British hit for Manfred Mann - and the two bonus tracks) and plenty of covers. They only wrote three original songs here (Wrong from the start, The morning's calling and Start trying someone else) which are enjoyable without being exceptional. Perhaps they didn't have time, or perhaps they didn't think their own songs were good enough to include more.The covers are from a variety of sources including R+B (Baby I'm yours), mucicals (Somewhere - from West side story), the Beatles (If I fell), folk (Green leaves of summer) and cowboy (High noon). 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."