Peter Asher: Everywhere Man
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Run Time: 1 hour 57 minutes
Stars: Peter Asher, Steve Martin, Eric Idle, Jane Asher, Paul McCartney
Directors: Daniel Geller, Dayna Goldfine
The biggest Beatles hit that was never recorded by The Beatles has to be Paul McCartney’s “A World Without Love,” and if you don’t think you remember it, find the song on YouTube and listen to the first 10 seconds, after which the darned tune will stick in your brain for a good week or so.
John Lennon for some reason hated “A World Without Love,” and because The Beatles had a long-standing agreement that all tracks needed unanimous approval of the group, the song was seemingly stuck at the bottom of the “reject” pile.
But that’s where a kid named Peter Asher enters the picture. A good friend of McCartney’s – he was the brother of Paul’s then-girlfriend Jane Asher – Peter was one half of a struggling folk/rock duo called Peter and Gordon. Would it be okay, Asher asked Paul, if they slipped “A World Without Love” into their playlist?
“Be my guest,” said McCartney. And Peter and Gordon promptly rocketed to the top of the charts – dethroning The Beatles from the number-one spot with a song the Beatles had rejected.
It seemed like a one-off fluke, but as this tuneful, cheery documentary relates, Peter Asher’s early good fortune was just the first episode in a music industry career that found him absolutely always precisely where he needed to be at exactly the right moment.
Recognized by his long red hair and Buddy Holly-type spectacles, in the 1960s Asher seamlessly made the transition from top performer to in-demand record producer. (The film makes a convincing case that Mike Myers based his Austin Powers character on Flower Power-era Asher, a devotee of Carnaby Street style.)
Working at the Beatles’ Apple Corps offices in London, Asher hears a demo tape from a lanky kid named James Taylor and hauls him into the recording studio. Country boy Taylor proves a poor fit for Swinging London town, so the pair head for California where, maneuvering through the Laurel Canyon music scene, Asher throws a spotlight on the likes of Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Linda Ronstadt, helping them craft the California Sound.
But wait, there’s more: The film’s soundtrack rings with the music of a galaxy of Asher-produced luminaries including Cher, Diana Ross, Neil Diamond, Ringo Starr, Bonnie Raitt, and 10,000 Maniacs’ Natalie Merchant. (Album covers from his producer stints with Randy Newman, Olivia Newton-John, Sarah Brightman, Kenny Loggins, Robin Williams, and, most recently, Barbra Streisand, attest to his genre-crossing studio genius.) Old pals like Steve Martin and Monty Python’s Eric Idle drop by to josh and jam.
Peter Asher: Everywhere Man is framed by a filmed version of a retrospective show he’s been touring with in recent years. The format couldn’t be simpler: Asher stands onstage at a mic, backed up by a fine band, performing songs made famous by him and by others who were produced by him. Co-directors Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine (Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song) supplement that with generous vintage clips of Asher cruising through what has to be the most Zeligesque career in music history.
Unerring music instincts aside, Asher comes off as one of the music industry’s truly good guys. Self-effacing and deferential to the talents that he helped magnify, he shows enduring fondness for his 1960s bandmate, Gordon Waller, who plunged to profound personal and professional depths following the pair’s late-’60s breakup. Their 2005 benefit concert reunion is documented here; Waller would live just another four years, during which Asher repeatedly took time out from his day job as a music executive to perform one-night Peter and Gordon gigs, something he clearly did not have to do. In the film’s emotional highlight, a moment from his stage show, Asher stands onstage harmonizing the 1965 hit “True Love Ways” with a video version of his old friend.
As music legends line up to sing Asher’s praises; as music fans continue to buy albums he shaped; as his wife of 43 years, Wendy, speaks adoringly of her husband’s virtues; one thing is for sure: Peter Asher has not for one minute had to worry about living in a world without love.
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