Barely twelve months from their first number one, it's fascinating to note just how quickly and deeply The Beatles managed to entrench themselves in the world of popular music. Even when not releasing songs under their own name, the tentacles of Lennon and McCartney's influence are everywhere, not least in this piece of rampant nepotism - 'A World Without Love' was written by Paul McCartney with the 'Peter' of the duo being the brother of his then girlfriend Jane Asher. With that pedigree behind it then this was never going to struggle, but I can't say that 'A World Without Love' has ever been something I've cared for.McCartney's lyric ("Please lock me away, and don't allow the day here inside, where I hide with my loneliness") was stiff enough from birth, but Peter and Gordon apply yet more splints by delivering it with all the over earnest, faux worldly wise tone of the barely 20, ex-public schoolboys they were. The tune throws it a rubber ring with some sparkling guitar lines and constant 'boom, boom boom' 'Be My Baby' drum beating in the background which try to coax the song out to play despite Pete and Gord's strict parent attempts to keep it locked indoors to do its homework. That they don't quite succeed means that 'A World Without Love' remains functional at best - as I've said, the Beatles connection helped enormously to keep superior offerings from The Hollies and the Dave Clark Five stalled at number two, but it's precisely this connection that invites comparison to the songs they kept for themselves, songs in whose long shadow this pales.
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