Biography
Peter Asher first rose to prominence as one half of the 1960s chart-topping duo Peter & Gordon before carving out an even more substantial career as a record producer. He was born in London on June 22, 1944, and was the older brother of Jane Asher, who maintained a long relationship with the Beatles’ Paul McCartney. While enrolled at Westminster School for Boys, he met fellow student Gordon Waller, and the two soon began performing together as a duo. His link to the Beatles proved pivotal, since the band regularly supplied Asher and Waller with unreleased Lennon-McCartney material, most famously their breakthrough 1964 single “World Without Love,” which carried a pronounced Beatles influence. After Peter & Gordon split in 1968, Asher was appointed director of A&R at Apple Records, the label founded by the Beatles, where he signed an unknown James Taylor and offered to produce the singer-songwriter’s first solo album. That record failed to connect commercially, yet Asher remained convinced of Taylor’s potential and resigned from Apple to relocate to the United States as Taylor’s manager, a relationship that continued for several decades. He also became one of the chief architects of the mellow California rock style that dominated the 1970s, helming projects for Linda Ronstadt, J.D. Souther, Andrew Gold, and Bonnie Raitt. In the following decade he continued to oversee hit albums for artists that ranged from Cher to 10,000 Maniacs.