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Paul McCartney wrote a song for Peter Asher, and it did so well that it knocked The Beatlesā€˜ ā€œCanā€™t Buy Me Loveā€ off the charts. Asher got to know Paul well when he started dating his sister, Jane, in the early 1960s. Thanks to Paul and his song, Asherā€™s career skyrocketed.

Paul McCartney and Peter Asher in suits in 1969.
Paul McCartney with Peter Asher | Mirrorpix via Getty Images

Paul McCartney wrote many early Beatles songs while living with Peter Asher and his family

In The Beatlesā€™ early career,Ā their manager, Brian Epstein, arranged for them to move into a London apartment. However, Paul thought it was miserable.

InĀ The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul wrote that his then-girlfriend Jane Asher and her family mustā€™ve invited him to live in their fancy home in Marylebone after hearing him complain that the apartment ā€œhad no soul.ā€ Paul wrote, ā€œThis gesture was in the long tradition of giving a garret room to a starving artist.ā€

Paul lived in the attic next to Asher. He said it was a real eye-opening experience because heā€™d never been around classy people. Paul wrote, ā€œThe family knew all about art and culture and society, whereas Iā€™d never known anyone who knew about going for auditions, or had an agent.

ā€œIt was really nice staying in that house. Lots of books to read, art on the walls, interesting conversations; and Margaret was a music teacher. It was at least a home, and Iā€™d sorely missed that since Iā€™d come down from Liverpool and since my mum had died six or seven years before.ā€

Living at the Ashers,ā€™ Paul wrote many of The Beatlesā€™ early songs, including one for Jane, ā€œAnd I Love Her.ā€ Asher got to see the singer-songwriter in action.

Asher told Forbes, ā€œIt all goes back to Paul living at our family home in London, when he was going out with my sister. He and I shared the top floor. He was in the guest bedroom. We obviously got to know each other, and I heard a number of songs in various stages of being written.ā€

Another song Peter heard Paul work on was ā€œA World Without Love.ā€

Paul McCartney gave Peter Asher a song that knocked The Beatlesā€™ ā€˜Canā€™t Buy Me Loveā€™ off the charts

In The Lyrics, Paul wrote that ā€œCanā€™t Buy Me Loveā€ was a big deal for The Beatles. It reached No. 1 in the U.K. and the U.S. However, it was knocked off the No. 1 spot in the U.K. by ā€œA World Without Love,ā€ a song Paul wrote for Asher.

ā€œIā€™m pretty sure it made number one in the U.S. too,ā€ Paul wrote. ā€œThat was a song Iā€™d written when I was sixteen at home in Liverpool.

ā€œI didnā€™t think it was strong enough for The Beatles, but it did pretty well for Peter and Gordonā€™s career. The song starts off with the line ā€˜Please lock me away,ā€™ and when I would play it, John would respond, ā€˜Yes, okay,ā€™ and weā€™d joke that that was the end of the song.ā€

Peter told Forbes that after The Beatlesā€™ label, EMI, signed Asher and Gordon Waller, Asher remembered that Paul and John had the unfinished ā€œA World Without Love.ā€ He asked Paul for the song, but the bassist had to finish the missing bridge.

ā€œWhen the session was just a few days away, I had to nudge him,ā€ Peter said. ā€œFinally, he went into his room for an amazingly short eight minutes and came out with the bridge, ā€˜And so I wait, and in awhile/ I will see my true love smile.ā€™ It went on our list, and that was that.ā€

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Asher has Paulā€™s handwritten lyrics of ā€˜A World Without Loveā€™

In 2018, Asher told Express that Paul wrote the lyrics and chords of ā€œA World Without Loveā€ on a piece of paper for him. Asher joked that if things in the music business turn sour, heā€™ll sell them for a large sum.

ā€œYouā€™d better believe Iā€™ve locked it away in a safe for the time when the music business goes completely to hell and I can run to Sothebyā€™s like the wind,ā€ he laughed. Joking aside, Asher said, ā€œI owe Paul a huge debt of gratitude and it changed my life forever.ā€

Asher said he and Paul donā€™t see each other very often, but when they do, itā€™s ā€œvery friendly.ā€ The last time they met, he recalled, ā€œI said to him ā€˜Do you realise itā€™s 50 years since you gave us ā€˜World Without Loveā€™? If Iā€™ve forgotten to thank you in the interim, let me thank you now. Who knows what my career would be were it not for that song?'ā€

Paul was glad that Peter and Gordon got the success they deserved with ā€œA World Without Love.ā€ However, he definitely learned to make sure the songs he gave away and Beatles tunes didnā€™t come out simultaneously.