Everywhere Man: The Lives and Times of Peter Asher (documentary)
Directed by Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine
Produced by Geller/Goldfine Productions (distributed by Greenwich Entertainment)
There aren’t many big-name pop music performers who go on to become topnotch producers. Trent Reznor, Dr. Dre, Brian Eno, Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, Dave Grohl, Prince, Todd Rundgren. A few others.
But only one that we’re aware of emerged from the British Invasion with at least 10 hits reaching the Billboard charts and one song hitting number 1, spawning a multinational tour and a period of Swinging Sixties superstardom.
That would be Peter Asher, one half of Peter and Gordon, whose Lennon-McCartney-penned hit “A World Without Love” caught fire in early 1964—just as another British band involving John and Paul entered the stratosphere. McCartney not only wrote songs for Asher and Gordon Waller (a handful of others charted for the duo as well), but he actually lived in the Asher family home for a few years as the Beatles got on their feet financially.
Oh, and Paul dated Peter’s film star sister, Jane Asher, to whom he is said to have dedicated Fab Four gems like “All My Loving” and “And I Love Her.” More than a few Beatles mega-hits were written in the Asher home and hammered out on the family piano.
You might see where we are headed with this, with the above thumbnail barely scratching the surface of a short period of time in the mid-1960s. Asher went on, in 1968, to become the A&R man at the Beatles’ nascent record label, Apple, signing none other than James Taylor as the company’s first artist. Into the ‘70s, he shaped the California rock scene by producing for Linda Ronstadt, JD Souther, Carole King, Andrew Gold, Jackson Browne, and Bonnie Raitt, among others, while partnering with the likes of David Geffen.
So it’s forgivable that Asher’s first couple of decades are the top-heavy subject of the documentary Everywhere Man: The Lives and Times of Peter Asher, is set to open nationally on June 26.
In the late ‘80s and through the ‘90s and early aughts, Asher worked with Cher, 10,000 Maniacs, Diana Ross, Neil Diamond, Olivia Newtown-John, Randy Newman, Kenny Loggins, Wilson Phillips, Lyle Lovett, and the comedians Robin Williams and Steve Martin (the latter with Edie Brickell), and others.
As late as 2025, he put out a record for Barbra Streisand. But filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine chose to concentrate on the ‘60s and ‘70s, and you can see why. Asher’s presence in those music scenes was remarkable, from Abbey Road to the iconic Atlantic Records building in Los Angeles. The guy knew everyone, and according to Geller and Goldfine, almost everyone thought he was a fine fellow, down for the hard work of fine-tuning a masterpiece LP or partaking in a sublime mind-altering drug or two.
Along the way, he helped shape popular culture, and he may or may not be to blame for the breakup of Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger or the marriage of Lennon and Yoko Ono.
In the ‘60s, Asher wore geeked-out heavy glasses and sported the florid fashions of a sophisticated Brit hipster, later supposedly serving as a model for the fictional Austin Powers (the side-by-side photos are hysterical and almost identical). In the ‘70s, he was instrumental in crafting the sound and image of American singers and songwriters like Taylor and Ronstadt, marrying country and rock melodies to timeless voices.
The movie is not without flaws of omission. “We couldn’t include everything,” Goldfine told an audience recently at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, where the film was screened as part of the Cleveland International Film Festival. Indeed, the word “lives” in the title is a nod to the fact that two hours seems a pretty short window for a cat like Asher.
But viewed more as a cinematic memoir than as a documentary, it’s a joy for music fans. You don’t begrudge a guy like Asher his incredible luck in having intellectual and influential parents, especially when it just so happens that his mother, Margaret Asher, once taught music to a young George Martin, later known as “the fifth Beatle,” so great was his producing prowess.
You can’t very well hold it against a guy who counts Eric Idle as one of his best friends (the Monty Python legend has a significant role in the film, saying that becoming world famous by singing a McCartney song “was a very clever thing to do.”). And it wasn’t Asher’s doing that he and his attractive sisters all had ginger locks, helping to secure them child stardom status in England even before adolescence.
The backbone of the movie is a set of filmed scenes at a cabaret show that Asher has put on in years past about his life and career, in particular at the historic Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco. Invited there by Ronstadt in 2019, Geller and Goldfine realized the show was a goldmine, with mentions of, or appearances by, all of the above names and more, from Pattie Boyd to Martin to Twiggy.
One of myriad details of his work mentioned in the film is that Asher is credited as the first producer to list all musicians—studio hands as well as bandmates—on album covers or liner notes. The practice became an industry standard, and meant a world of difference to trusted pros like guitarists Waddy Wachtel and Danny Kortchmar and drummer Ross Kunkel.
Press materials for the documentary call Asher an “elfin septuagenarian British gentleman wearing a dazzling suit,” which is charmingly true, but more to the point, “a master raconteur.” And this is the sweet spot of the effort—Asher, in his clipped, hurried and husky elocution, dressed in colorful but somehow tasteful outfits, spinning self-deprecating yarns that land with the timing of a seasoned comic performer, is irresistible.
If you’re like this critic, you might seek out even more from Asher. To that end, and if you’re a Beatles aficionado, find an audiobook version of his 2019 offering, The Beatles from A to Zed: An Alphabetical Mystery Tour, which he narrates in his own voice. It’s a delightful retrospective of the music, styles, and influences of the quartet, along with the solo careers of each, and includes many of Asher’s personal recollections, opinions and anecdotes.
Author Bio:
Thomas J. Walsh, a Highbrow Magazine contributor, is a Cleveland-area writer, editor, and communications manager. A Navy veteran, he sits on the board of the VA’s Center for Healthcare Evaluation, Research & Promotion. He has been a staffer for several major metropolitan newspapers and various other online publications.
For Highbrow Magazine