Best Selling Vinyl Records - I Go to Pieces / True Love Ways - Classic Love Songs for Romantic Evenings & Special Occasions

Peter and Gordon's two 1965 albums found them establishing their sound and beginning to experiment in new areas. The duo managed to have a major hit each year of the mid-60's that kept them current and allowed Capitol to continue releasing albums by them. Both of these albums made respectable showings in the Top quarter of Billboard's Top 200 LP's. Capitol released eleven albums by the duo counting the 1966 Best of and the non-charting albums, Sing the Hits of Nashville (1966), Knight In Rusty Armour (1967), In London for Tea(1967) and Hot Cold and Custard (1967). This was a really good run for a first wave British Invasion group. In Britain where albums contained more songs but were less frequent, EMI Columbia put out four.One thing you read in virtually anything written about Peter & Gordon is that they were bigger in America than in Britain.Though this is undoubtedly true about Chad & Jeremy, Peter & Gordon's 1965 singles seem to belie this. A World Without Love and Nobody I Know did about the same in both places. It's true that I Don't Want To see You Again and I Go To Pieces didn't chart in Britain and this is rather surprising since both are good songs.But True Love Ways (#14 in U.S. #2 in U.K.) and To Know You Is To Love You (#24 U.S. #5 U.K.) were obviously substantially bigger in Britain. Their hits were about even through Lady Godiva. The charts at least don't show any lack of appreciation of Peter & Gordon in Britain.I Go To Pieces was a remarkably good single. They were touring with Del Shannon and he offered the song to them. They sing it with a real feeling of pathos surrounded by a beautiful mix of guitars and keyboard with accenting horns as well. It also seemed to have a perfect sound for the winter (Jan. '66) season when it was released. The album is strong. They had really gotten their sound down by now. Though a duo, they didn't indulge in elaborate harmonies. In fact they did quite the opposite, usually singing in unison with the big difference between Peter's light tenor and Gordon's rich baritone creating the harmonic sound. This gave them a spacious sound that was amplified by considerable use of echo. Each soloed from time to time but neither one ever took over a song. It all worked, giving them a sound like no one else.I Go To Pieces is a more rocking album than their first two and even includes some blues-oriented material like Good Morning Blues and A Mess of Blues, both accented with harmonica and sung credibly (especially considering that they had only recently left London's Westminster School for Boys). There's some nice acoustic pop in songs like I Still Love You and also in their own compositions, Tears Don't Stop, If You Wish and I Don't Care What They Say. A mellow acoustic take on Elvis's All Shook Up works really well. Don't Pity Me has a fairly elaborate orchestral arrangement because it was single, and a rare one written by Asher/Waller, though it only made it to #54. My only criticism of the album is that except in the singles and the blues numbers the arrangements are fairly similar and rather quiet. as well. Many of the songs would have benefited by more care in the arrangements much as the title song had.True Love Ways was a really adventurous album for Peter & Gordon. From the opening country-styled ballad, Cry To Me, with an arrangement that includes strings, horns, backup singers and even a bassoon, it's a new sound for the duo, especially considering this is an album cut. It's followed by the big, and I do mean big, orchestral sound of To Know You Is To Love You, a re-imagining of Phil Spector's early hit with the Teddy Bears. After the brief folk interlude of I Told You So there's a truly wild take on Smokey Robinson's Who's Lovin' You. Chuck Jackson's 1962 hit, Any Day Now, a Burt Bacharach composition gets a solid upbeat treatment here. Hurtin' is Lovin' gets another unusual orchestral arrangement, this time including castanets. It's one of the more memorable Asher/Waller compositions. When the Black of Your Eyes Turns To Grey is countryish Asher/Waller with a truly spaced out electric guitar.True Love Ways ends the album even though it was the earlier of the LP's two hits. It introduced this new big orchestra sound that Peter & Gordon would take to real height's on 1966's Woman LP. There is a bonus track of Sunday For Tea, an odd choice considering it's from 1967 and unrelated to this period in Peter & Gordon's development. Collectables didn't do that album and chose only the six big ones, so I guess that's why it's here. Collectables did a good job on the sound here; this series was done more carefully in the sound engineering department than some earlier Collectables releases. The booklet notes are as meager as is usual for this label, even moreso because much of it reiterates what was said in the booklet of the first disc in the series. That's no reason not to get this, however, it's a solid release.