Track 12 from Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying (1964)

Track 13 from Gerry And The Pacemakers' Second Album (1964)

Tracks 27 and 28 from 20 Year Anniversary Album (1982)

Gerry & The Pacemakers are interesting from a historical perspective largely in relation to The Beatles. Both groups were from Liverpool, were managed by Brian Epstein, performed regularly at the Cavern Club, recorded for EMI, were produced by George Martin, and began topping the UK charts in the spring of 1963. The first of the three consecutive #1s that kicked off their career, "How Do You Do It" penned by Mitch Murray, went to Gerry & The Pacemakers only after The Beatles recorded it and convinced Martin that their first single should be "Love Me Do" instead. 

In a way, they feel like a control in any thought experiment about The Beatles' career -- if they weren't prolific songwriters who quickly began experimenting with new sounds, perhaps they would've faded from the charts and split up around 1966 like Gerry & The Pacemakers. But it's unfair to Marsden to say he was just the kid from Liverpool who got lucky for a few years that Lennon and McCartney turned out not to be -- some of the Pacemakers' biggest hits were covers, but he wrote "Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying" and several other hits, and deep cuts like "It's Happened To Me," "Don't You Ever" and "This Thing Called Love" are a testament to his songwriting talent. Incidentally, the other day I watched the movie Never Rarely Sometimes Always and there's a pretty moving performance of "Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying" by actress Sidney Flanagan. 

Gerry & The Pacemakers were a 'beat' group, but they leaned a little more towards pop crooners like Bobby Darin in their repertoire, in addition to playing some of the same R&B tunes as The Beatles like Arthur Alexander's "A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues." How Do You Like It? and the soundtrack to their Hard Day's Night-style movie Ferry Cross The Mersey were the only UK full-lengths from the band's original '60s run, while various songs from albums, singles and EPs were combined into the U.S. albums Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying, Second Album, I'll Be There, and Girl On A Swing -- interestingly they had a little more staying power in America than they did in the UK. Marsden periodically released music as a solo artist or under the Pacemakers name, including 20 Year Anniversary Album, which includes re-recordings of some of their '60s hits as well as covers of the Tennessee Ernie Ford b-side "Give Me Your Word" and a rendition of "Whiter Shade Of Pale" that is surprisingly among the top Gerry & The Pacemakers tracks on Spotify today.