What the World Needs Now Is Love
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"What the World Needs Now Is Love" is a 1965 popular song with lyrics by Hal David and music composed by Burt Bacharach. It was first recorded, and made popular by Jackie DeShannon. The song reached number 7 in the US charts May of that year.
It has been recorded by over a hundred artists, notably Dionne Warwick, Wynonna Judd, The Carpenters, Diana Ross, McCoy Tyner, The Supremes, Barry Manilow, Ed Ames and Luther Vandross. It even made the country charts by a little known singer/songwriter, Ron Shaw, on the Pacific Challenger label in the late 1970s.
It was a top 5 song in American Idol season 2 in 2003.
Contents |
[edit] Tom Clay version
| “What the World Needs Now Is Love” | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Tom Clay from the album What the World Needs Now Is Love |
|||||
| A-side | "What the World Needs Now Is Love" | ||||
| B-side | "Abraham, Martin and John" | ||||
| Released | 1971 | ||||
| Format | Vinyl record | ||||
| Recorded | Early 1971 | ||||
| Genre | Pop Spoken word |
||||
| Label | Motown Records Mo-west MW5002F |
||||
| Writer(s) | Hal David Burt Bacharach |
||||
| Producer | Tom Clay | ||||
| Tom Clay singles chronology | |||||
|
|||||
In addition to the DeShannon hit recording and the cover versions, "What the World Needs Now is Love" served as the basis for a 1971 song.
Disc jockey Tom Clay was working at radio station KGBS in Los Angeles, California when he created the single "What the World Needs Now is Love/Abraham, Martin and John", a social commentary that became a surprise hit record that summer.[1]
The song begins with a man asking a young boy to define such words as bigotry, segregation and hatred (to which the boy says he doesn't know); he says that prejudice is "when someone's sick." Following that is a soundbite of a drill sergeant leading a platoon into training, along with gunfire sound effects, after which are snippets of the two songs — both as recorded by The Blackberries, a session recording group[2]. Interspersed are excerpts of speeches by John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., and soundbites of news coverage of each one's assassination. The ending of the song is a reprisal of the introduction.
"What the World Needs Now is Love/Abraham, Martin and John" rose to No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1971, and was Clay's only Top 40 hit.[3]
[edit] In pop culture
"What the World Needs Now is Love" has been used in many film soundtracks, notably Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and For the Love of Fred (used as the film's closing theme song in both), Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, My Best Friend's Wedding and Forrest Gump.
The first few notes of the song has also been used as a toteboard cue for the annual Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon.
A shortened version of the title is used in a biography of Burt Bacharach and Hal David by Robin Platts.
Jessica Mauboy sang "What The World Needs Now Is Love" on Australian Idol in 2007. Barry Manilow covered this song on his 2006 album The Greatest Songs of the Sixties. Andrea Ross covered this song as "What The World Needs Now" on her 2007 album Moon River. Ed Ames covered this song on his 1967 album Time, Time. Alec Baldwin sang a part of the song in the episode Somebody to Love of NBC's 30 Rock while playing a piano, as his soon to be lover CC walked down the stairs at the party which they met.
[edit] Quotation
The song contains the memorable lines:
- "What the world needs now is love, sweet love
- It's the only thing that there's just too little of..".
[edit] References
[edit] Sources
- ^ All Music Guide — Tom Clay
- ^ Answers.com — Tom Clay
- ^ Whitburn, Joel, "Top Pop Singles: 1955-2006", 2007.
[edit] Bibliography
- Platts, Robin (2003) Burt Bacharach & Hal David: What the World Needs Now, Collector's Guide Publishing, ISBN 1896522777
[edit] External links
- Hal David Recollections . Accessed June 2007
- Lyrics to What the World Needs Now Is Love at music.yahoo . Accessed February 2008
