"
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. It was released on April
15, 1965 on the Imperial label after a release on sister label
Liberty records the previous month was canceled . The song reached
number 7 in the US charts May of that year.
Recording history
The song was originally offered to
Dionne
Warwick, who turned it down at the time ; though she later
recorded it for her album
Here Where There Is Love.
DeShannon's version was recorded on March 23, 1965 at New York's
Bell Sound studios.
It has been recorded or performed live by over a hundred artists,
including
The Staple Singers,
Judy Garland,
Wynonna Judd,
The
Supremes,
McCoy Tyner,
Barry Manilow,
Ed Ames,
Steve Tyrell,
Luther Vandross,
Andrea Ross, and
Aimee
Mann. It even made the country charts by a little known
singer/songwriter, Ron Shaw, on the Pacific Challenger label in the
late 1970s.
Tom Clay version
In addition to the DeShannon hit recording and the numerous
cover versions, "What the World Needs
Now is Love" served as the basis for a distinctive 1971
remix.
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.
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. 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.
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,
Bridget
Jones: The Edge of Reason,
Hot
Shots! 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.
Alec Baldwin sang a part of the song in
the episode "Somebody to Love" of
30
Rock while playing a piano, as his soon to be lover CC
walked down the stairs at the party which they met.
It was a top 5 song in
American
Idol season 2 in 2003.
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..".
References
- Songfacts Accessed July 2008
- http://members.tripod.com/~jackiedeshannon/jdsas3.html Jackie
de Shannon Discography]. Accessed July 2008
Sources
- [1]
- Are You Ready For This reissue liner notes
- Allmusic — Tom Clay
- Answers.com — Tom Clay
- Whitburn, Joel, "Top Pop Singles: 1955-2006", 2007.
Bibliography
- Platts, Robin (2003) Burt Bacharach & Hal David: What
the World Needs Now, Collector's Guide Publishing, ISBN
1896522777
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search