What The World Needs Now Is Love

64

I had a breakthrough recently, of a sort. I found something so special I have to share it. Let me set this up a bit.

I was born in 1963. The 1960s were one of the most turbulent and troubled periods in American history. Change was the prevailing theme, and sometimes that change was violent. For the first time, Americans saw real people die, right on their television screens. There were assassinations, there was racial turmoil, and there was an unpopular war fought not only in a remote country called Vietnam, but also right here at home. Anti-war activists and men serving their country with honor were on opposite sides of a terrible conflict, which pitted brother against brother in a way not seen since our Civil War.

The 1970s, the decade in which I did most of my growing up, were more upbeat. Boeing rolled out the 747. Disco was born. The US space program flourished. Personality radio was pioneered by people like Larry Lujack, Doug “The Greaseman” Tracht, Henry Boggan, Kasey Kasem, Dick Bartley, and even a great, unrecognized genius named Dick Mountjoy.

In Los Angeles, a man named Tom Clague (simplified on the air to “Tom Clay”) had recently moved to the west coast from Detroit. Clay’s motor city radio career had been stellar, but in 1959 when government officials cracked down on the once-widespread practice called “payola,” Clay was fired in disgrace. After a five-year stint at CKLW in Canada, he eventually had returned to Detroit and rebuilt his career, but by 1971 he was ready for a change.

Clay had just begun to make his mark on the L.A. radio scene. The famed “Boss Radio” craze had just struck, an age when music radio was at its zenith. Clay’s show on KDAY, called “Words and Music”, was a grand experiment in combining creative editing, the spoken word, and other audio from newsbites and the like into a cohesive medium. His shows were like collages for the ear, scrapbooks from your radio. He was a storyteller with modern tools. Some of his work was an acquired taste. Other efforts were true masterpieces, especially given the tools available at the time — primitive audio consoles, 1/4″ tape, razor blades, “carts”. He had a strong, recognizable, distinctive voice. The show was very popular, and the technique followed Clay through several radio jobs.

During a brief fill-in appearance on KGBS, Clay assembled a piece that caught the attention of Motown’s Berry Gordy. Gordy thought it was well produced, not least because it used his own fast-rising session singers The Blackberries singing lines and background vocals from “What The World Needs Now” and Jackie DeShannon singing lines from “Abraham, Martin, and John.”

In 1971, MoWest (the west coast division of the legendary Motown label) released a 12-inch LP* called “What The World Needs Now Is Love”, by Tom Clay. On it were his highlights; the very best bits he’d done for his shows, further cleaned up and made as presentable as a 1971 release could be. The featured single was popular and received significant airplay, but the album didn’t sell; spoken word albums often didn’t, alongside the popular music of the day. In 1975, I found it in a discount bin at K-Mart and bought it. I remember listening to the title track, side 1, cut 1, and being completely overwhelmed. The audio montage recalled with startling clarity the four most galvanizing events of the 1960s; the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy, and the Vietnam war.

Life marched on, the seventies gave way to the eighties, and somehow that vinyl record disappeared. For twenty years, I’ve been trying to find it again. I rarely pass a used record store without wandering through for a brief search. I’ve scoured the internet over the years, too, hoping to find an MP3, but I’d mostly given up.

Two days ago, I heard the Burt Bacharach / Elvis Costello version of “What The World Needs Now Is Love”. In my mind, I couldn’t hear Burt over the deafening memory of The Blackberries’ voices in the Tom Clay montage. I decided to have another look. In fact, I spent far more time than I should have on a busy day, poking about with Google. I found lots of references to the record and the LP; it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who appreciated it. Finally, something promising led me to a web site containing not a word of English save for the title I was looking for. Breathlessly I clicked the link, and seconds later, I was listening to Tom Clay’s magnum opus again, my heart in my throat, feeling the same impact as when I heard it for the first time.

Now you can listen too. If you can’t play this, e-mail me and I’ll send it to you in any form necessary. It’s that good.

The recording is surprisingly clean for a transfer from vinyl. In particular, appreciate the wonderfully exaggerated stereo image that is a trademark of popular music in the late sixties and early seventies. Yes, the cuts are rough and the audio clips are of very low fidelity; there are wow-ins, clicks, and pops. Welcome to the early 1970s radio industry. Look past that and let yourself get involved with the content, though, and you’ll go on quite a journey as you listen to this.

A few explanatory notes for my loyal readers in other, more civilized countries:

The combination of distorted, clipped audio and American accents may make some of the actualities difficult to understand. Also, all of the online transcripts I can find are wrong. So, I’ve transcribed the recording very carefully and accurately myself.  Here is the transcript.

The voice reporting from the Dallas Trade Mart, where JFK’s motorcade was headed, is Ron Jenkins of KBOX Radio, Dallas, Texas.

The voice reporting the president’s death is a young David Brinkley. Many people remember a similar line delivered by Walter Cronkite; Cronkite actually lost his composure for a few seconds, later commenting that “Anchormen shouldn’t cry.”

The speaker who has been to the mountaintop is the civil rights icon of the sixties, Dr. Martin Luther King.

The voice saying “No one can know…” is Senator Robert Kennedy.

Andrew West of station KRKD, Los Angeles, is the reporter who was interviewing Robert Kennedy when the latter was shot. He mentions olympic gold-medalist decathlete Rafer Johnson, who along with football star Rosey Grier, wrestled assassin Sirhan Sirhan to the floor and disarmed him. Clay used only a short section of a very long audio clip … even these few seconds are difficult to listen to. West’s reactions seem very genuine. Sirhan’s revolver discharged eight rounds, one of which nearly hit West himself. “We don’t want another Oswald!” refers to Lee Harvey Oswald, who shot President John F. Kennedy and who was shot to death by Jack Ruby while in police custody in 1963.

The voice eulogizing Robert Kennedy is his brother, Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy.

Tom Clay passed away in 1995 after a battle with cancer, at the age of 66. Except among those who record and study the history of broadcast radio, he is largely forgotten. That’s a pity. He was a great talent and should be remembered as the brilliant man he was.

—–
* That was like a big CD, except it was made of black vinyl with grooves on both sides, and was played on a primitive machine called a “phonograph”.

64 Comments


  1. I’ll come back later and listen to this from home.
    ttfn
    Jane


  2. I wish I had access to a PC with sound. If you felt like it, you could post a cd to Andy Young,
    Torbay Council, Roebuck House, Abbey Road, Torquay TQ2 5TF UK but I dont expect you to go to
    the expense or effort.
    And “Disco was born” oh dear oh dear. Was that a good thing? At least you had the NY Dolls, Iggy, Television, Talking Heads, Steely Dan, Eagles in the 70s


  3. That was fantastic. It made history so vivid in my mind – Events that I never knew came alive. I closed my eyes and could imagine being there. Absolutely amazing.


  4. True fact, the world needs more of the good stuff, Scotty.
    A man who saw things as they never were and said ‘why not?’ is a valuable man indeed.


  5. when i the age of 17 ive heard the record for the first time back in 1977. the emotion voices on the record make me listened for 3 or 4 times so i understand the words (im from europe) for the first time in my life my eyes let some tears wen i lisened to a record. lost that record a few years later. now im the age of 45 and opened a few minutes ago that hard to find mp3 file, and gues what……….yes its doing it again. ps. BIG thanks for putting it on the net.


  6. Child of 1960 here; what you write resonates. Heard that record first somewhere in the very early 70s; it got quite a lot of airtime in Australia at that time. Always remembered it, never found it. One more search this evening, got it! Thank you so much for posting.


  7. Thanks Scott

    That version of “What the World Needs Now” stuck in mind since I first heard it as a teener during that tumultous 70’s. I have long been looking for this version of with no success. Thanks a lot!


  8. Hi Scott:
    I went to school with Tom’s son Ronnie. As a silly 15 yr. old girl, I was madly in love with him and we shared a photography class together. His dad was an icon at our school…Granada Hills High in Calif. Ronnie gave me this album which I still have today. I saw Tom a few times over lunch in the early 90’s after Ronnie passed away from lymphoma. I actually didn’t realize Tom was gone too. I so enjoyed hearing this song again. Hard to believe it was so long ago. My heart feels like it was only yesterday.
    Pattie


  9. Hi Scott. Just wanted to say thanks for posting Tom Clay’s song. The first time I heard it was during the early seventies in a noisy army mess hall overseas. Just finished a second shift at the com site and had gone to mid(night)-rations. The radio was on in the mess hall but barely audible over the din of noise. Tom Clay’s song came on and within seconds the only sound heard was the radio itself. It was a powerfull moment. All of us had grown up to the sounds within the clips. The guy’s inner reflections at that moment were pretty powerful. It is one of those moments you don’t forget. Again, thanks.


  10. all i can say is thank you. as you know, this is nearly impossible to find. it does bring back memories of being 7 years old and riding in my car with my family, and hearing this strongly political song. thank you for letting me remember that life.


  11. Though I actually never lived through this period in lots of peoples life (sorry, I was born in 1973), I find this one of the most sensitive songs. EVER. Thanks again, also for the explanatory notes. They explain lots of things in the song I have ever wondered about.


  12. thanks you for shining some light on Clay’s career and this production. Many memories here.


  13. I have been searching for this recording for over 30 years. Thank you for posting it. It defined a time in my life that does me good to recall. I am who I am because of when I grew up (born 1954) and my personal “coming of age” memories. I listened and traveled back to the 60’s. Life is so precious and sweet, it is reassuring to listen to Ted Kennedy’s voice quiver and hearing his loss of his brother. My remarks are not political only personal, how Ted Kennedy must have felt to have lost 2 brothers, I can feel for him once again.


  14. This is definitely one of the most touching songs ever made. It brought me to tears one of the first times I heard it. Although the events had past years before I was born (in 1975), the song brings back these things like no other song has done or, I think, will ever do.

    PS One question: who sing the lyrics in this song?


  15. Thanks, Scott. As with others, I can remember the month and year, and where I was and what I was doing when I first heard this version of the song on the radio. It is one of those remembrances whose fragment can both instantly transport me back to that moment, and also envelope my entire life experiences since then.

    I have one correction to your carefully recorded transcript. As Robert Kennedy was finishing his remarks to the audience after winning the 1968 California Presidential Primary, rather than: “I fear the audience just sent me a message …”, I recall and hear that Bobby said: “Mayor Yorty just sent me a message that we’ve been here too long already. So, my thanks to all of you, and now it’s on to Chicago, and let’s win there.”

    [Bobby was referring to Los Angeles Mayor Samuel W. Yorty.]


  16. Well done mate – I was searching for this song for years – It used to get played on 3XY Melbourne Australia radio in the 70’s – i was about 10 but it resonated even though I did not remember or understand the events – I found your site – saw it was by Tom Clay then I bought it on iTunes – then scrolled down and saw you had the son on here – BTW it is on an album called Motown salutes Bacharach.


  17. Thanks for the words about Tom Clay. I was a teenager in Detroit in the early 60s, and listened to Tom’s program quite often. His name popped into my head today for some reason, and a Google search gave me your site.
    I remember one program, when Tom was so excited at the birth of his first daughter. He announced that they had named her “Candy Cane Clay,” which I thought they may have regretted years later. It would be interesting to know what happened to her.
    About that same time, and unknown group called “The Kingston Trio” made their debut single, “Tom Dooley.” Tom Clay vowed that if the record didn’t make it to number one in Detroit within two weeks, he would resign his job. It made it.

    Ray


  18. Thanks so much Scott. I was melancholy and sitting at my computer trying to locate the possible title to this song I think about once every few months since I was 17 – in Willowdale Ontario Canada. I am 50 now and still remember sitting and listening to it on my reel to reel over and over with mixed emotions of despair, enlightenment and anger. What other song could throw those feelings together. Maybe that is why it remains in our collective thoughts. But…..
    That is not why I am commenting. I come from the land of CHUM radio in Toronto. My memory – and maybe a little bit of warped memory seems to recall that this was at the top of the charts for a brief time and then – as we recall – was taken off the air very quickly. Of course at 17 and in the early seventies we all concluded what we thought was the obvious. You have to admit it is very hard to find.
    Thanks again
    May I ad that there is something od that I bet we all share. Even after 30 years… for some reasin we all recall every aspect of this song. Please explain to me.
    Billy L


  19. Been searching for too long,at last.Thank you so much.Heard of this superb rendition back in the Philippines when I was in my teenage years during the seventees.Now,I have it…thank you again.


  20. Searching for a while, I always thought it was an O’jays song.
    I remember the purple and black sleeve.
    A ‘friend’ borrowed it in the mid-seventies.
    Never seen it back.
    Thanks


  21. I’ve been looking for this song for years. It was one of my favorites when I was growing up. I didn’t even know who did this version of the song. I’d call in requests to radio stations for this song and they wouldn’t know what I’m talking about.

    But the one thing I don’t like is that it’s not a straight MP3 that I can pull into Windows Media Player. You’ve got it tied into MusicMatch and I don’t like that. I don’t want to have to use MusicMatch to listen to it.


  23. thank you from Holland, Amsterdam.
    we were looking for this for along time.


  24. Thank you from Dublin, Ireland .. I too had been looking for this for a while. It is a great piece and still brings a tear to the eye


  25. Thanks for the wonderful effort in tracking this down. I edited the transcript with just a few corrections & sent it to your e-mail address. I remember the first time I heard this and it hasn’t lost its power in all these years.


  26. I was born in ’64… what a long strange trip it’s been, but we keep evolving and hopefully getting better. Thanks we needed this!


  27. I have been looking for this album for quite some time. I had this album when I was a kid and have not heard it since. This is such a touching song and I can hardly listen to it without my eyes welling up…


  28. I remember that song, which I first heard in 71 or 72 (I was 11 or 12). A friend of mine made me hear it and I ran to the music store to buy it. It was my first record and it was a 45RPM. I must have listen to it thousand of times… As I grew up, I lost that record and I did not even know the author, I forgot about it… Few months ago, I listned to the original version of What the world needs now and a bunch of souvenirs came to my mind…

    With the help of Google, I found that Tom Clay’s was the version I was looking for and now I can hear it from your site.

    Thank you!

    (I’m still looking for a version to download!)

    Claude


  29. I remember this son so well and have looked for it for so many years. The first time I heard it was on WABC. Dan Ingrem played it and after the song, he cried on the air. I was never so shaken up as he was unflappable. God love you for making this song available

    Howard Adamsky


  30. I was born in 1950 and graduated H.S. in 1968. Thanks for the memories I have been looking for this song for a long time.


  31. Thank you for posting this! I was born in 1965 but today was the first time I ever heard this song. I was listening to an oldies station on the car radio. I’m not overly sentimental but about mid-way through the song my eyes started welling up. This has to be one of the most powerful and touching songs I’ve ever heard! Now I’m wondering what else is on that album?


  32. Thanks! It reminds an old geezer like me, why people and principles matter to me and my generation…I want to share this with some of the younger generations…it may make a difference if they are not too hardened yet.


  33. one of the most beautiful songs ever for me, i was born in 1962, and i’ve always wanted to hear this again. thank you very much


  34. At last! I have been looking and searching for this for many years and am happy to have found it. I might have to check out the whole album at some time in the future! It has put something which was missing from my life for so long since I first heard it many years ago.

    Thanks!

    Richard.


  35. Scott,
    My wife has searched hi, lo & sideways for this. I finally found your website and have saved a copy which I will email to her for a great surprise. Thanks again.
    Mark P


  36. Hi Scott,

    Judging by the dates on the other messages above, I’m kind of late. However, it doesn’t bother me a bit since you allowed to finally listen again to a piece that brought tears to my eyes like no other. It did again a few moments ago.

    When this collage by Tom Clay was published, I was news anchor on the morning show of a French radio station in the Ottawa (CAN) area, and I asked a technician to dub it on looped cassette. No joke, this cassette was on in the newsroom through my shift, and when I had to go on air every half hour I would only hit the key to cut the spreakers. That went on for a few months, until some of the other guys and galls got fed up with it. So I brought the cassette home and made my wife of then so disgusted after a while that she had the cassette disapear. I don’t remember having heard the piece until tonight. I must thank you very much for this.

    Now, I’ll try to improve my computer skills and save the 6 Mb cut to my hard disk in order to share it with people around me. I will as well direct them to your blog to read your very interesting background paper.

    Michel


  37. Hey, thanks for this!

    My dad used to listen to this in the seventies, and I’ve been scouring the web trying to find something on this album. You’re not the only one who really appreciates this very emotional work.


  38. I too have been searching for this recording, which is itself a little bit of history. I was born a little more than 10 years before you, so I did most of my growing up during the turbulent 60’s. From 1966 to 1970, I was a DJ/reporter at our high school radio station, and kept up with all the events memorialized on Tom Clay’s record. Just after its release, I purchased it as a 45, and I don’t remember what was on the B side (it may have been the same on both sides). Anyway, many years later a fire in my brother’s garage destroyed all my record albums (which he had been keeping for me while I was travelling the country), and I have been looking for this one ever since. When I found your link, I listened again for the first time in 25 or 30 years and it was just as chilling as it was the first time I ever heard it. Thanks for locating and preserving it!


  39. Thanks so much. This is a late one. My brother used to play this in the 70’s. I was 14 and it had a very profound effect on me. My brother mislaind the 45 in the mid 70’s. He died at the age of 40 (he was 7ys older than me. I have searched everywhere and at last I have found this. Thankyou.


  40. 60’s kid too, born June 17th, in the middle of the Bobby Kennedy assasination. I too spent far too long looking for a recording of this Classic, and after alot of searching found it on one CD, Mowtown salutes Bacharach…to think I could have eventually found it here. Well done for providing it for so many people…with all that’s currently going on it is a timely reminder!


  41. Thank you for sharing your story! I have heard ‘What The World Needs Now’ before but I was not familiar with ‘Abraham, Martin and John’, nor Tom Clay’s version of this! Wonderful! Thanks again!


  42. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. Im almost 49 years old now this brought back such vivid memories of my childhood.The first time I had heard this was at my grandmothers house with my parents and my brother.My aunt and cousin had bought the 45 single and we must have listened to it a dozen times. I remember having the 45 single myself ( my mother was a huge Kenedy fan being from Massasachusetts)and loved this little record.
    This is the find of the year. For whatever reason I was thinking of this song and did not remember who actually produced it the glory of Google and here it is in full .
    I just wish my parents were still alive to play it for them so they too could be brought back to that day when we all first heard this.

    Again Thank You for sharing this gem.


  43. My husband, two young adult sons, and I just watched the movie, “Bobby”, which prompted an internet search of the songs and lyrics inspired by that tragic event. Well written – concise and explanative (what the world needs now…) Thank you, very much!


  44. Scott, thank you for that recording. Some of the good old days were not so good.

    Dennis


  45. THANK YOU – I HAVE THE ORIGINAL OF THIS AND I CANT PLAY IT AS IT IS NEARLY WORN OUT!! I WANTED MY SON TO HEAR IT AS HE IS VERY IN TO THE 60’S. SO ONCE AGAIN THANK YOU VERY MUCH


  46. THANK YOU! I have been looking for this for over 20 years now. In 1979 I made a slide show for my art class about violence and I needed a song to accompany the slides which were images of war and images of beauty and love all combined for contrast. I found this song on Vinyl at the public library and was so moved by it for obvious reasons and used it for a very effective presentation. Years later I of course wanted to track this down and add it to my collection but of course no one could remember the artist or place it. In fact I wasnt sure if it was “What the World Needs Now” or “Abraham Martin & John” . I have been asking and looking from radio stations to music buffs and now about 28 years later I just googled ‘What the World Needs Now” and “Kennedy assassination” – it almost seemed too easy…. I remember every note – alongside every frame of my slide show, THANK YOU this was truely amazing and memorable.


  47. Great reproduction.I have tried to secure a copy of this slice of history for years without success.Thank you.


  48. In 1988, I spent a few days with Tom Clay in Hollywood. He was very generous. He helped me improve as a radio announcer. In the summer of 1970, he was on a big FM station in Detroit. I was 14 years old and wanted to become a disc jockey. In the spring of 1988, I met him and it was the most important thing I did in the short time I was in L.A. For many years, I’ve looked for the album, “What the World Needs Now,” but never found it. Can you make a copy of it in CD form and send it to me Scott?


  49. Thanks so much. I heard this song on the radio back in the early 1970’s when it was first released and never forgot it. I’ve been looking for this song for over 10 years. Thanks again.


  50. Thank you for your story about this amazing song! In Holland I don’t hear this song many times, but during the Christmas period it comes by once in a while on the radio. Last week I heard it again and started searching… I would love to have it, but unfortunately the download isn’t working. Would you therefore be so kind to email it to me (best quality please)? I would appreciate it! Best regards, Hendrik

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