Jackie DeShannon -- What the World Needs Now Is Love

 

I was talking with Scott of "Holly Jolly X'masu" recently and we happened to get onto a topic concerning one of my old personal signs that the summer holidays were about to end and school was once again going to cast a long ugly shadow on my life. Mind you, "The Jerry Lewis Labour Day Telethon" was always something that was fun to watch for me back in the 1970s, and as I would realize later on in life, the telethon was one of the very few opportunities that I got to see a lot of the Rat Pack in their heyday. Back then, it was fun to watch Jerry, Ed McMahon and Sammy Davis Jr. among other stars entertaining viewers for hours on end.

However, it was the tote board hourly showing how much money was being raised to battle muscular dystrophy that got my excitement. I guess that it was due to all of the pomp and circumstance leading up to the announcement and then Jerry and Ed doing all of those Hollywood yells ("HAOOOOOOH!") when the new total came out.

The other thing is the song that the telethon orchestra played each time the total came out and it just seemed to be the theme for the entire show. I would find out that it was "What the World Needs Now Is Love" and to echo my feelings on it, I remember seeing a commercial advertising the telethon one year in which animated caricatures of Jerry and a lot of the Hollywood hoi polloi sang the song. 

When I looked up the song on Wikipedia, I was surprised by a couple of things. I'd assumed that the original song from April 1965 was recorded by someone like Dionne Warwick, but it was actually Jackie DeShannon. Crazily enough, DeShannon already has recognition on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for being the first singer to record "Bette Davis Eyes", which would become popularized by becoming a New Wave anthem by Kim Carnes in 1981 (and another subject for a ROY article). The other surprise was that "What the World Needs Now Is Love" has been categorized as a folk rock tune as well as a jazz/soul number. Jazz and soul are in full supply here in what I've deemed to be an absolute wistful standard but I can't really hear the original as either folk or rock. What isn't a surprise is who was behind the song: the legendary duo Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

"What the World Needs Now Is Love" hit No. 1 on Canada's RPM singles chart while it became the 7th-ranked single on America's Billboard. Incidentally, according to the Wikipedia article on the song, Warwick had been offered first dibs to sing it but she turned it down for being too "country" (!), but I guess that she finally did acquiesce to the request since she did record it in 1966 for her "Here Where There Is Love" album.

Although I couldn't find out in which month the first two Japanese tunes had been released in 1965, the final one was indeed an April 1965 single, just like DeShannon's magnum opus.

Joji Ai & Chinami Shima -- Akai Glass （赤いグラス）

Yukari Ito -- Suna ni Kieta Namida （砂に消えた涙）

Saburo Kitajima -- Kaero ka na（帰ろかな）

As a PS, since we are still mourning the loss of musician and songwriter Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）this month, here's his version of "What the World Needs Now Is Love" from his 1990 album "Broadcast from Heaven".

Joji Ai & Chinami Shima/Frank Nagai & Kazuko Matsuo -- Akai Glass （赤いグラス）

Another song I gleaned from a recent episode from NHK's "Kayo Concert"（歌謡コンサート） "Akai Glass"(Red Glass) is another in the long line of boozy and bluesy Mood Kayo duet tunes that depict the theme of "two ships passing in the night". Written by Hachiro Kadoi（門井八郎） and composed by Shoichi Makino（牧野昭一）, "Akai Glass" was first released in 1965 and originally sung by Joji Ai（アイ・ジョージ） and Chinami Shima（志摩ちなみ）.

The Hong Kong-born Ai started life as Joji Ishimatsu（石松譲治） but when he entered the music business in 1953, he took on the name Haruo Kuroda（黒田春夫） before switching to Joji Ai in 1959 (the new stage name is just his original first name with the initial of his family name). Ai sang in the genres of Latin, Mood Kayo, enka and popular music, but one of his biggest hits came with the 1965 "Akai Glass" with his recording partner, Chinami Shima. The original recording had this feeling of 12 midnight in the bar with both man and woman woozily wondering what could have been if the tryst had been allowed to go on. The brass and the mournful saxes are there for that Mood Kayo feel, but there is also an organ which adds a further bittersweet tone.

Ai was a regular fixture on the Kohaku Utagassen during its grand heyday of the 1960s, having appeared on the special for 12 years in a row from 1960 to 1971, including his performance of "Akai Glass" on the 1965 show. He also has the distinction of being the very first Japanese singer to perform at New York City's Carnegie Hall.

I'm not sure when the cover by Frank Nagai（フランク永井） and Kazuko Matsuo（松尾和子） came out, but listening to this version, I got the impression that the hour was quite a bit earlier than the one in the original song by Ai and Shima. The instruments are brassier and more forceful without the organ, and there is just this feeling of a Ginza nightclub in the arrangement. Considering that Nagai & Matsuo are the ones behind the classic "Tokyo Nightclub"(1959), I guess there should be no surprise. In a way, the Nagai & Matsuo cover comes off as if the couple singing it are very much still together but are doing a bit of play acting, and instead are showing their devotion to each other through the lyrics. And not surprisingly, the song has been a duet favourite for those of a certain age at the karaoke booths.