Jackie DeShannon: "What the World Needs Now Is Love"

July 26, 1965 (1 week)

A year and eleven months after Jackie DeShannon had her second (and final) number one hit in Canada a number of countries participated in Our World, a linked up satellite broadcast featuring themed segments from around the globe. Fourteen countries were directly involved with another dozen or so showing on their TV stations. Predictably, the Iron Curtain countries pulled out of participating and there was little-to-no involvement from developing nations. Still, I'm sure it was an informative and at times entertaining two hours of television. (It was only two hours long? I always imagined it would have taken place over an entire day but I suppose technology wasn't advanced enough for such a duration; a hundred and twenty minutes was probably a Herculean task as it is)

By far the best known segment from Our World was The Beatles performing their latest single at Abbey Road studios. There's been some debate over whether or not John Lennon composed "All You Need Is Love" specifically for the TV special which I may expand upon when it comes up for review in a few months from now. (Spoiler alert: he absolute did write it on commission; quite whether I am able to prove this assertion is something you'll have to wait to find out. Second spoiler alter: I won't be able to prove it)

Had Our World been broadcast a couple years' earlier, it's easy to imagine "What the World Need Now Is Love" being used in place of "All You Need Is Love". Considering that writers Burt Bachrach and Hal David only struggled with it for a short time before it "wrote itself", it's likely they could have come up with it effectively on spec. They dashed the thing off with not quite the same degree of care that they normally placed on their works. That said, some of the lyrics let it down a great deal. "Lord, we don't need another mountain": while I can't argue with this statement, is it really the sort of thing we need to be requesting of the All Mighty?

This was 1965 when tensions in America over civil rights and the war in Vietnam hadn't quite reached a boiling point so Bachrach and, in particular, David (though obviously less celebrated than his partner, he was the one who was in charge of the lyrics) ought to be commended for being well ahead of the curve on trying to heal a broken nation. That said, Jackie DeShannon railing against how the last thing humanity needs is "another mountain" or "another meadow" is missing the point entirely. How about "Lord, we don't need another war"? Or "Lord, we don't need another bunch of bigots in charge"? Less of this sort of thing might help raise the level of love.

Bachrach didn't initially think much of it and the likes of Dionne Warwick and Gene Pitney weren't impressed enough to bother recording it. Whatsmore, the writing team's usual array of British vocalists — Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw, Dusty Springfield — weren't in any rush to sink their teeth into "What the World Needs Now Is Love" either. It's as if they ended up settling for Jackie DeShannon rather than having chosen her. One of the reasons Warwick turned up her nose at it was that it was faintly country-ish which is something DeShannon leans into. She channels a certain C&W melancholy with just enough bombast near the end.

Like "All You Need Is Love", "What the World Needs Now..." is on the surface rather poor but the end result makes it all just about worthwhile. Not the usual brilliance but certainly proof that the great songwriting duos could pretty much sleepwalk their way to an above-average release. While the Bachrach-David hit machine had begun to replace Phil Spector as the dominant middle class white pop sound of the age but the duo's creative peak had already begun to wane as they began to rely far too much on their knack for composing earworm choruses. In the case of "What the World Needs Now.." they manage to get away with it because of a sturdy enough melody, a loving message and DeShannon selling the shit out of it. But they weren't always quite so fortunate.

Score: 7

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C'Mon, Be a CHUM!

I haven't been checking in on the CHUM charts of late. The bulk of its number ones in the first half of 1965 happened to also top the RPM Top 40 as well (with the exception of yet another Elvis single which I have no need to listen to much less write about). But I took a look and, blimey, we have a big one that evidently proved to be much more popular in the Metro Toronto area than nationally. With Canadians falling all over themselves to embrace virtually every British Invasion act, one that had yet to fully catch on was The Rolling Stones. There are some who will claim — with maybe a little exaggeration — that "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" is the finest single of the rock era and no doubt they can use its place as a global smash for justification (it's also "important" and "influential" which apparently is how music nerds and critics evaluate a song's quality). A number one seemingly everywhere else, it could do no better than number three in Canada though it would spend five weeks atop the CHUM hit parade. Oh those prudish prairie kids not wanting to have anything to do with something so lewd and suggestive. Mick, Keith, Brian, Bill, Charlie, another Mick, and, finally, Ronnie would end up having more than their fair share of Canadian chart toppers in the years ahead so let's overlook this pop injustice. Plus, the Stones recorded better songs no matter how "influential" and/or "important" "Satisfaction" may be.