Genre: bizarre
Rating: ** (2 stars)
Title: What the World Needs Now
Company: Mowest
Catalog: MS 103-L
Year: 1972
Country/State: Detroit, Michigan
Grade (cover/record): VG/VG
Comments: --
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 4819
Price: $8.00
Cost: $1.00
I remember the late Tom Clay's well intentioned but sappy single from when I was a child and I'll even admit to owning a copy of the 45, however I didn't know that there was a parent album until I stumbled across a copy at a yard sale.
Starting in the mid-1950s Clay was a well known Detroit area DJ. He worked at a number of local radio stations including WJBK-AM, WWWW-FM, WQTE-AM and WTAK-AM. He also managed to get tangled in a late 1950s payola scandal that saw him forced to take a job at a Canadian radio station. His tenure in Canada came to an end in the mid-1960s when he became entangled in a Beatles related promotional scheme. Having charged fans a dollar to become Beatles Boosters, Clay supposedly collected close to $100,000 from the scheme and was ultimately forced to resign.
The early 1970s found Clay living in Southern California where he scored a temporary job DJing at Los Angeles station KGBS. While working at the station he cobbled together a medley of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's 'What the World Needs Now' and Dick Holler's 'Abraham, Martin and John'. Adding snippets of speeches from John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Clay began playing the medley on his show. Having just relocated Motown to Los Angeles, old friend Berry Gordy Jr. heard the track and offered Clay a chance to release it as a single. Released by Motown's newly formed Mowest subsidiary the single 'What the World Needs Now/Abraham, Martin and John' b/w 'The Victors' (Mowest catalog number MW5002F) quickly went top-10, leading Mowest to rush Clay into the studio to record a supporting album.
For most companies the fact that Clay couldn't really sing or write would have been a passing concern, but for Mowest it apparently didn't matter. Self-produced, 1971's "What the World Needs Now" showcased a hysterically inept mixture of social and political commentary. Among the oddest offerings was a four minute reading of the names of American and foreign war dead ('The Victors') and most of the second side which found Clay actually trying to sing (I use the term loosely) as he threw out meaningless thoughts on the meaning of love and relationships ('MacArthur Park', 'This Guy's In Love with You' and Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now'). A camp classic to say the least. Mowest actually reached into the album for a follow-up single. 'Whatever Happened To Love' b/w 'Baby I Need Your Loving' (Mowest catalog number MW5007F) vanished without a trace, followed in short order by Clay's recording career.
Clay spent the rest of his life bouncing around jobs, eventually finding a degree of stability doing commercial voiceovers. Only 66, he died from stomach and lung cancer in November 1995.
'What the World
Needs Now" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) What the World Needs Now/Abraham, Martin and John (Hal David - Burt Bacharach / Dick Holler) - 6:19
2.) Whatever Happened To Love (A. Butler - Tom Clay) - 3:13
3.) What's Going On (A. Cleveland - Marvin Gaye - R. Benson) - 3:07
4.) For Years? (adapted by Tom Clay) - 1:58
5.) The Victors (Tom Clay) - 4:35
(side
2)
1.) MacArthur Park (Jimmy Webb) - 1:32
2.) This Guy's In Love with You - 4:13
3.) Baby I Need Your Loving (Eddie Holland - Lamont Dozier - Brian Holland) - 2:30
4.) Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell) - 3:50
5.) Bridge Over Troubled Water (Paul Simon) - 2:30