For all my focus on the present, on the melodies and rhythms of the moment, many nights I find myself missing and slipping into the long-ago via something on TV. Over the weekend, for instance, we used our PBS Passport to travel to 1960s’ England via Funny Woman, about a comic actress navigating the era’s evolving mores. The soundtrack is chockfull of classic tunes from the Four Tops, Dusty Springfield, Nico, and Petula Clark, among others. It’s safe to say, I think, that you can forget all your troubles, all of your cares, listening to those songs.
Here, vocalist Tori Holub joins with multi-instrumentalist James Wilkas and friends to perform a song that, though its sentiment may seem quaint in today’s troll-ridden world, never gets old—not to my ears, at least. To borrow from (and edit) what I wrote about “What the World Needs Now” in 2016: “Jackie DeShannon’s rendition of the Bacharach-David classic, Wikipedia tells us, was released as a single on April 15, 1965. It’s a song that’s been sung by hundreds of singers since. Somewhere there’s war, somewhere there’s heartache, and somewhere some people hate while others fear. It’s not fair. It’s never fair. But it’s why the song resonates when it’s sung. It’s always true. The world needs love. Sweet love. Not for some. For everyone.”
The Holub-Wilkas rendition adheres to the DeShannon playbook. It lacks the longing found in Rumer’s version, which inspired my above words, but injects something we need now—hope. Holub’s distinctive vocals, which conjure Karen Carpenter’s velvety tones, is (as always) a thing of wonder, while the instrumentation and background singers are note-perfect. Some days it seems that sheer cynicism has lacquered itself onto the popular mindset, thickening the thin line between love and hate just enough to blur love, sweet love, from view. With “What the World Needs Now,” however, Holub and Wilkas remind us in artful fashion that, with a little help from above, said veneer can be stripped away. Love can (and should) flourish.
The Old Grey Cat 