Author
Daevid MacKenzie
The update of Clay's multi-million-seller of 1971 -- which was denied a commercial release because "it won't sell."
Concerned about what he saw during the First War on Iraq, broadcaster Tom Clay decided to update his brilliant 1971 sound collage "What the world needs now/Abraham, Martin & John." Using several elements of the original piece amongst more recent documentary audio and music clips, Clay hoped that many of the over 4 million purchasers of his 1971 single would make this piece just as legendary. However, the record companies of the time -- including Motown, which had distributed the original Top 10 hit twenty years earlier -- refused to issue this new item, claiming it would never be a strong seller or generate a multi-million-selling CD album. It was distributed, through various programming services, to U.S. and Canadian radio stations without a commercial release, and generated some airplay at the time, but Clay died before seeing it issued commercially on a CD single or album (which has still not happened).
The legendary 1971 original version of "What the world needs now/Abraham, Martin & John" was uploaded to indymedia.org earlier tonight.
Please drop me a note if you use this one on a radio show. Many thanks in advance.
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