When I was given the opportunity to write a piece for this column, a singular two-word phrase popped into my head: Music Heals. Over the course of my nearly 60-year career as a stage performer and recording and touring artist, I have seen the power of music and the simple delivery of a great song impact for the good and bring healing to both countless individuals and to multitudes of people in need of hope and recovery.
Though I’ve experienced this phenomenon countless times over the course of my life, there’s a very recent, raw example that comes to mind. While many shows throughout Los Angeles were cancelled in the wake of the tragic Palisades and Eaton fires in January, I was grateful to be one of the guest stars in one of the shows that was not – the performance of Don B. Welch’s gospel play “Heavenbound” on January 11 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre.
The show is about six ordinary Christians who have passed on, meet in a place called “almost-in-heaven” and have to audition for the Beams of Heaven Gospel choir, which requires a life testimony, a song or both, and based on how one lived their life on earth. On stage I could feel the energy of the audience, the excitement and relief to have something joyful to take their mind off current circumstances and lift their spirits. And their gratitude that we performers were there to help them through and heal from a dark week, where everyone seemed to know someone who had lost their home and all were experiencing some level anxiety. Talking backstage to some great lady performer friends from over the years who had come out to see me made me cry with joy. It was a cathartic evening on so many levels.
I have always had a strong desire to lift people’s spirits and impact their emotions in a positive way with my own music as well. This was the impetus behind the title track to my latest album (and 28th overall!) Imagine. Written by Rahni Song (music) and Chantel Hampton (lyrics), the song, offers an inspiring vision of global love and unity during this particularly challenging sociopolitical era.
The chorus speaks to my desire to help lift people who are suffering, to help them conjure in their minds a better world: “Can you imagine…a place of peace/Imagine if love filled every street/No more hate/We’d all be free/Imagine how pure this world could be.” In one interview I did, I said it was about having paradise on earth.
My first tip to those like me who are singers like me looking for songs that can help people heal and look beyond present circumstances is to, above all else, feel a personal connection with the song. It has to resonate on a spiritual and emotional level with you before it can move others. Not just the lyrics, either. I felt an immediate connection to “Imagine” when my daughter Charli Huggins, head of The Gallery Entertainment, first brought it to me as an instrumental. The music itself touched something deep even before she tapped Chantel to write the beautiful lyrics. To me, it was the perfect match of melody and poetry, a message the world needed to hear. I’m not a songwriter, but for those who are, think about the emotion of the music and the importance of a great resonant mood setting melody – and not just the message of the words you are writing.
“Imagine” is not the first time I’ve recorded a healing song with the same title as a more iconic song. When I tell folks about “Lean on Me,” they think of Bill Withers’ classic, but as a huge Aretha Franklin fan who was very much inspired by the Queen of Soul as I started my career, I always checked out the B-sides. The B-side to “Spanish Harlem” was a song by Van McCoy (of “The Hustle” fame) also called “Lean on Me.” I knew I wanted to record a version of it, with Van producing. It’s on my 1976 album This Is It.
Its message of being there for someone in their time of need and dreaming the impossible resonated deeply during a time where I needed healing in my life. It was right after I had major surgery. While healing physically, I began spending time with my mom after years of being consumed with my career and not spending much time together. She was divorced, alone and isolated at the time and me being there was healing for her as well. My second tip would be to imagine yourself being in a vulnerable position in your life, either from a past memory or something that may occur in the future, and how the song would hit you in that moment – and how necessary that moment would be in your healing and overcoming.
A third tip for those who want to sing or write a song that has the power to heal is to not be so self-conscious about writing on that specific theme. Sometimes just a beautiful romantic love song or, in my case, even a decades old disco hit can lift the spirits of someone in need of healing at a specific moment. One of my neighbors recently told me that she was having a terrible morning, feeling depressed about everything on her way to work. It sounds like one of those times we can all relate to where we could use a healing touch wherever it may come from. She turned on the radio and heard my version of the Bee Gees’ “You Stepped into My Life,” which was a Top 20 Billboard R&B hit in 1978! She told me she lit up when it came on the radio and she sang along – and by the time she arrived at work, she was in a totally different, much elevated mood. That’s the healing power of music in action.
I have a fourth tip for those who want to write or record a healing song that has the potential to become a generational anthem. Once you have the song, think about building an amazing team to make things happen. A song that comes to mind is “Greatest Love of All,” which was a minor hit for George Benson years before Clive Davis put Whitney Houston together with great producers and promoters and created one of the era-defining songs of the era. Ditto “We Are The World,” which was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, produced and conducted by Quincy Jones and recorded by the premiere pop artists of that time. Whatever circumstance you’re writing or recording in, make sure you have a great group of industry pros to take the song to the next level – and beyond!
About Melba Moore
While best known for her seeming nonstop flow of hit albums and singles throughout the 70’s and 80’s, Melba made cultural history long before that, beginning her performing career as Dionne in the original cast of the musical Hair while becoming the first black woman to replace a white actress (future film star Diane Keaton) in a featured role on Broadway. In 1970, the same year her debut album I Got Love earned her a Best New Artist Grammy nomination, she won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Lutibelle in Purlie – a role she would later reprise in the 1981 TV adaptation for Showtime. Soon after the success of “The Melba Moore/Clifton Davis Show,” she signed with Buddha Records, where she scored the Top Ten Billboard dance hits “This is It” and “Make Me Believe in You” and the Grammy nominated Top 20 R&B smash “Lean on Me.”
Signing to Capitol in the early 80s, Melba enjoyed a second prolific decade of success with Billboard Top Ten R&B albums like Never Say Never and A Lot of Love and many hit singles, including “Love’s Comin’ At Ya” and the #1 hits “A Little Bit More” with Freddie Jackson and “Falling,” a hypnotic ballad featuring one of the longest held notes (nearly 20 seconds!) in recorded history. In addition, Melba’s 1985 hit “Read My Lips” earned her a third Grammy nod (for Best Female Rock Performance), making her only the third Black artist after Donna Summer and Michael Jackson to be nominated in a rock category. Some of her highlights in the 2000s include an appearance in the film The Fighting Temptations (starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyonce) and a role in a production of Ain’t Misbehavin’.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Melba Moore
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