*No disrespect to John Lennon’s timeless, Grammy Hall of Fame classic, but legendary singer Melba Moore – still vibrant and impactful after half a century-plus as a musical and cultural icon – is lifting the spirits of this modern generation with her own “Imagine,” a fresh and beautiful new song that has the potential to become the premiere anthem of hope for our time.
Written by Rahni Song (music) and Chantel Hampton (lyrics), the title track to Melba’s latest (and 28th overall) album offers an optimistic vision of global love and unity during a particularly fraught sociopolitical era.
Gliding over a gracefully compelling melody, her deeply soulful, ever-emotive voice brings Hampton’s richly poetic words to life from the opening lines: “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.”
The second verse builds powerfully on these concepts, as Melba sings, “Imagine a love displayed/Causing loyalties to be erased/And within our hearts and in our minds/Love was a true virtue of our times.” The solution may seem elusive in an increasingly divisive, complicated world, but is simple at its core: “If we follow the script of love, we would have the cure.” Adding extra sparkle to the overall magical production is a seductive, jazzy guitar solo by Eric Leone, courtesy of Y3K Entertainment.
Melba felt an immediate connection to the tune – and Leone’s solo – when her daughter Charli Huggins, head of indie label, The Gallery Entertainment, first brought it to her as an instrumental. Huggins tapped Hampton to pen the lyrics, and the singer felt the result was the perfect match of melody and poetry, and most importantly, a message that the world needed to hear.
“The song is about really having paradise on earth. What if everybody can live in peace? What if there was no more war? It’s written so beautifully that collectively we thought regardless of what the rest of the album is, this should be what our theme is, and what we want people to focus on,” Moore said in an article that appeared in The Urban Influencer before the release of the album.
Melba adds: “‘Imagine’ has a certain feel to it that captures you and invites you into a unique experience. As an artist with a long history, I am always looking at, How do I keep myself interesting? And how do I keep my identity with material that is authentic and not just chosen to stay current? I love what the song says about our collective ability to create a place of peace and hope. If we begin where we are, imagining a better world, we can bring that to reality.”
Moore is also pleased with the sound of her voice on the recording: “I hear my voice renewal on the song,” she says. “When people get older, they lose certain qualities. I feel like I don’t exactly have a new voice but one that is healed and renewed, with a certain sweetness. The voices of female singers get fuller, thicker, and lower over time. As a classical lyric soprano, I have a higher range that I believe has matured in a positive way. I can hear it in the way I phrase the lyrics. It’s so important to tell the story well so people can feel the song’s emotion.”
Melba’s storytelling skills shine through on all 12 tracks of Imagine, including the two previous singles, starting with “So In Love,” which spent three weeks atop the UK Soul Top 30 Chart and returned her to the airwaves in the U.S. and around the globe. She followed with the release of “Take Me Away.”
These new tracks came on the heels of the listening public’s renewed appreciation for her Top 5 Billboard Dance Single (and Top 20 R&B hit) “You Stepped Into My Life,” a fanciful disco era take on a popular Bee Gees B-side. The track was an integral part of the repertoire in DJ D-Nice’s “Club Quarantine,” a virtual dance party livestream of his skills on the turntables during the pandemic that earned him the NAACP Imagine Award for Entertainer of the Year and drew millions of viewers, including the likes of former president Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Halle Berry, President Joe Biden, and top actors and activists.
While best known for her seeming nonstop flow of hit albums and singles throughout the ’70s and ’80s, 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.
Decades before being a viral sensation and top influencer became a mainstream pathway to fame, word of mouth about Melba’s colossal talent earned her appearances on every daytime and late-night talk show, placing her in millions of households. She became so well known that she was offered a summer variety show in 1972 with her then-boyfriend Clifton Davis. 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.
Her run of success on the R&B charts extended to 1990 with the Top Ten single “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” (aka the Negro National Anthem), recorded at the behest of Dr. Dorothy Height, President of the National Council of Negro Women, who wanted Moore to use her formidable talent to ensure that the song would reach a new generation. The track featured an introduction by Louis Gossett, Jr. and vocal contributions by Dionne Warwick, Stephanie Mills, and The Clark Sisters, with a video directed by Debbie Allen.
While continuing her recording career, Melba returned to Broadway in 1995 with a part in Les Miserables and soon thereafter launched her long-running one-woman show Sweet Songs of the Soul, later renamed I’m Still Standing.
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‘. Moving ahead, while continuing to perform in clubs and doing concerts, Melba envisions herself starring in more theatrical productions, including shows in the “gospel theatre” realm.
“Looking back, I’m very grateful for the many twists and turns that have given me the opportunity to develop a career of great diversity,” says Melba. “As the latest manifestation of that, I hope the song ‘Imagine’ resonates with many people the way it has with me and that the philosophy of the lyrics touches and inspires them. Life is very fragile and I’m just happy that I’m still here to share the music that means the most to me.”
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