Love, Peace And Happiness

Album: Love, Peace And Happiness (1969)
Charted: 96
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Songfacts®:

  • Written by all four Chambers Brothers (George, Joe, Lester and Willie), this song is their offering:

    We're gonna give to you now
    All our love, peace, and happiness
    And you can share yours too


    "That was our main purpose, was to spread love, peace and happiness, joy and fellowship among people," Willie said in a Songfacts interview. "It's impossible, I guess, for everybody to be happy all the time, but if there's some encouragement it does help."
  • After moving from Mississippi to Los Angeles in the early '60s, The Chambers Brothers embraced the hippie movement that took hold later in that decade, which is reflected in this song. Willie explained: "The hippie thing, that was one of the greatest times we will ever experience. I don't think any of us living today will experience anything like that again. There was the Roaring '20s that we all heard about, but then came the '60s, the hippies. The hippies consisted of young, wealthy, white kids who walked away from their assurances because they couldn't understand what their parents were trying to teach them, and they didn't want to know.

    The parents were teaching one thing but when they grew up and got out in the world, they saw quite different than what they were taught, and they started to retaliate and not accept that kind of upbringing. Thousands and thousands of young kids told me they walked away from their parents. They just said, 'We don't want it. We just want love, peace and happiness.' And that's one reason that song was written: because we experienced love, peace and happiness."
  • This was released late in 1969, months after the moon landing of July 20. When Neil Armstrong set foot on the surface, he said, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." The Chambers Brothers paraphrased those famous words in this song:

    It's a small step for man
    But it's a giant leap for all mankind
  • On the album, this runs 16:16, with long instrumental passages. The single was cut down to 4:10. This followed the formula from the group's first hit, "Time Has Come Today," which goes 11:06 on the album and 4:45 on the single.

Comments: 1

  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyPer: www.legacy.com {10-15-2019}...
    George Chambers, bass player for the pioneering psychedelic soul rock band, the Chambers Brothers, passed away on October 12th, 2019 at the ageof 88...
    George and his brothers, Lester, Joe, and Willie started singing in church together as children in Mississippi and formed the band in Los Angeles in the mid-1950s...
    They started out as a gospel group but later became known in the LA folk music community and were invited by Pete Seeger to play at the Newport Folk Festival. The band went electric, adding drummer Brian Keenan, making them one of the first interracial bands...
    They embraced psychedelic soul music and had a huge hit in 1968 with “Time Has Come Today"*. They continued to perform and record as the Chambers Brothers until the mid-1970s. George would go back to gospel music and he would occasionally get back together with his brothers and perform...
    May he R.I.P.
    * "Time Has Come Today" just missed making the Top 10 on Billboard's Top 100 chart, on September 15th, 1968 it peaked at #11 for five weeks {wonder if this the record for being at #11}...
    As noted above, "Love, Peace, and Happiness" peaked at #96 on Billboard's Top 100 chart, and that was on February 22nd, 1970 and it remained on the Top 100 for only one week...
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