#7: Love Is All We Need by Tommy Edwards

City: London, ON
Radio Station: CKSL
Peak Month: November 1958
Peak Position in London ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #14
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #15
YouTube: “Love Is All We Need”
Lyrics: “Love Is All We Need”

Tommy Edwards was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1922. In 1939, when he turned 17 years of age, The Tommy Edwards Show began a one-year run on WRNL 910-AM in Richmond, Virginia. Edwards sang popular songs, played piano and was often joined by his talented siblings: Nathan on trumpet and Harriet on vocals. In 1943, at age 21, Tommy Edwards moved to New York. He was a regular at Small’s Paradise, an integrated nightclub in Harlem. He made connections and  sometimes performed with the bands at the club. In addition, he write and recorded demos of his songs to try to stir up the interest of music publishers. He wrote “That Chick’s Too Young to Fry“, which became a hit record for Louis Jordan in 1946.

In 1947, Edwards appeared (uncredited) in a movie starring Louis Jordan, about a bandleader. That year he formed The Tommy Edwards Trio. In 1950, his song “One Lie Leads to Another” was recorded by Tony Bennett. In 1951, Edwards signed with MGM Records. His fourth non-album single release, “The Morning Side Of The Mountain”, cracked the Billboard Top 30 on the pop chart. The song was successfully covered in the early 70’s by Donny and Marie Osmond. Later in 1951, Edward’s original recording of “It’s All In The Game” climbed to #18 on the pop chart. Although both Dinah Shore and Sammy Kaye recorded covers of Edwards song, it was Tommy who had the most successful hit with “It’s All In The Game” back in ’51. He also found success on the R&B charts with “All Over Now”, which peaked at #10. That year he appeared on the variety TV show Sing It Again.  Edwards also appeared on Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall in both 1951 and 1952.

In 1952, he appeared on the variety show, Songs for Sale. That year Edwards recorded a cover of the Johnnie Ray Top Ten hit, “Please Mr. Sun”. Tommy Edwards version stalled at #22. Late that year, Edwards covered Hank Williams’ “You Win Again”, and took it to #13 on the pop chart.

In 1953, Tommy Edwards started off the year with a cover of a Hank Snow country song titled “(Now and Then There’s) A Fool Such as I”. It peaked at #24 on the Billboard pop chart. In 1959, Elvis Presley had a number-one hit with the song in the UK and a #2 hit in the USA (kept off the top of the charts by The Fleetwoods “Come Softly To Me”). In 1954, Tommy Edwards cracked the Top 30 with a cover of the Doris Day chart-topper, “Secret Love”. From 1954 to 1957, Edwards released a dozen more singles. But none of these caught on. Between September 1955 and June 1958, Edwards did not record for MGM. (Though MGM continued to release songs into early 1957 that Edwards had recorded up to the summer of ’55). Tommy Edwards was often broke, and needed friends to give him money to pay the bills.

It seemed the Tommy Edwards was going to be remembered as a recording artist of minor hits from the early ’50s.

However, in 1958 Tommy Edwards recorded a new version of “It’s All In The Game”, with a hipper sound. This time it was recorded not in mono but stereo, with a new arrangement. The new version took off and climbed to number-one and remained for six consecutive weeks in the fall of ’58. The song also topped both the pop chart in the UK, and the Billboard R&B chart, for three weeks. “It’s All In The Game” also topped the pop charts in Australia. It sold over three million copies.

His next release, “Please Love Me Forever”, was more successfully covered in 1967 by Bobby Vinton. Though it was Tommy Edwards rendition that appeared in the 1988 film Rain Man.

His third and final release in 1958 was “Love Is All We Need”.

“Love Is All We Need” was cowritten by Ben Raleigh and Don Wolf. Of the two, Raleigh achieved some success. Ben Raleigh was born in 1913. His compositions include “She’s A Fool” (#5 – 1963) and “That’s The Way Boys Are” (#12 – 1964) for Lesley Gore, “Wonderful Wonderful” (#14 – 1957) for Johnny Mathis, “Dungaree Doll” (#7 – 1956) for Eddie Fisher, “Love Is A Hurting’ Thing” (#1 R&B/#13 pop – 1966) for Lou Rawls, “Midnight Mary” (#10 – 1964) for Joey Powers, “Tell Laura I Love Her” (#7 – 1960) for Ray Peterson, and “That’s How Heartaches Are Made” (#10 R&B/#40 pop – 1963) for Baby Washington. Raleigh died at the age of 83 in a kitchen fire in 1997 in his Los Angeles home.

“Love Is All We Need” was originally released by Jimmy Breedlove and His Orchestra in September 1958.

“Love Is All We Need” is a song that attests that when love is at the heart of a relationship, it is a constant that keeps it together. In the bridge of the song, Tommy Edwards sings:
Tell me we’ll always have each other,
‘Cause that’s all I ever want to know.
Tell me you’ll always be my lover,
‘Cause I will always want you so.

Tommy Edwards’ “Love Is All We Need” peaked at #1 in Caribou (ME), #2 in Ware (MA), #3 in London (ON), Toronto, and Odessa (TX), #4 in Arlington (VA), Memphis, Phoenix, Bakersfield (CA), and Buffalo, #5 in Washington DC, Burlington (VT), and Fairfax (VA), #6 in Dearborn (MI), Hamilton (ON), Colorado Springs (C), Las Vegas, and Philadelphia, #7 in Los Angeles, Providence (RI), Rockville (MD), and Danville (VA), #8 in Norfolk (VA), Winnipeg, Denver, and Pittsburgh, #9 in Alexandria (VA), Miami, Boston, Lowell (MA), Indianapolis (IN), Montreal, and Ithaca (NY), and #10 in Chicago and Lafayette (IN).

“Love Is All We Need” was covered by The Crew Cuts, Vic Dana, Mel Carter, Sonny James and others.

In 1958, Tommy Edwards appeared on both The Ed Sullivan Show and The Arthur Murray Party.

Having earned success from revising his 1951 version of “It’s All In The Game” to a pop smash in 1958, Tommy Edwards tried the formula with another song. He released a new version of “Please Mr. Sun”, which outpaced the 1952 chart run peak at #22, and this time climbed to #11 in early 1959. It peaked at #6 in Toronto.

However, a new version of “The Morning Side Of the Mountain” stalled at #27 later in ’59. Yet, in Toronto the new version reached #7 on CKEY-AM. Edwards released a cover of the 1912 pop standard, “My Melancholy Baby”. It cracked the Top 30, with Winnipeg sending it to #3. Five more sides charted during the remainder of 1959, but none of these cracked the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100.

At the height of his career comeback with “It’s All In The Game”, Tommy Edwards shared the stage with many recording artists. These include Baby Washington, the Cadillacs, the Four Knights, Dinah Washington, the Mills Brothers, jazz saxophonist Willis Jackson, and others.

In 1960, a cover of the 1934 hit “Don’t Fence Me In” charted to #45 on the Billboard Hot 100. Tommy Edwards final appearance in the Top 40 was later in 1960 with a remake of the 1953 Les Paul and Mary Ford tune “I Really Don’t Want to Know”. The duo had a #11 hit back in ’53. In 1960, Edwards cover climbed to #18 on the Billboard Hot 100.

From 1961 to 1966, Tommy Edwards released nearly a dozen more singles. But none of these cracked the Hot 100. He left MGM in 1964, and switched to Musicor Records.

On October 23, 1969, Edwards died at the age of 47. According to his death certificate, this was from massive internal hemorrhaging due to esophageal varices linked to cirrhosis of the liver. Though, elsewhere online it is stated he died of a brain aneurysm.

Tommy Edwards was buried in an unmarked grave at Quioccasin Baptist Church. Though eventually, through fundraising efforts, a gravestone was added that gave mention of his signature song.

In 2008, Richmond, Virginia, made October 15th Tommy Edwards Day. This was on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Edwards chart-topping appearance of “It’s All in The Game”.

March 12, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
“Biography of Tommy Edwards,” Mental Itch.com.
“Ben Raleigh, Grammy Winning Lyricist,” Los Angeles Times, March 9, 1997.
Michael Jack Kirby, “Tommy Edwards,” Way Back Attack.

CKSL 1410-AM London (ON) Top Ten | November 29, 1958