Pictured above, The Grumps, an illustration from the liner notes and, left, (l-r) are Rosanna Arquette, Michael McKean, Tor Hyams and Annette O’Toole, Samuel Jackson, Deborah Harry and Gary Oldman.

A World of Good

Tor Hyams and celebrities from the worlds of music, film, TV, and sports create a children’s album that speaks to our times

"After the birth of my daughter, I went out and bought all of the really cool kids’ music that I loved as a kid," says singer/songwriter/composer/producer Tor Hyams. "I bought Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Wizard of Oz, Carole King’s Really Rosie and, of course, Marlo Thomas’ Free to Be You and Me. The quality of that music is so great for kids. I just knew I had to create something like that."

Hyam’s idea simply simmered until his daughter’s pre-school held a fund-raiser and he found himself brought together with actor Gary Oldman (another parent) to form a Beatles cover band to perform at the event. The performance was a success and, strangely enough, it led to a meeting with Buena Vista Records, who asked Hyams if he wanted to do a children’s record with Oldman and other celebrities.

Skip ahead many months, many phone calls and many recording sessions later and Hyams is now a proud songwriter and producer of A World of Happiness, featuring performances by a wonderful group of celebrites from music, television, stage and sports, including Deborah Harry, Perry Farrell, Magic Johnson, Samuel Jackson, Lisa Loeb, Rosanna Arquette, Isaac Hayes, Bradley Whitford, Jane Kaczmarek, Gary Oldman, Illeana Douglas, Michael McKean and Annette O’Toole, George Wendt, Gretchen Parlato, Michael Wincott and Hyams himself.

The album picks up where Free to Be You and Me left off. Says Hyams, "What I loved about that album is the purity of it. The inherent messaging through just plan fun. I looked around and realized that here we are today killing each other, with bombs dropping and so much hate. I wanted to focus on kindness, not as a political statement, but just because it’s getting ridiculous. Once you have a kid, these things really hit home."

On tracks such as "Just Ask," "The Patience Bossa," "The Possibilities," "Use Your Words" and "The Same Ground" and others, Hyams and his co-writers have crafted songs that are smart and fun, but also convey messages of kindness, respect, politeness and compassion.

A World of Happiness played a starring role on Capitol Hill in March as part of Music in Our Schools Month. Rosanna Arquette took the stage with Isaac Hayes to sing "A World of Happiness" with a group of children. The project is also supported by the American Music Conference, SupportMusic.com and the National Association for Music Education (MENC).

All of the artists involved donated their time and talent and some even pitched in to help market the album. Gary Oldman even directed a video of "The Patience Bossa" starring Perry Farrell and Deborah Harry. Rosanna Arquette became the project’s spokeswoman. A percentage of proceeds from the sale of A World of Happiness will be donated to children’s charities chosen by each of the performers on the album. Among those are the St. Jude’s Foundation and Pediatric: AIDS.

Hyams founded HyLo Productions, a multimedia company, with fellow ASCAP members, producer Vincenzo LoRusso and composer Jonathan Elias, in 2001. Now that he has seen this dream through to fruition, he hopes to create more projects like A World of Happiness, perhaps even a sequel.

"The good news," says Hyams, is that now we have talent coming to us saying, ‘are you doing another one? We want to be a part of it.’ They all want to be a part of something good for kids."