"All You Need Is Love" is a song written by John Lennon and
credited to Lennon/McCartney. It was first performed by The
Beatles on
Our World, the first live global television link.
Watched by 400 million in 26 countries, the programme was
broadcast via satellite on 25 June 1967. The BBC had
commissioned the Beatles to write a song for the UK's
contribution.
Rolling Stonemagazine ranked it at #362 in their 500
greatest songs of all time.
The Beatles were asked to come up with a song containing a
simple message to be understood by all nationalities. "It was
an inspired song and they really wanted to give the world a
message," said Brian Epstein. "The nice thing about it is that
it cannot be misinterpreted. It is a clear message saying that
love is everything." According to journalist Jade Wright,
"Lennon was fascinated by the power of slogans to unite people
and never afraid to create art out of propaganda. When asked in
1971 whether songs like Give Peace a Chance and Power to the
People were propaganda songs, he answered: 'Sure. So was All
You Need Is Love. I'm a revolutionary artist. My art is
dedicated to change.'"
The day before the
Our Worldbroadcast, the Beatles decided that the song
should be their next single. Released in the UK on 7 July, it
went straight to number one and remained there for three weeks.
It was similarly successful in the US after its release on 17
July, reaching number one for a week. It was also included on
the American LP version of
Magical Mystery Tourin November).
The interviews on
The Beatles Anthologydocumentary series reveal that Paul
McCartney and George Harrison were unsure whether the song was
written for
Our World. However, George Martin and Ringo Starr assert
it was. When asked, McCartney replied:
"I don't think it was written specially for it. But it was
one of the songs we had. [...] It was certainly tailored to it
once we had it. But I've got a feeling it was just one of
John's songs that was coming there. We went down to Olympic
Studios in Barnes and recorded it and then it became the song
they said, 'Ah. This is the one we should use.' I don't
actually think it was written for it."
For the broadcast, the Beatles were (except for Starr)
seated on stools, accompanied by a small studio orchestra. They
were surrounded by friends and acquaintances seated on the
floor, who sang with the refrain during the fade-out, including
Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richards, Keith Moon,
Eric Clapton, Pattie Harrison, Jane Asher, Mike McCartney,
Graham Nash, Gary Leeds and Hunter Davies.
The performance was not completely live: The Beatles, the
orchestra, and guests were overdubbing onto a pre-recorded
rhythm track mainly consisting of piano, harpsichord, drums,
and backing vocals. The full
Our Worldsegment opens with the band and company
listening to the raw backing track, as commentator Steve Race
explained the process in voiceover. The live overdubs seem to
include not only lead vocals, orchestra, and the improvised
call-and-response, but also bass guitar, Harrison's guitar
solo, and a second drum track — which seems to go out of time
with the original track during the first few bars. At the
beginning of the song, under "La Marseillaise," a tambourine is
shaken, but this was mixed out and replaced with a drum roll
before the single was released.
Lennon, affecting indifference, was said to be nervous about
the broadcast, given the potential size of the international TV
audience. Dissatisfied with his singing, he re-recorded the
solo verses for use on the single. Starr also overdubbed drums
before the single was released, fixing the aforementioned
timing problems and adding the drum roll.
The programme was broadcast in ‘black-and-white’ (colour
television had yet to commence broadcasting in Britain and most
of the world). The Beatles' footage was colourised, based on
photographs of the event, for
The Beatles Anthologydocumentary.
Because of the worldwide broadcast, the song was given an
international feel, opening with the French National anthem "La
Marseillaise" omitting the first note, and including excerpts
of other pieces during the long fade-out, including "two-part
Invention #8 in F" by Johann Sebastian Bach (transposed to G
and played on 2 piccolo trumpets), "Greensleeves" (played by
the strings), Glenn Miller's "In the Mood" (played on a
saxophone), one of the Beatles' seminal hits (particularly in
Great Britain and the United States), "She Loves You" (ad
libbed by Lennon and McCartney), and Jeremiah Clarke's "Prince
of Denmark's March" lilting off at the end. Many sources,
including Beatles' producer George Martin, have misremembered
or misidentified the Bach quote as being from the "Brandenburg
Concerto No. 2". Lennon can also be heard scatting what sounds
like the title of "Yesterday", though others maintain he is
saying "Yes, you can." (Interestingly, the vocal chart for this
song on The Beatles: Rock Band lists the lyric as
"yesterday")
The structure of the song is complex. The main body (the
verse) is in a 7/4 time signature with two measures of 7/4, one
of 8/4, then back to 7/4 with the intro background vocals
repeatedly singing "Love, love, love", over the top of which
enter Lennon's lyrics:
By contrast, the chorus is simple: "All you need is love",
in 4/4 time repeated against the horn response but, each chorus
has only seven measures as opposed to the usual eight, and the
seventh is 6/4, then back to the verse in 7/4.
"All You Need Is Love" remains one of only two songs (along
with Pink Floyd's "Money" from 1973) written in 7/4 time to
reach the top 20 in the United States.
In the film
Yellow Submarine(1968), the second verse as well as the
instrumental are deleted. Also, the last choruses are switched,
the "all together now", and "everybody" coming first before the
last group of choruses.