Paul McCartney ‘never really understood’ Beatles song that was their ‘finest’ moment
They performed it live to 400 million people
The Beatles at the EMI studios on Abbey Road in 1967
The Beatles were at the peak of their powers in 1967. The album ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ had been released that May and spent 27 weeks at the top of the British charts, defining the ‘summer of love’ and changing popular music forever.
During that summer, the band had signed up for a huge television event. Conceived by the BBC, ‘Our World’ was the first ever live multi-satellite, global television event and it would include the band playing at EMI Studios on Abbey Road in London during its broadcast on June 25.
The Beatles would represent Britain and they needed to write a new track for the show. After signing a contract in May, they had a month to prepare, but left it late.
Recording engineer Geoff Emerick recalled in the book ‘The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions’: “I don’t know if they had prepared any ideas but they left it very late to write the song. John said, ‘Oh God, is it that close? I suppose we’d better write something.’”
The song they wrote was ‘All You Need Is Love’. Mainly John Lennon’s work, it had a simple message. About that, manager Brian Epstein said: “It was an inspired song and they really wanted to give the world a message.
“The nice thing about it is that it cannot be misinterpreted. It is a clear message saying that love is everything.”
For their TV appearance, The Beatles would play over a backing track. That was recorded earlier in June and the band decided the night before the show that they would release ‘All You Need Is Love’ as their next single.
About putting it together, John said: “We just put a track down. Because I knew the chords I played it on whatever it was, harpsichord.
“George played a violin because we felt like doing it like that and Paul played a double bass. And they can’t play them, so we got some nice little noises coming out.
“It sounded like an orchestra, but it’s just them two playing the violin and that. So then we thought, ‘Ah, well, we’ll have some more orchestra around this little freaky orchestra that we’ve got.’
“But there was no perception of how it sounded at the end until they did it that day, until the rehearsal. It still sounded a bit strange then.”
Brian was impressed with it and how they worked. He said: “The time got nearer and nearer and they still hadn’t written anything.
“Then, about three weeks before the programme, they sat down to write. The record was completed in 10 days.
“This is an inspired song, because they wrote it for a worldwide programme and they really wanted to give the world a message. It could hardly have been a better message. It is a wonderful, beautiful, spine-chilling record.”
On June 24, The Beatles took part in a photo shoot and went live the next day. They were joined by an orchestra. Nerves were high – the band’s producer George Martin and Geoff had a drink to compose themselves.
Geoff recalled: “We actually went on air about 40 seconds early. George and I were having a welcome shot of Scotch whisky when we got the word over the intercom.
“There was a big panic to hide the bottle and the glasses. We were shoving them under the mixing console.”
They were live for around six minutes and the performance of ‘All You Need is Love’ all went well, despite the early start. More than 400m people in 25 countries watched it.
Looking back, Ringo Starr said of the performance: “We were big enough to command an audience of that size, and it was for love. It was for love and bloody peace.
“It was a fabulous time. I even get excited now when I realise that’s what it was for. Peace and love, people putting flowers in guns.”
The track was released as a single on July 7, with ‘Baby, You’re a Rich Man’ as its B-side. It topped charts around the world.
About it, Paul McCartney said: “‘All You Need Is Love’ was John’s song. I threw in a few ideas, as did the other members of the group, but it was largely ad libs like singing ‘She Loves You’ or ‘Greensleeves’ or silly things at the end and we made those up on the spot.
“The chorus, ‘All you need is love’, is simple, but the verse is quite complex; in fact I never really understood it, the message is rather complex. It was a good song that we had handy that had an anthemic chorus.”
According to Brian, that performance was their “finest” moment. ‘All You Need Is Love’ would be the final song they released before their manager’s death in August 1967.
