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All You Need is Love |
| “All You Need Is Love” | |||||
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| Single by The Beatles from the album Magical Mystery Tour |
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| B-side | "Baby You're a Rich Man" | ||||
| Released | 7 July 1967 (UK) 17 July 1967 (US) |
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| Format | 7" | ||||
| Recorded | Abbey Road Studios 25 June 1967 |
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| Genre | Pop Rock |
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| Length | 3:47 | ||||
| Label | Parlophone R5620 (UK) Capitol 5964 (US) |
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| Writer(s) | Lennon/McCartney | ||||
| Producer | George Martin | ||||
| The Beatles singles chronology | |||||
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| Music sample | |||||
| Magical Mystery Tour track listing | |||||
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| Yellow Submarine track listing | |||||
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| Yellow Submarine Songtrack track listing | |||||
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| Love track listing | |||||
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"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. Broadcast to 26 countries and watched by 400 million, the programme was broadcast via satellite on June 25, 1967. The BBC had commissioned the Beatles to write a song for the UK's contribution. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it at #362 in their 500 greatest songs of all time.
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Asked to come up with a song containing a simple message to be understood by all nationalities, Lennon's "All You Need Is Love" extended the message he first tried in "The Word", from The Beatles' 1965 album Rubber Soul. "It was an inspired song and they really wanted to give the world a message," said Brian Epstein.1 "The nice thing about it is that it cannot be misinterpreted. It is a clear message saying that love is everything." 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 Beatles decided the song should be their next single the day before the Our World broadcast. Released in the UK on July 7, it went straight to No. 1 and remained there for three weeks. It was similarly successful in the US, reaching No. 1 for a week (appearing on the American LP version of Magical Mystery Tour in November).2
It was the last song both recorded and released by the band before the death of Brian Epstein on August 27, 1967, little more than a month after the song was released.
The interviews on The Beatles Anthology documentary 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."3
For the broadcast, the Beatles were (except for Ringo) 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 and Kim McLagan. Lennon, affecting indifference, was said to be nervous about the broadcast,4 given the potential size of the international TV audience. Dissatisfied with his singing, he re-recorded the solo verses for use on the single. Contrary to belief, McCartney wore a rose in his headset not to go along with the theme of the performance, but to spite Lennon. Lennon insisted McCartney wear green. After getting his way, McCartney went looking around the studio for something red and came across a vase of roses outside George Harrison's dressing room.citation needed . In watching the tape of the broadcast, one can see some interesting dynamics that occur during the song. First, it appears that both Lennon and McCartney are chewing gum. Second, during a dissolve, McCartney looks surprised that the horns take up the Bach piece. Finally, at the end of the song, both Lennon and McCartney sing "She Loves You," something that has been a topic of debate over the years but is quite clear when one views the video.
Because of the worldwide broadcast, the song was given an international feel, opening with the French anthem "La Marseillaise", and including snatches of other pieces during the long fade-out, including "2-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" (spontaneously ad-libbed by Lennon), 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."
The structure of the song is complex. The main body (the verse) is in the unusual and infrequently used 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:
| “ | There's nothing you can do that can't be done Nothing you can sing that can't be sung Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game It's easy |
” |
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.
Lennon had experimented with mixed time signatures. The song "We Can Work It Out" from 1965 has a 16 measure bridge composed by Lennon in which he juxtaposes 4 measures each of 4/4 and 3/4.
"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.
The track was remixed by George Martin and his son, Giles Martin, for the Beatles' soundtrack for the Cirque du Soleil show Love. The main differences are a more central sound to the song's introductory vocals and strings (rather than the left/right stereo split of the original) and a number of overdubs for the ending, closing with vocals from "Baby You're a Rich Man", "Rain", and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" the guitar riff from "Ticket To Ride" in a different key leading into the outro from "Good Night".
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.
Where the original goes:
| “ | There's nothing you can do that can't be done Nothing you can sing that can't be sung Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game It's easy |
” |
In Neubauten's version the line goes:
| “ | Cause nothing has been done that can't be done Nothing has been sang that can't be sung And nothing has been set, so forget how to play the game It's easy |
” |
The line 'All you need is love' is also replaced with 'All you need is headcleaner'.
| Preceded by "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum |
UK Singles Chart number one single 19 July 1967 (three weeks) |
Succeeded by "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" by Scott McKenzie |
| Preceded by "Light My Fire" by The Doors |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single August 19, 1967 (one week) |
Succeeded by "Ode to Billie Joe" by Bobbie Gentry |
| Preceded by "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum |
United World Chart number one single August 26, 1967 – September 30, 1967 |
Succeeded by "The Letter" by Box Tops |
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