All you need is love - the story of the song

What would you do if you had the chance to send a message to the entire world?

If you were given the opportunity, for a few minutes, to speak to hundreds of millions of people?

That opportunity was given to The Beatles in June 1967.

What did they choose?

To send the whole world a message of serene clarity:

It was John Lennon who came up with this ultra-simple phrase, one that could speak to everyone. That was his genius: to convey a luminous idea, with limitless reach, in a short sentence carried by a lovely melody.

When one thinks of Lennon, one immediately thinks of Imagine. Yet All you need is love is probably the most beautiful message he left in his wake...

For June 25, 1967, nineteen nations agreed to present the same program, broadcast simultaneously during the evening. In the spring, The Beatles learned from the BBC that they had been chosen to represent the United Kingdom. Among the other major artists taking part in the evening were Maria Callas and Pablo Picasso. For the occasion, McCartney composed "Your mother should know" and John Lennon wrote "All you need is love". It was the latter song that was chosen: the opportunity was too beautiful to miss, a chance to send a message of love to the planet. Paul's song would be kept for the Magical Mystery Tour record.

The single was recorded between June 14 and June 25. George Martin included a few musical winks: excerpts from the medieval song Greensleeves, from In the Mood, and also, at the very beginning of the song, the opening bars of La Marseillaise.

The song was performed live on June 25 with friends such as Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Keith Moon of The Who and Graham Nash of The Hollies, who provided backing vocals.

All you need is love, The Beatles' message of love, was sung live before 400 million television viewers.

At the very beginning of the sequence, producer George Martin can be seen briefly. Despite his British composure, he is clearly under pressure. The broadcast is going out live, and no mistake is allowed. Martin had arranged for the orchestral tape to be brought in as a backdrop.

Toward the end of the piece, Lennon, seized by playful inspiration, lets go and suddenly sings, "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah", offering a mischievous nod to the landmark song of their early years. Lennon could not help himself: he always had to introduce a trace of humor into what he did, something that prevented a situation from becoming too solemn. This time, the occasion was too perfect.

Brian Epstein, The Beatles' manager, considered 'All you need is love' to be the peak of The Beatles:
"It was a clear message that could not be misinterpreted, saying that love is everything."

Indeed, 'All you need is love' would remain in people's minds as a simple, direct, immediate expression, one that by itself condenses millennia of philosophy.

Did Lennon's genius not lie in the incredible force of this single phrase, whose apparent simplicity conceals a universal truth of irresistible power?

Lennon believed that certain words could have power. As early as 1965, he had tried his hand at this in the song 'The Word' from the album Rubber Soul. Throughout the song, he declared: 'Say the word and you'll be free'. And at the end of the song, he revealed the word in question: LOVE.

'All you need is love' therefore belongs to this vision that songs can have power. Lennon was fascinated by the impact of a song such as 'We shall overcome', which was commonly sung as an anthem during the marches of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. That was the essence he was trying to capture. 'I like slogans, advertising, television,' John once said. In 1971, in an interview, he made it clear that he regarded this song as 'propaganda', explaining that his art was meant to change things. In the same spirit, he would later write 'Give peace a chance', a song widely taken up by students opposed to the Vietnam War, and of course Imagine.

On the B-side of the 'All you need is love' single was 'Baby you're a rich man', on which John sings the lead vocal. The song refers to the 'beautiful people', an expression then used to describe followers of hippie philosophy. It is made up of two songs respectively written by John and Paul: John came up with the verse, Paul with the chorus.

The single, released on July 7, instantly reached No. 1 in England and did the same in the United States after its July 17 release. That summer, The Beatles nevertheless had to face serious competition from Procol Harum's single 'A whiter shade of pale', which they knocked from the top position in the United Kingdom, though it would sometimes regain that place in certain charts.

Excerpt from the book Beatles from A to Z by Daniel Ichbiah