Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 14, 19, 23-25 June 1967
Producer: George Martin
Engineers: Eddie Kramer, Geoff Emerick
Released: 7 July 1967 (UK), 17 July 1967 (US)
John Lennon: vocals, harpsichord, banjo
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass, double bass
George Harrison: vocals, guitar, violin
Ringo Starr: drums
George Martin: piano
Sidney Sax, Patrick Halling, Eric Bowie, John Ronayne: violin
Lionel Ross, Jack Holmes: cello
Rex Morris, Don Honeywill: tenor saxophone
Stanley Woods, David Mason: trumpet
Evan Watkins, Harry Spain: trombone
Jack Emblow: accordion
Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Marianne Faithfull, Jane Asher, Mike McCartney, Pattie Harrison, Eric Clapton, Graham Nash, Keith Moon, Hunter Davies, Gary Leeds and more: chorus
Mike Vickers: conductor
Available on:
Magical Mystery Tour
1
Yellow Submarine
Yellow Submarine Songtrack
Love
All You Need Is Love was written by John Lennon especially for Our World, the world's first televised satellite link-up between 25 countries worldwide. Its message perfectly encapsulated the optimistic mood of the Summer of Love, with a simplicity perfectly judged for their global audience.
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.
Anthology
The BBC had suggested the idea of using new satellite relays to connect the national television networks of countries across the world, to make a live link-up on a scale previously unknown. The Beatles were the natural choice to represent Britain, and they decided to compose a new song especially for the broadcast.
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 Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
Our World took place on 25 June 1967; The Beatles began recording the backing track just 11 days before the transmission date. Coming just two weeks after the release of Sgt Pepper, The Beatles were clearly full of confidence, and took a the prospect of a potential audience of 400 million people in their stride.
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.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
A remix of All You Need Is Love was the closing track on the Love album. The song's ending featured vocals from Baby You're A Rich Man, Rain and Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, as well as the guitar riff from Ticket To Ride. The song segues into a brief orchestral snippet from Good Night, accompanied by a snippet of dialogue from The Beatles' 1965 Christmas fan club recording.
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.
Anthology
In the studio
The Beatles began recording All You Need Is Love on 14 June 1967, at Olympic Sound Studios in Barnes, London. The group taped some vocals and played unconventional instruments: Lennon on harpsichord, McCartney on double bass, and Harrison playing a violin. Ringo Starr was the only member to stick to his usual instrument.
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.
Anthology
Five days later, back at Abbey Road, they overdubbed more drums, plus lead and backing vocals, piano played by George Martin and banjo by Lennon.
On 23 and 24 June they made last minute rehearsals and additional recording, including an orchestral overdub. There was also a press call on the morning of 24 June, which saw more than 100 journalists and photographers enter Abbey Road.
Related articles:
- Mixing: All You Need Is Love
- The Beatles on Our World: All You Need Is Love
- Recording: All You Need Is Love
- Recording: All You Need Is Love
- Recording, mixing: All You Need Is Love
I'm afraid the mono mix of All You Need is Love didn't appear on Yellow Submarine Mono LP because it's a fold-down mix.
The finest of songs to a world so in need of a totally committed, unconditional and heart felt sincere statement of 'LOVE'. When I first heard this song I was so impressed by the ( professional ease), as it we're, of The Beatles! Absolutely one of the greatest songs of ' love on love' ever! Going far beyond the same type of song; 'The Word', Johns' ability to literally syncopate poetry and preaching in a manner so effortlessly fluid, it surprises us it's how truly hard this is to do sucessfully without being demeaning or demanding of our sensibilities. The Beatles truely came full circle 'Yeah, Yeah, Yeah; reinventing even the pop beginnings of their own careers. The B-side 'Baby Your A Rich Man' even overflows with so much swagger and confidence we are literally cheering our 'Pop-Heroes' on! The sound produced by these songs is extremely inspiring, driving us all to believe we too can achieve our hearts desires when we believe and trust in the power of' LOVE!'
I think McCartney ad-libed from She Loves You.
Clearly on audio and during the visual broadcast one can tell that it is John Lennon ad-libing She Loves You.
There's actually a huge amount of debate over who ad-libs She Loves You during the broadcast, as most if not all of the Beatles are singing at that point; the real question is whose voice ended up on the recording.
On the visual broadcast, it's difficult to decipher who is singing what. But audio? Every hardcore Beatle fan knows the distinctive timbres of the voices of John and Paul; it's Paul singing the "She Loves You" bit.
Not only does it sound exactly like Paul, but John couldn't sing that high. Indeed, John actually has said in interviews that there are songs HE wrote, where he had Paul sing, simply because he couldn't hit the notes (the middle 8 of "A Hard Day's Night, the lead of "Day Tripper," the high melody of "If I Fell.") And Paul has been quoted (indeed, earlier in this very article) that his contribution to the song was the She Loves You bit. FWIW, I think it's a rare Paul misstep, and actually kind of detracts from the message of the song.
Umm Minus John they're lip-syncing right? i don't understand how people don't see that. Pretty clear when paul "sings" All together now. And his bass track is NOT the same as on ideo. hence the need for Ringo's headphones... there are definatley tracks being played that they aren't playing live. hence the need for Ringo's headphones.. ignore my horrible grammar please. 1 hour of sleep
I see.
Comments and debate are one thing, but you insinuate that anyone who believes the opposite of your opinion here is not only incorrect, but also, in your humble opinion, that person is not a "hardcore Beatle fan".
What tommyrot!
I have always thought it was Paul, as when it first starts it sounds like him. However, as it goes on, it begins to sound more like John. To me it literally sounds like the voice morphed Paul to John, which obviously didn't happen, but it is confusing. If I had to choose, I'd say John. Listen to the first "Yeah" the second time he says "She loves you YEAH yeah yeah"..It has a roughness to it much like John's voice.
Hi Jake!
Check out the site Joe suggests and you'll find you're totally correct:
Paul starts alone, John joins in.
I agree 100% with Joe. Paul starts and John joins in right away no question.
I think it was John.
The ad-libs are from John, because that tune that is reached in the record ''saying Yesterday and She Loves You Yeah yeah, she loves you yeah yeah yeah''.
And in the complete full 7 minute version John is rehearshing saying fast ''She loves you yeah yeah, she loves you yeah yeah''.
Can anyone actually hear the banjo that John is supposedly playing?
Since I was "looking" for it I think I found it at around 2.09 doing the bass line after the "it's easy".
Here in Canada,'All You Need is Love' was the theme song for a show in the seventies. It was on the weekends (I can't remember exactly when). The show featured kids that were available for adoption. Does anyone know the name of that show? It was on either 'Global TV', CBC or TVO. I've been racking my brains for a long time trying to figure this out.
I remember that show being here in Australia as well and cannot for the life of me remember the name of it. I do remember the island and a bouncing ball on the ocean. It was rather a strange show but we were addicted to it.
I seem to remember some plot about mind games or something. it is all a bit vague now.
The show with the giant ball was "The Prisoner," a celebrated series from the 60s; AYNIL featured in the final episode. As for Canadian adoption programs, that's beyond my ken.
JP: I've been trying to think of the name of this show for years! I remember the show. What a strange idea for a tv show lol.
I think it's Paul singing the "she loves you" part and here's why. In the second or third "she loves you" there's a vocal trill that sounds like a technique that only Paul does. It's on the "loves you" part - takes you and makes it two sylabbles long.
Also, I wonder if this is one of those moments John was referring to when he said that while Paul's songs kept to a tight script - on his songs a whole air of experimentation seemed to open up and that John believed Paul would sabotage John's songs in this way.
Could be. Or not.
I think this has been debated widely elsewhere on the web, so I'm slightly wary of having another discussion about it here (though the forum is always open). Have you seen this page? It suggests that it's both John and Paul.
Cool!
That guy explains very eloquently my excact thoughts:
Paul started it, John joined in.
Please correct it.
having listened to the audio clip separated out -it is both - without doubt it's both - Paul starts it and John joins right in.
Martin's arrangement on this has been a profound influence on my entire approach to songwriting and production.
He is a master of this kind of pastiche, and I wish it was used more in popular music today.
Have never seen this written anywhere but I think it's very interesting that they used La Marseillaise at the beginning. Given each country had a segment on the broadcast that was supposed to showcase their own country (e.g. Australia and trams in Melbourne I think), to start with the definitive French song I think must have been their sense of humor at work. You can imagine the broadcast saying, "And now from the United Kingdom..." and the first thing being the opening bars to the French national anthem.
THANK YOU for mentioning "La Marseillaise!" this song was the first time I had ever heard it, and ever since I found out what it was, I've wondered why they used it in this song. The explanation of John's sense of humor makes good sense to mw.
First let me express how I love the arrangement. Everything, starting with John's harpsichord to the orchestra and the song snippets and the wonderful backing vocals is just mindblowingly beautiful and rich.
I never thought they really took the live recording for the single.
But in fact you can actually hear Lennon's chewing throughout the song, most prominently at around 0.43!
And my thoughts on ANOTHER "Paul or John" debate (wich I LOVE!):
It's clearly not John alone. Right before it there's "Oh yeah" which is clearly Paul. The "She loves you part" sounds exactly like the "Oh yeah", so it's Paul doing it.
Seeing both of them singing it together there may very well be an addition of John, especially in the second "She loves you".
Watch the original broadcast and note the 2:04-2:06 mark and you can see John practicing singing "she loves you." Again at about the 6:05 you can clearly see him singing it and Paul is smiling off mic.
I totally agree with you. to me it is obvius it was john and not paul, and whoever thinks the first bit of 'she loves you' sounds the same as the 'oh yeh' bit sang by paul does not have a good ear. No offense to anyone but there's no doubt it's john. You can even clearly see it on the video, plus when he sings the she loves you bit you cannot hear his voice at the back singing 'love is all you need' which you can when he's not doing the ad libs. No doubt to me it's john.
Cheers
Does John play an Elecric baldwin harpsichord or a regular one?