Our World
I'm ready to sing for the world, George, if you can just give me the backing...
Our World
25 June was the day of the Our World broadcast. Most of the day was spent rehearsing with the BBC camera crew. As it was such an important day, George Martin ensured that The Beatles played along to their pre-recorded backing track (take 10, with additional overdubs); the vocals, bass, guitar solo, drums and orchestra were the only live elements.
We went around to EMI for the show. We'd done a lot of pre-recording, so we sang live to the backing track. We'd worked on it all with George Martin's help, and it was a good day. We went in there early in the morning to rehearse with the cameras, and there was a bit orchestra - for all that stuff with Greensleeves playing on the way out of the song. The band was asked to invite people, so we had people like Mick and Eric, and all our friends and wifelets.
Anthology
It was unusual for The Beatles to allow cameras into the studio while they were working, although not unprecedented. Notably, the group had planned a televised special around the making of Sgt Pepper; although the programme never came to fruition, the orchestral overdubs for A Day In The Life had been filmed on 10 February.
For Our World, it was decided that The Beatles, other than Ringo Starr, would perform on high stools in the studio, surrounded by friends sitting cross-legged on the floor. Friends and family in attendance included Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richard, Keith Moon, Eric Clapton, Pattie Harrison, Jane Asher, Mike McCartney, Graham Nash and Hunter Davies.
I remember the recording, because we decided to get some people in who looked like the 'love generation'. If you look closely at the floor, I know that Mick Jagger is there. But there's also an Eric Clapton, I believe, in full psychedelic regalia and permed hair, sitting right there. It was good: the orchestra was there and it was played live. We rehearsed for a while, and then it was: 'You're on at twelve o'clock, lads.' The man upstairs pointed his finger and that was that. We did it - one take.
Anthology
Although the event had been rehearsed for much of the day prior to the 9.36pm (local time) live broadcast, nerves were running high on the day.
I was on camera for the broadcast. It was a bit of a panic because it was done in the big number one studio at EMI. The control room was then just at the bottom of the stairs. It wasn't very large, and there was Geoff Emerick, the tape operator and myself in there. We had prepared a basic track of the recording for the television show, but we were going to do a lot live. There was a live orchestra, the singing was live, the audience certainly was, and we knew it was going to be a live television show. There was also a camera in the control room.With about thirty seconds to go, there was a phone call. It was the producer of the show, saying: 'I'm afraid I've lost all contact with the studio - you're going to have to relay the instructions to them, because we're going on air any moment now.' I thought, 'My God, if you're going to make a fool of yourself, you might as well do it properly in front of 350 million people. At that point I just laughed.
Anthology
The broadcast lasted for just six minutes and 11 seconds, but it was a frantic affair for those in the studio - not helped by having to go on air earlier than expected.
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!
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
The members of the orchestra wore formal evening dress, and the invited audience all wore the colourful clothes that were de rigeur in 1967. All of The Beatles' guests sang in the song's lengthy fade-out, and some even danced a conga around the studio.
George Martin's orchestral arrangement, for which he was paid £15, contained elements from Bach's Brandenburg concerto, Greensleeves, and Glenn Miller's arrangement of In The Mood, in addition to the distinctive introduction of La Marseillaise. Lennon also ad-libbed parts of She Loves You.
In arranging it, we shoved La Marseillaise on the front, and a whole string of stuff on the end. I fell into deep water over that. I'm afraid that amongst all the little bits and pieces I used in the play-out, which the boys didn't know about, was a bit of In The Mood. Everyone thought In The Mood was in the public domain, and it is - but the introduction isn't. The introduction is an arrangement, and it was the introduction I took. That was a published work. EMI came to me and said: 'You put this in the arrangement, so now you've got to indemnify us against any action that might be taken.' I said, 'You must be joking. I got fifteen pounds for that arrangement, that's all.' They saw the joke. I think they paid a fee to Keith Prowse, or whoever the publisher was, and I wrote the arrangements out. Greensleeves was also there at half tempo, to weave in with a bit of Bach and the bit of In The Mood.
Anthology
After the guests had left the studio, Starr overdubbed a snare drum roll onto the introduction, and Lennon re-recorded some vocals in the verses. The song was remixed the following day in preparation for the single release.
Chart success
Remarkably, The Beatles only decided to release All You Need Is Love as a single on 24 June, the day before the Our World broadcast. It was issued in the UK on 7 July 1967, backed with Baby, You're A Rich Man. Notably, it was the first time George Martin received a producer credit on a Beatles single.
The single inevitably became a worldwide smash hit. Five days after its UK release, All You Need Is Love was at number one in the single chart, where it remained for four weeks.
In the US it was issued on 17 July; on 29 July it entered the top 40, spent a week at number one, and stayed in the charts for nine weeks. It also appeared on the LP version of Magical Mystery Tour, released in the US on 27 November.
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.
McCartney didn't sing She Loves You in All You Need Is Love, Mick Jagger did.
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.
That's a good point, Johan, and certainly fits with John's humor, and the general anti-French attitude by many Brits. But all the bits of other songs included on the track relate to the song's general theme of "Love": "Greensleeves", "In The Mood", "She Loves You", etc. As for "La Marseillaise", is not France supposed to be the world capital of romance? Or is this an expression of love from the Beatles (Britain) towards France...for the sake of peace? I can't say I've ever read the definitive explanation.
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?
>>>>> 7/8 ! <<<<<
Didn't ANYbody notice the VERY unusual and remarkable metrics in this song???
Immediately after the horn-intro at 2:40 you can only count 4/4 + 3/4 = 7/8
And later on in ALL 3 verses were John sings these 2 lines at 3:59
"There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung"
The next line is the normal 8/8: ("Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game")
JUST COUNT with them and be astonished!!
In here Ringo can't play a pattern and is forced to beat on EVERY bar....
Must be rehearsed intensely because NOBODY makes the easy -1 bar too long- mistake.
THIS is all extremely RARE in music-history and another prove of their genius!
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I think my remarks are important enough to mention within the data of the song (at the studio or so) "build in 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4"
(sorry for my poor english, I am dutch - please improve)
The Beatles used odd time signatures many times in their songs - possibly more often than you realise. There's a thread on the subject in the Fab Forum.
Thanks for pointing that forum - very interesting!
Yes, those of us that were adults at the time when this song came out did notice at least some of the time signatures.
Hello Beatle Detailists!
So here's my question to you all: I KNOW I read somewhere (it could've been a sound interview but I feel like I read it...) that John said he began writing this lyric from a SARCASTIC point-of-view! Like "Oh yeah, ALL your problems will be solved with 'love'...HA!"..... AND HE/I/YOU COULD SEE THAT! John was often sarcastic and he was quick to notice and talk (or sing) about various ironies in life. In that unknown/forgotten interview, he said that either after he wrote AYNIL, or perhaps during the process, he then looked at the lyric and realized that a more literal interpretation of the lofty concepts in AYNIL's lyrics made amazing poetic sense, and, consequently, John had an about-face regarding the song's meaning. As time went on, as I understand it, John came to view AYNIL as, in many respects, his SIGNATURE song, at least in terms of a message describing his deepest values and ideals (probably along with Give Peace A Chance). Ironic, no?!
I think the story that John wrote AYNIL ironically, and then changed his mind, is absolutely one of the ways that the lyrics of John & the Beatles came together. They had some inspiration, quickly put something down and then sooner or later realized the lyric worked in other ways.
However, has anyone else seen that interview?! I really don't think I'm making this up or imagining it. Beatle sleuths: do your work!