For the live performance, which took place at 9.36pm GMT, The Beatles played along to their pre-recorded backing track. The vocals, bass guitar, guitar solo, drums and 13-piece orchestra were live. To reduce the chances of on-air errors, the event was carefully arranged, although care was taken to make it seem spontaneous.
Photo © David Magnus (davidmagnus.com)
The live sequence began with reporter Steve Race introducing the group as the backing track played. The director Derek Burrell-Davis then cut to the studio control room, from where George Martin announced that the orchestra should be brought in.
The Beatles then performed ‘All You Need Is Love’, seated – apart from Ringo Starr on high stools, and surrounded by various friends including Mick Jagger, Keith Richard, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Moon, Eric Clapton, Pattie Harrison, Jane Asher, Graham Nash and Hunter Davies. All were dressed in colourful clothes, and were surrounded by flowers, balloons and placards.
The musicians were: Sidney Sax, Patrick Halling, Eric Bowie and Jack Holmes (violin); Rex Morris and Don Honeywill (tenor saxophone); Evan Watkins and Harry Spain (trombone); Jack Emblow (accordion); and Stanley Woods and David Mason (trumpet). Stanley Woods also played flügelhorn on the recording.
After the broadcast ended and the studio guests had left, John Lennon re-recorded some of his vocal parts. The session ended at 1am the following morning.
‘All You Need Is Love’ was mixed on 26 June 1967, after Ringo Starr had added a drum roll to the introduction. The single was rush-released on 7 July with ‘Baby You’re A Rich Man’ as the b-side.
Also on this day...
- 2022: Paul McCartney live: Glastonbury Festival
- 2015: Paul McCartney live: Colonial Life Arena, Columbia, South Carolina
- 2014: Ringo Starr live: Turning Stone Casino, Verona, New York
- 2013: Paul McCartney live: Arena di Verona, Verona, Italy
- 1968: Mixing, editing: Revolution 1, Revolution 9
- 1968: George Harrison produces Jackie Lomax’s Sour Milk Sea
- 1968: Paul McCartney flies from New York to London
- 1966: Live: Grugahalle, Essen, Germany
- 1964: Live: Town Hall, Auckland, New Zealand
- 1963: Live: Astoria Ballroom, Middlesbrough
- 1962: Live: Plaza Ballroom, St Helens
- 1962: Live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (lunchtime)
- 1961: Live: Top Ten Club, Hamburg
- 1960: Live: Grosvenor Ballroom, Wallasey
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
‘All you need is Love’ was broadcast from Olympic Sudios, Church Road, Barnes SW13, not Abbey Road. There is also a myth going around that the anthology version was colourised. This would have been and to this day would have been an incredibly expensive process, even harder to do in 1994. The BBC had colour video capability in the summer of 1967 and it is much more probable that a colour tape was recorded on the day.
You’re wrong about Olympic. The backing track for All You Need Is Love was begun there, but Our World was filmed at EMI Studios, Abbey Road (overdubs were also recorded at EMI in the days leading up to the satellite broadcast).
you are right joe. that looks like studio two at abbey road studios
Besides being wrong about Olympic, you’re also incorrect about the colorization. The event was NOT recorded in color. It was, in fact, videotaped in Black and White, and the ‘color’ was added for the Anthology that premiered in 1995.
You’re right about it being televised in color, but wring about where. It was recorded at EMI.
Compare Jean Luc Godards ‘One Plus One’ of the Rolling Stones recording Sympathy for the Devil in 1968 at Olympic with ‘Our World’. It is the very same room I promise you.
There’s no big plot about the studio. All of the living Beatles remember being at Abbey Road, and that’s good enough for me.
Who cares where it was done. I care that it was done and we still have it to enjoy today! Love is all you need!
Mind you, OUR WORLD was nationally broadcasted also in Yugoslavia through a national RTV on that very day. (Then still) Yugoslavia also contributed it’s part in the programme. I remember because I was watching that broadcast. The Yugoslavian part was actually a Slovenian part about a touristic town Bled with it’s lake and island with a little church on it and a castle above on a rock. I think there was also something about croatian town Dubrovnik. I still rebember EVERY PART of the Beatles. It was in black and white, of course.
It’s studio no 1 at Abbey Road. Even if you haven’t read all the documents and seen all the other pictures from that day that clearly shows them being in the gigantic no 1, the control room position (ground floor, not upstairs like no 2) and REDD desk (definitely not the Helios desk at Olympic) gives it away.
Gotta love kids today discovering great Beatles songs like this!
I am soooo excited watching this today! Sorry because I was like, ‘OMG! On this day The Beatles did this and that!’
<3 <3 I love The Beatles! Whatever happens! <3 Happy Anniversary to this song! ^^
Can anyone tell me why the complete video of this occasion is not available?
Another 50th anniversary today! Peace -Love
The second page of this article says it took place at 9:36 pm GMT. I recall seeing the live super title time of 8:54 pm GMT, which makes more sense as they were the final act. It was also the time stamp seen in the 1987 Grenada TV production _It Was 20 Years Ago Today_ when it showed The Beatles on the _Our World_ broadcast. The program was over by 9:00 pm GMT or 5 o’clock Eastern Daylight Time in Toronto and New York.