This Day in Music – All You Need Is Love

On this day 25th June 1967, 200 million people saw The Beatles perform ‘All You Need Is Love’, live via satellite as part of the TV global link- up, Our World.
The Beatles had been selected to represent the UK for the first-ever global-wide satellite broadcast Our World. The event which would cover five continents, asked The Beatles to come up with a song containing a “simple message” to be understood by all nationalities.
This was at the height of the Vietnam War, and the group wanted to use the opportunity to convey a positive message expressing a philosophy of love. The group agreed to be shown in the studio recording a song written especially for the occasion.
John Lennon wrote, “All You Need is Love” which was thought to sum up the 1967 ‘summer of love’ and The Beatles sympathies. With the satellite broadcast being broadcast to many non-English-speaking countries, the BBC asked The Beatles to ‘keep it simple’.
According to journalist Jade Wright, “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.'”
Watched by 400 million in 26 countries, the program was broadcast via satellite on 25 June 1967. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Graham Nash, Keith Moon and Gary Leeds from The Walker Brothers all provided backing vocals.
The track which open’s with “La Marseillaise” the French national anthem and saw John Lennon singing “She Loves You” as an ad lib over the fade-out, went to #1 on both sides of the Atlantic.