This day in 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’, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Graham Nash, Keith Moon and Gary Leeds provided backing vocals.

The song was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song served as Britain’s contribution to Our World, the first live global television link, when the Beatles were filmed performing it at EMI Studios in London on 25 June 1967. The program was broadcast via satellite and seen by an audience of over 400 million in 25 countries. Lennon’s lyrics, which were deliberately simplistic to allow for the show’s international audience, captured the utopian sentiments of the Summer of Love era. The single topped sales charts in Britain, the United States and many other countries, and became an anthem for the counterculture’s embrace of flower power philosophy.

Rather than perform the song entirely live on Our World, the Beatles played to a pre-recorded backing track. The released recording featured a new lead vocal by Lennon but was otherwise little changed from this performance. With an orchestral arrangement by George Martin, the song opens with a portion of the French national anthem and ends with musical quotations from works such as Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood”, “Greensleeves”, and Bach’s Invention No. 8 in F major, as well as the chorus of the Beatles’ 1963 hit “She Loves You”. Adding to the festive atmosphere of the broadcast, the studio was adorned with signs and streamers, and filled with guests dressed in psychedelic attire, including members of the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Small Faces. The performance took place at the height of the Beatles’ popularity and influence, following the release of their album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and was described by Brian Epstein, their manager, as the group’s “finest” moment.

“All You Need Is Love” was later included on the US Magical Mystery Tour album. It also appears in a sequence in the Beatles’ 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine and on the accompanying soundtrack album. Originally broadcast in black-and-white, the Our World performance was colorized for inclusion in the Beatles’ 1995 Anthology documentary series.

Watch the video here: https://vimeo.com/262481000