Paul McCartney 'never really understood' Beatles song that was their 'finest' moment
The Beatles were at the peak of their powers in 1967. The album 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' had been released that May and spent 27 weeks at the top of the British charts, defining the 'summer of love' and changing popular music forever.
During that summer, the band had signed up for a huge television event. Conceived by the BBC, 'Our World' was the first ever live multi-satellite, global television event and it would include the band playing at EMI Studios on Abbey Road in London during its broadcast on June 25. The Beatles would represent Britain and they needed to write a new track for the show. After signing a contract in May, they had a month to prepare, but left it late.
Recording engineer Geoff Emerick recalled in the book 'The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions': "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 song they wrote was 'All You Need Is Love'. Mainly John Lennon's work, it had a simple message. About that, manager Brian Epstein said: "It was an inspired song and they really wanted to give the world a message. "The nice thing about it is that it cannot be misinterpreted. It is a clear message saying that love is everything."
For their TV appearance, The Beatles would play over a backing track. That was recorded earlier in June and the band decided the night before the show that they would release 'All You Need Is Love' as their next single.
About putting it together, John said: "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.
Source: liverpoolecho.co.uk/Dan Haygarth
