By now the whole world understands what the term love means, and what the emotion means. Or so I suspect — nobody’s proven it yet.
In June 1967, the Fab Four, that is, the Beatles, took love in hand. Musically and lyrically. And this was by no means the first time the four lads had busied themselves with love. But this time the BBC came with a concrete request. The British broadcaster dared, with “Our World,” something never done before: a live satellite broadcast meant to pull hundreds of millions of people worldwide in front of their fuzzy screens. The Beatles were to deliver a song that worked without translation. John Lennon sat down and wrote “All You Need Is Love.” That was the simple message that would be understood on practically every continent of planet Earth.
In the studio, a loose party mood reigned. Colourful balloons, hippie decor with flowers, and posters with the song title in various languages. The audience was made even more colourful by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, and Keith Moon. Naturally, they all belted out the chorus along with everyone else. George Martin, the Beatles’ producer, closed the finale with a musical fireworks display. Short snatches of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, “Greensleeves” at half tempo — and a piece of Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood” as the closing note.
And it was exactly in this finale that a small, loveable mistake hid itself. George Martin assumed that after so many years, both song pieces were free of licence. Assumptions are dangerous. What George overlooked was this: the melody of “In the Mood” was indeed freely available, but the specific arrangement was still hanging onto its copyright — a detail that, in the rush of live preparations, simply slipped through the cracks.
Ouch.
The copyright itself, and whatever lawyers were involved, looked past this mistake with love, though.
All you need is love. And a bit of luck.
Still one of my favourite songs. Simple and contains an undeniable, eternal truth.