Ask Beatles fans to name a perfect song, and you’ll likely hear a long list. From the dramatic climax of A Day in the Life to the grand closing medley of Abbey Road, the Fab Four left behind music that feels untouchable.
By the late 1960s, George Harrison was beginning to emerge as a songwriter in his own right. Though often overshadowed by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Harrison could still recognize brilliance when he heard it—and for him, one Lennon track perfectly captured what The Beatles were all about.
The mid-1960s had already reshaped the band. The mop-top image from A Hard Day’s Night was fading, as countless imitators tried to cash in on their style. The Beatles, meanwhile, were pulling away from the chaos of live shows that had become unbearable by 1966, retreating to the studio to reinvent themselves. With Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, they embraced psychedelia and redefined what a rock album could be.
It was during this era that the band received a request to contribute a song for Our World, one of the first globally televised broadcasts. Tasked with delivering something universal, Lennon quickly wrote All You Need Is Love. Debuting to a worldwide audience, the song became an anthem for the counterculture, echoing the peace-and-love ideals of the late 1960s and offering a hopeful alternative to the violence of the Vietnam War.
Looking back, Harrison thought the song was the perfect statement for its time. He told VH1:
“It was just a perfect song because it was so simple. The message was so simple, and it was a good excuse to go right into that culture that was happening and give them a theme tune.”
But beneath its singalong chorus lay subtle complexities. Lennon often shifted the rhythm, skipping beats and sliding between 3/4 and 4/4 time without formal training or strict structure. Harrison admired Lennon’s natural feel for these quirks, later explaining to Rolling Stone:
“John has an amazing thing with his timing. ‘All You Need is Love’ sort of skips beats out and changes from 3/4 to 4/4 all the time, in and out of each other.”
Ringo Starr remembered the spirit of the moment more than the technicalities:
“We were big enough to command an audience of that size, and it was for love. It was for love and bloody peace. It was a fabulous time. I even get excited now when I realise that’s what it was for: peace and love, people putting flowers in guns.”
Even Paul McCartney, Lennon’s closest rival in the band, praised the track despite its simplicity:
“‘All You Need Is Love’ was John’s song. I threw in a few ideas, as did the other members, but it was largely ad-libs like singing ‘She Loves You’ or ‘Greensleeves’ at the end. The chorus, ‘All you need is love’, is simple, but the verse is quite complex; in fact, I never really understood it. The message is rather complex. It was a good song that we had handy that had an anthemic chorus.”
More than just a hit, All You Need Is Love marked the end of The Beatles’ carefree pop period. While they playfully nodded to their early days with a She Loves You refrain at the close, the world knew there was no turning back. The Beatles had stepped fully into a new era—one where their music would carry deeper meaning and leave a cultural imprint far beyond catchy love songs.
