Interview for Melody Maker • Saturday, July 22, 1967

Interview

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Love from the Beatles

ALL you need is John, Paul, George and Ringo to become the world’s most contented pop manager. As the Beatles’ new single rocketed into the charts, Brian Epstein jubilantly agreed that this really had been a very good week.

“It began,” he said, “last weekend when all the Beatles stayed at my house in Sussex. Then I went to Knokke to see the NEMS team score top marks in the European Cup. And now ‘All You Need Is Love’ is in the top three.”

After less than half-a-dozen bars of “All You Need Is Love” in the world’s TV preview three weeks ago it seemed quite certain that the Beatles were bound head-long for the number one spot yet again.

The capacity of Lennon and McCartney to go on producing run-away chart busters is fairly astonishing. But it is no surprise to Brian Epstein.

“I’ve never had a moment’s worry that they wouldn’t come up with something marvellous. The commitment for the TV programme was arranged some months ago. The time got nearer and nearer and they still hadn’t written anything. Then about three weeks before the programme they sat down to write. The record was completed in 10 days.

“For me, ‘All You Need Is Love’ is the best thing they’ve done — at the moment. But I’m not surprised that it is such a huge success because I have such great faith in the Beatles.

“This is an inspired song because they wrote it for a world-wide programme and they really wanted to give the world a better message. It could hardly have been a better message.

“It is a wonderful, beautiful, spine-chilling record.”

It’s also a record which seems to be a musical microcosm of the entire Beatle output from “She Loves You” to “Sgt Pepper.”

Epstein agreed with this.

“The nice thing about the record too is that it cannot be misinterpreted. It is a clear message saying that love is everything. When you say ‘All You Need Is Love’ you are saying everything.”

Brian Epstein agreed that the Beatles have an unerring gift for distinguishing between singles and LP material and was emphatic that, despite rumours to the contrary, the Beatles are still very much in control when it comes to making records.

“I would say they are even more involved now than before. I think the new single is a bit more John than Paul, but of course they worked very closely together. There were 13 other musicians on the record including violins, cellos and trumpets and Ringo played drums throughout. There were no other percussion.

“The record is exactly the same as the TV performance — except for a re-mix when John’s voice was put on again.

“I think it is certain to be a number one in Britain and America,” he added. “I’ve just heard today that it is being played to death in the States. And the Sgt Pepper LP has sold more than 400,000 in Britain and well over a million in America—it’s really fantastic.”

I asked Epstein whether the Beatles would be making any more concert appearances.

“No, not in the usual form.

“What they are doing now is working towards a TV programme for world-wide distribution and they also want to make a film — but they want complete freedom to do it their way. They want to create all of it — with a little help from their friends.

“They feel they can manage the sound, so why not the visual side as well? We all know about visual things and there are good people in NEMS capable of helping with this.”

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