Great Moments in Vinyl plays The Beatles

In the spring of 1967, soon after The Beatles had wrapped up their album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the BBC asked them to participate in a global television event. Broadcasters around the world would be connecting via satellite to create a live television program that could be viewed by everyone on the planet at the same time. Fourteen countries would contribute to a broadcast that would go out to a total of 24 nations and a viewership that was later estimated to be over 400 million people.

The request from the BBC was simple: perform a song with a positive message. The band had reached fans both young and old with their music. And John Lennon clearly knew the world would be listening to whatever he might have to say. The controversy over his offhanded “more popular than Jesus” comment the previous year was proof of that.

But what would anyone choose to talk about if given the opportunity to address the whole world? Especially in a time of growing discontent, an era when change was in the air. The flower power movement was taking root in the U. S., and it was a movement that grew out of opposition to the Vietnam War. And Lennon had just finished making an anti-war movie himself. Here was his platform to deliver a message that could make a difference. As one of his biographers later quoted Lennon, “I’m a revolutionary artist. My art is dedicated to change.” What then could John possibly sing about that would speak to the whole world?

It’s no surprise that he had already hinted at an answer a couple years before:

“Say the word I'm thinking of.
Have you heard the word is love?”

. . . .

This GMiV Online Mini-concert was recorded in June and July 2020 with vocalist/pianist/guitarist/Beatles fan Phil Angotti performing both sides of The Fab Four’s single from the summer of 1967, “All You Need Is Love” and “Baby, You’re a Rich Man,” at a safe social distance from storyteller William Lindsey Cochran.