Historic Fab Four performance to be available online for the first time this World Beatles Day

The Beatles’ famous BBC Our World performance of All You Need Is Love is set to be released online for the first time.

Over the past 17 years, Global Beatles Day has been celebrated by fans of the band with the date – June 25 – commemorating their famous performance in 1967.

This month, alongside online and in-person events around the world that celebrate the band, The Beatles will also release a colourised version of the Our World performance for free on YouTube.

This will mark the first time it has been made available to watch online.

Writing to Faith Cohen, the founder of Global Beatles Day, Apple Corps chief executive Tom Greene praised the fan-led initiative.

Tom said:

“More than ever, the message of The Beatles, and of All You Need Is Love, speaks to something vital for community, connection and the power of bringing people together,”

“That is what makes Global Beatles Day so special. It asks nothing more than for people, wherever they are, to stop, listen and share a little joy.”

Apple Corps Ltd is the company founded by The Beatles to manage their creative and business ventures, with the upcoming release also being the first time the company has formally acknowledged Global Beatles Day.

The Beatles’ Our World performance 59 years ago was a groundbreaking global event, becoming the world’s first live TV broadcast.

During it, the Fab Four performed their hit track to an estimated 400 million people across 24 countries.

As the broadcast took place at the height of the Vietnam War, the Beatles were asked to write a song with a positive message, which resulted in their debut performance of All You Need Is Love.

They also invited several of their friends and fellow musicians to join in on the chorus including members of the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Marianne Faithfull.

Decades later lifelong fan Ms Cohen decided the date deserved to be commemorated and started Global Beatles Day, which over the years has included tribute concerts in Tokyo to Beatles-themed exhibitions in New York City, singalongs in Buenos Aires, and fan gatherings in Liverpool.

The Beatles – whose line-up included John Lennon, Sir Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Sir Ringo Starr – are the best-selling music act of all time, with estimated sales of more than 600 million units worldwide.

They hold the record for most singles sold in the UK, sitting at 21.9 million, and won eight Grammys, four Brits, an Academy Award and 15 Ivor Novello Awards.

The band will also be the subject of Sir Sam Mendes’ upcoming series of four films, which star Harris Dickinson, Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan and Joseph Quinn as Lennon, McCartney, Starr and Harrison.

They are set to be released in April 2028.

Get more information on Global Beatles Day here.

Barry Keoghan recently said the Beatles biopic films will be “incredible”, read more here.

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