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“A monumental achievement.” - John Lennon

“Magnificent...the editing is truly outstanding. A priceless archive.” - Bing Crosby

“It’s colossal emotional and intellectual range I doubt will ever be bettered.” -Pete Seeger

“Palmer’s brilliant exposition has reconciled, drawn together the multifarious strands of the world’s most fascinating music in a way never before attempted so comprehensively ... with magisterial clarity. It’s simply the best thing yet on the subject and long overdue. Magnificent.” -Sunday Times (London)

“Visually rich as mass entertainment ... its appeal should transcend most frontiers ... loaded with musical personalities.” -Variety

“Scholarly ... one of the most comprehensive volumes to appear on pop.., the shows will attract a massive audience.” -Evening Standard (London)

All You Need Is Love makes is a lavish boxed DVD set which contains all 17 episodes of the series on 5 discs. Contained within those discs IS the 'Story of Popular Music,' encompassing Ragtime, Blues, Jazz, Vaudeville, The Musical, Folk, Swing, Country and Western, Rock 'n' Roll and beyond, and includes interviews with some of the major names of the past 50+ years including John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimi Hendrix, Stephen Sondheim, Benny Goodman, Bing Crosby, Mike Oldfield, The Beach Boys, Tina Turner, Sam Phillips, Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie, Richard Rodgers, Roy Rogers, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Phil Spector, Bill Monroe, Bill Graham, Bill Wyman, Frank Zappa, Eric Clapton and many many more.

It has frequently been described as the "definitive music documentary," and is regarded just as highly today as 'cult viewing' as it was over 30 years ago when it was first broadcast. In the mid-70s, at the suggestion of John Lennon, the celebrated journalist and film director Tony Palmer decided to document the "Story of Popular Music" and set about interviewing and filming all the major players in the industry at that time, past and present. Even in the mid-70s this was seen as a monumental task, but despite the scale of the undertaking, Tony Palmer made a series of films that set the standard to which all subsequent biographers and documentary makers aspired to. The critically acclaimed All You Need Is Love was broadcast across the world between 1976 and 1981 and more recently on Sky Arts.

Episode Guide

Episode 1:

Introductory Programme Explains the aims and ambitions of this seventeen-part spectacular series. Featuring: Aretha Franklin / Billie Holiday / Bing Crosby / Bo Diddley / Buddy Rich / Dizzy Gillespie / Duke Ellington / Dusty Springfield / Edith Piaf / Eric Clapton / Everly Brothers / Glen Campbell / Hoagy Carmichael / Jerry Lee Lewis / Joan Baez / Judy Garland / Liberace / Muddy Waters / Paul McCartney and Wings / Richard Rodgers / Ruth Etting / The Beatles / The Bee Gees / The Rolling Stones

Episode 2:

God’s Children Explores the true origins of Jazz and Blues. Featuring: Duke Ellington / Ginger Baker / James Brown / LeRoi Jones / Lightnin' Hopkins / Rufus Thomas / The Platters / Tina Turner

Episode 3:

I Can Hypnotise ‘Dis Nation (Ragtime) The story of Scott Joplin – an extraordinary tragedy of failure, frustration, pride and struggle. Featuring: Christies Ethiopian Serenaders / Eubie Blake / Houston Grand Opera and the music of Scott Joplin / Irving Berlin / Monica Mason / Rudi Blesh / Terry Waldo

Episode 4:

Jungle Music (Jazz) Examines the origins of jazz, and how these were exploited and eventually lost by greed. . Featuring: Charles Mingus / Charlie Parker / Chick Corea / Count Basie / Dave Brubeck / Dizzy Gillespie / Duke Ellington / Earl Fatha Hines / George Shearing / Hoagy Carmichael / Ian Carr / John Lewis / Kid Ory / Louis Armstrong / Mike Gibbs / Miles Davis / Paul Whiteman

Episode 5:

Who’s That Comin'? (The Blues) From the Delta of the Mississippi to the steel mills and automobile factories of Chicago. Featuring: B.B. King / Bessie Smith / Billie Holiday / Leadbelly / Memphis Slim / Mighty Joe Young / Muddy Waters / Ray Charles / Roosevelt Sykes / Son House / Victoria Spivey / Willie 'The Lion' Smith

Episode 6:

Rude Songs (Vaudeville and Music Hall) Begins and ends in Las Vegas (with Judy Garland), a palace of varieties to end all palaces of variety. Featuring: Charles Aznavour / Charles Coburn / Clara Bow / Danny La Rue / Edith Piaf / Flanagan and Allen / Florrie Forde / Harry Lauder / Judy Garland / Liberace / Little Tich / Mae West / Marie Kendall / Marlene Dietrich / Maurice Chevalier / Mrs Shufflewick

Episode 7:

Always Chasin' Rainbows (Tin Pan Alley) Tin Pan Alley brought to popular music a collective sense of purpose. Featuring: Al Jolson / Bing Crosby / Bob Wills / E. Y. Harburg / George Gershwin / Hoagy Carmichael / Irving Berlin / Irving Caesar / Perry Como / Rudy Vallee / The Carter Family

Episode 8:

Diamonds As Big As the Ritz (The Musical) This is a story of how a remarkable and very different number of theatrical elements were welded together into something also remarkable and very different called “the musical”. Featuring: Agnes de Mille / Bob Fosse / Galt MacDermott / Glynis Johns / Harold Prince / Joseph Papp / Ken Russell / Lionel Bart / Lorenz Hart / Oscar Hammerstein Jnr. / Richard Rodgers / Rouben Mamoulian / Stephen Sondheim / Tom O'Horgan / William Hammerstein

Episode 9:

Swing That Music! (Swing) White musicians became bored with the asinine popular music they were expected to play and created the first white music based on black music that was not stolen from black music. Featuring: Art Tatum / Artie Shaw / Benny Goodman / Bing Crosby / Bud Freeman / Buddy Rich / Cab Calloway / Dick Vance / Fletcher Henderson / Frank Sinatra / Gene Krupa / Guy Lombardo / Harry James / Lawrence Welk / Lionel Hampton / The Dutch Swing College Band / Tommy Dorsey / Woody Herman

Episode 10:

Good Times (Rhythm and Blues) Music that expressed the rising aspirations of the ghetto - and the seeds sown for Sun Records and Elvis Presley Featuring: Aretha Franklin / Bill Haley / Bo Diddley / Clyde McPhatter / Ike and Tina Turner / Jerry Wexler / Johnnie Ray / Pat Boone / Stevie Wonder / The Lefevres Family / The Platters / The Supremes / Wilson Pickett

Episode 11:

Making Moonshine (Country Music) Country music was, originally, home-made music and this episode describes the creation of Country music. Featuring: Bill Anderson / Doug Kershaw / Ernest Tubb / Jimmie Driftwood / Jimmie Rodgers / Minnie Pearl / Roy Acuff / Roy Rogers / Tex Ritter / Webb Pierce / William Ivey and Stars of the Grand Ole Opry

Episode 12:

Go Down, Moses! (Folk "War Songs") The effect these singers managed to achieve in the sixties was one of the stronger causes of the American defeat in Vietnam. Featuring: Arlo Guthrie / Bing Crosby / Country Joe McDonald / James Simmons / Joan Baez / Leon Rosselson / Leonard Cohen / Pete Seeger / Peter, Paul and Mary / The Andrews Sisters / Vera Lynn / Woody Guthrie

Episode 13:

Hail! Hail! Rock n Roll (Rock n Roll) The story of rock n roll begins and ends in Memphis, Tennessee, in the tiny studio of record producer Sam Phillips. Featuring: Bill Haley / Carl Perkins / Chubby Checker / Chuck Berry / Cliff Richard / Conway Twilty / Elvis Presley / Gene Vincent / Jack Good / Jerry Lee Lewis / Little Richard / Lonnie Donegan / Pat Boone / Sam Phillips / Terry Dene / Tommy Steele

Episode 14:

Mighty Good (The Beatles) “They were very scruffy” recounts Allan Williams, the Beatles’ first manager, as he describes the Beatles’ early escapades in Hamburg and Liverpool Soon Brian Epstein appeared on the scene, although he didn’t like the sound the Beatles made. Nor did any record producer, and even George Martin now admits that he never believed they would make worldwide hit song writers. There was a cost, of course, which eventually had to paid for this extraordinary euphoria. But, at the time, no-one seemed to care. Featuring: Allan Williams / Bill Graham / Brian Epstein / Derek Taylor / Donovan / George Harrison / George Martin / John Lennon / Mamas and the Papas / Murray the K / Paul McCartney / Ravi Shankar / Ringo Starr / Roger McGuinn / The Beach Boys / The Byrds Episode 15: All Along the Watchtower (Sour Rock) The sixties began, according to Eric Burdon as “a party”. Unfortunately, the party went sour. The swinging sixties tore itself apart in an orgy of self-congratulation and self-indulgence. Featuring: Alexis Korner / Bill Graham / Bill Wyman / Donovan / Eric Burdon / Frank Zappa / Janis Joplin / Jimi Hendrix / John Lennon / Manfred Mann / Mick Jagger / Paul McCartney / Peter Rudge / Pink Floyd / The Doors / The Rolling Stones / The Who

Episode 16:

Whatever Gets You Through The Night (Glitter Rock) This Episode takes place almost entirely on stage; fans are always seen from the performer’s point of view. Featuring: Alice Cooper / Bob Marley and the Wailers / Clive Davis / Cream / David Bowie / Elton John / Emerson, Lake and Palmer / Eric Clapton / Gary Glitter / Helen Reddy / Jethro Tull / Keith Moon / Kiss / Labelle / Lester Bangs / Marie and Donny Osmond / Roxy Music

Episode 17:

Imagine (New Directions) “The thing about rock n roll” says Lester Bangs, “is that it is totally about adolescence, and about consumerism brought in the highest degree.” In fact, as the film begins to point out, neither of these extreme points of view is true. Featuring: Baker-Gurvitz Army / Black Oak Arkansas / Electric Light Orchestra / Jack Bruce / Joy of Cooking / Lester Bangs / Manfred Mann / Michael John Bowen / Mike Oldfield / Rev. Jack Wyrtzen / Stomu Yamash'ta / Tangerine Dream