More than 73 million people tuned in to CBS television at 8 p.m. EST on February 9, 1964, to watch The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show. A typical viewing audience for the show was 21 million, but this episode was anticipated by every teenager, causing even their parents and grandparents to check in to see what all the excitement was about. 50,000 tickets were requested for the 728 available seats in Studio 50, which is now called the Ed Sullivan Theater.
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The show began with Sullivan telling the audience about the telegram sent by Colonel Tom Parker on behalf of Elvis Presley wishing The Beatles success in America. Paul McCartney counts off the song as the packed theater screams in anticipation. Let’s take a look at the story behind “All My Loving” by The Beatles.
Close your eyes, and I’ll kiss you
Tomorrow I’ll miss you
Remember I’ll always be true
And then while I’m away
I’ll write home every day
And I’ll send all my lovin’ to you
A Good Show Song
“All My Loving” was not released as a single in America or the UK. The album cut was played enough to enter the Billboard chart and peaked at No. 45. McCartney told author Barry Miles, “It was the first song I’d ever written the words first. I never wrote words first, it was always some kind of accompaniment, I’ve hardly ever done it since, either. We were on a tour bus going to a gig, and so I started with the words. I had in mind a little country and western song. We played the Moss Empire circuit a lot, and there were always these nice big empty backstage areas. The places have all become bingo halls now. We arrived at the gig, and I remember being in one of these big backstage areas, and there was a piano there, so I’d got my instrument. I didn’t have a guitar, it was probably with our road manager, and I remember working the tune out to it on the piano. It was a good show song. It worked well live.”
I’ll pretend that I’m kissing
The lips I am missing
And hope that my dreams will come true
And then while I’m away
I’ll write home every day
And I’ll send all my lovin’ to you
Things Moved Quickly
Capitol Records originally planned to release “I Want to Hold Your Hand” on January 16, 1964, so their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show would boost sales. As the anticipation was mounting, Capitol pushed up the release by three weeks and the song reached No. 1 before The Beatles even landed on American soil.
McCartney wrote in his 2021 book, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, “A couple of weeks after the release of Meet The Beatles! we played the Ed Sullivan Show. Ed Sullivan was a real gentleman to us, and he always wore these finely tailored suits. There were only three major channels in the U.S. at the time, and his show defined what people talked about. You hadn’t made it in America until you’d been on it. … [“All My Loving”] had always done well live, so after he’d introduced us as ‘these youngsters from Liverpool,’ it became the first song that America saw The Beatles play live on TV. A month or so afterwards we had the top five songs in the Billboard charts. So, to illustrate how quickly things were moving for us in those days, ‘All My Loving’ helped us go from the Moss Empires circuit to conquering America in a little over six months. And a few months later, I turned twenty-two.”
All my lovin’, I will send to you
All my lovin’, darlin’, I’ll be true
The Guitars
George Harrison worked out a solo to fit the country and western feel of the song. Playing his Chet Atkins Country Gentleman Gretsch guitar, Harrison nails the solo during the Ed Sullivan Show appearance. John Lennon’s rhythm guitar part was also an important element.
Wrote McCartney, “The thing that strikes me about the ‘All My Loving’ recording is John’s guitar part; he’s playing the chords as triplets. That was a last-minute idea, and it transforms the whole thing, giving it momentum. The song is obviously about someone leaving to go on a trip, and that driving rhythm of John’s echoes the feeling of travel and motion. It sounds like a car’s wheels on the motorway, which, if you can believe it, had only really become a thing in the UK at the end of the fifties. But it was often like that when we were recording. One of us would come up with that little magic thing. It allowed the song to become what it needed to be.”
In 1980, Lennon told author David Sheff, “All My Loving’ is Paul, I regret to say. Ha-ha-ha. Because it’s a damn good piece of work. [Singing] ‘All my loving…’ But I play a pretty mean guitar in back.”
Close your eyes, and I’ll kiss you
Tomorrow I’ll miss you
Remember, I’ll always be true
And then, while I’m away
I’ll write home every day
And I’ll send all my loving to you
More than Just an Album Track
McCartney told historian Mark Lewisohn, “The first person I heard single it out was the disc jockey David Jacobs, who was pretty hip. … He was always quite an expert, for one of the older generation. I remember him singling it out on his radio show, and I think from that moment, it did become a big favorite for people. And I heard it differently. Till then, I’d heard it as an album track. But when he played it on his radio show, and it went over to however many million people on the BBC, it was like, ‘Woh! That is a good one.’ I always liked it.”
All my lovin’, I will send to you
All my lovin’, darlin’, I’ll be true
All my lovin’, all my lovin’
Ooh ooh, all my lovin’, I will send to you
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Photo by Express Newspapers/Getty Images
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