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American Morning
Queen To Kick Off Jubilee With Beatles Sing-a-long
Aired April 25, 2002 - 07:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: So how would you celebrate 50 years as a royal ruler? Britain's Queen Elizabeth plans to kick off her golden jubilee celebration in June with a nationwide sing-along of the famous Beatles' tune, "All you Need is Love."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THE BEATLES (singing): All you need is love. All you need is love. All you need is love, love. Love is all you need.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAFFERTY: This 1967 performance of the song was part of the first global TV broadcast. So if the queen says sing along with me, is that a command performance -- who writes this stuff?
Our Richard Quest has gathered some poor unsuspecting royal subjects together in London's Trafalgar Square -- good morning, Richard.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Jack. It is a stunning spring day here in the center of London, and everyone is enjoying the sunshine, but has to be in the bizarre world of royalty, the most bizarre form of announcement. The idea is simple enough. Her majesty the queen to launch the golden jubilee celebrations will start a nationwide sing-along.
But it's not going to be something like "Land of Open Glory" or "Jerusalem Alleluia" or even "God Save the Queen." Instead, at 21 venues across the country, they are going to start singing the Beatles' song, "All you Need is Love."
Now, we do know that the queen, who celebrates 50 years on the throne, is rarely singing in public. The last memorable occasion was on the millennium eve when she was caught singing "Auld Lang Syne" in a very uncomfortable millennium dome. That didn't go down too well.
So we don't expect her majesty to exercise those royal, majestic vocal chords herself. What's likely to happen is that she will push a button or pull a lever or wave a flag, and that will be the sign for 21 orchestras across the country and thousands of people to start singing. That's the theory.
The problem is everyone knows the chorus to "All you Need is Love." No one actually knows the lyrics of the verse. So we are going to put it to the test for you, Jack, and please, feel free to join in.
Now, what we know is that her majesty -- we were going to ask her to come in for AMERICAN MORNING, but she was a little bit busy. So instead, Peter Moore will pretend he is the queen. Let's pretend Peter Moore -- he is the official town crier of London. Let's pretend he is the queen. He is going to start -- this is serious stuff. This is golden jubilee time. Behave! He is going to start the communal singing even a few months earlier before the golden jubilee.
CAFFERTY: Is he going to start anytime soon? Oh, here we go.
PETER MOORE, LONDON TOWN CRIER: Hear ye, hear ye, welcome to London. All you need is love.
CROWD (singing): All you need is love...
QUEST: Oh, da, da, da, da, da.
CROWD (singing): All you need is love, da, da, da, da, da, all you need is love, love. Love is all you need.
QUEST: And I'm afraid that's pretty much where it all peters out, because nobody knows that the chorus is, "There is nothing you can make that can't be made, Love is all you need."
One more quick chorus, before we take (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
MOORE: One, two, three.
CROWD (singing): All you need is love, da, da, da, da, da. All you need is love, da, da, da, da, da, all you need is love, love. Love is all you need.
QUEST: Now, you pays your money, you takes your choice, whether he did as good a job as her majesty will, when she pushes the button -- Jack.
CAFFERTY: What else is going on over there? By the way, that was lovely. I enjoyed that, and I don't know the words to the verse either, although I can remember them playing that song on the radio a thousand years ago when I was spinning records for a living.
I understand that some of the children are going to get a chance to perhaps ask the queen some questions. How is that going to work?
QUEST: Well, there are a variety of plans. One is that there will be this opportunity for young people to ask the queen questions. That would be a first if that has ever happened. Her majesty has never done an interview in her life as such. So we will be watching to see if she did and how that would be vetted, what sort of questions would be asked.
The main focus seems to be to get the queen to as many parts of Britain as possible over this golden jubilee weekend and in the months before. And of course, the question will be whether it's going to be as big and well-supported as the silver jubilee back in 1977. Then, there were street parties. There were parades and all sorts of things. The big two events besides "All you Need is Love," two concerts at Buckingham Palace, one classical, one pop. Her majesty will be at both of them -- Jack.
CAFFERTY: That's good stuff, Richard -- thanks very much. Always good to see you -- Richard Quest live from London's Trafalgar Square, where they were singing "All you Need is Love" this morning.
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