All You Need Is Love cover reaches Billboard Top 10

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The Beatles' 'All You Need Is Love' Back in Top 10, Thanks to Dave Koz (& Friends)
By Gary Trust
October 24, 2014

The iconic track ranks in the top 10 of a Billboard chart for the first time since the original in 1967, as Dave Koz's all-star cover rises on Smooth Jazz Songs.

The Beatles' iconic composition "All You Need Is Love" is back in the top 10 of a Billboard chart for the first time since 1967.

The Fab Four's original "Love" topped the Billboard Hot 100 on Aug. 19, 1967. Four weeks later (Sept. 16, 1967), it dipped to No. 8, marking the last time any recording of the song would claim a top 10 spot for 47 years.

Until … this week, as Dave Koz & Friends' version rises 11-10 on the Smooth Jazz Songs radio airplay chart. Saxophonist Koz employed nine high-profile guests, from pop, jazz and R&B circles, for the remake: Eric Benét, Jonathan Butler, Gloria Estefan, Heather Hadley, Richard Marx, Johnny Mathis, Maysa, BeBe Winans and Stevie Wonder.


Beatles on a photocall for the 'Our World' broadcast.
David Redfern/Redferns

Not traditionally considered a holiday song, Koz thought that its message is a perfect fit for the season. It's the lone non-Christmas standard on Dave Koz & Friends: The 25th of December, which debuted at No. 2 on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz Albums chart earlier this month. The set became his 15th top 10 in an impressive chart history that dates to 1991.

Said Koz upon the release of the "Love" video, "It was important to me, as an artist, to say, 'Here [is] a song that you've never heard before [sequenced among holiday classics] that we're going to throw into the mix'."

"Love" is the second Beatles cover Koz has placed on Smooth Jazz Songs: his version of "Got to Get You Into My Life," featuring Gerald Albright, Mindi Abair and Richard Elliot, led for seven weeks last year.