"Love Is All" is a 1974 pop song, credited to

Roger Glover Roger David Glover (born 30 November 1945) is a Welsh bassist, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the member of the hard rock bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. As a member of Deep Purple, Glover was inducted into the Rock and Ro ...

& Guests in the credits, but in reality sung by American heavy metal singer

Ronnie James Dio Ronald James Padavona (July 10, 1942 – May 16, 2010), known professionally as Ronnie James Dio, was an American heavy metal singer. He fronted and founded numerous bands throughout his career, including Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio and H ...

. It was featured on Glover's solo album ''

The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast ''The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast'' is a concept album and subsequent live rock opera appearing in 1974 and 1975 respectively, based on the children's poem of a similar title. The album cover design is from Alan Aldridge's desig ...

'' and the single – released in the UK on 8 November 1974 – was a number one-hit in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. The song was notable for its music video, which featured an animated cartoon starring a guitar-playing frog.

Background

In 1973

left

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Ori ...

because of work pressure and tensions between him and

Ritchie Blackmore Richard Hugh Blackmore (born 14 April 1945) is an English guitarist and songwriter. He was a founding member of Deep Purple in 1968, playing jam-style hard rock music that mixed guitar riffs and organ sounds. He is prolific in creating guitar ...

. Together with

Jon Lord John Douglas Lord (9 June 194116 July 2012) was an English orchestral and rock composer, pianist, and Hammond organ player known for his pioneering work in fusing rock with classical or baroque forms, especially with the British rock band Deep ...

he worked on a solo project. Their plan was to make a

rock opera A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs with lyrics that relate to a common story. Rock operas are typically released as concept albums and are not scripted for acting, which distinguishes them from operas, although several have been ad ...

based on

William Plomer William Charles Franklyn Plomer (10 December 1903 – 20 September 1973) was a South African and British novelist, poet and literary editor. He also wrote a series of librettos for Benjamin Britten. He wrote some of his poetry under the pseud ...

and

Alan Aldridge Alan Aldridge (8 July 1938 – 17 February 2017) was a British artist, graphic designer and illustrator. He is best known for his psychedelic artwork made for books and record covers by The Beatles and The Who. Personal life Aldridge was born ...

's picture book ''The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast'' (1973), in itself based on the eponymous poem by British historian

William Roscoe William Roscoe (8 March 175330 June 1831) was an English banker, lawyer, and briefly a Member of Parliament. He is best known as one of England's first abolitionists, and as the author of the poem for children '' The Butterfly's Ball, and the ...

(1802). However, because Lord was too busy with Deep Purple, Glover decided to make it into a

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

recorded by himself and musicians like Glenn Hughes,

David Coverdale David Coverdale (born 22 September 1951) is an English singer who is best known as the lead vocalist of Whitesnake, a hard rock band he founded in 1978. Before Whitesnake, Coverdale was the lead singer of Deep Purple from 1973 to 1976, after wh ...

, John Lawton and

. The resulting album was titled ''

''.

Eddie Hardin Eddie Hardin (19 February 1949 – 22 July 2015) was an English rock pianist and singer-songwriter. Born Edward Harding, he was best known for his associations with the Spencer Davis Group, Axis Point, and Hardin & York. Hardin, along with the ...

wrote the song ''Love Is All'' based on a song featured in ''The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast'' named ''Love's all you need'', which was inspired by

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

' song ''

All You Need Is Love "All You Need Is Love" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released as a non-album single in July 1967. It was written by John Lennon and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The song was Britain's contribution t ...

(1967).'' The song was sung by

, although the single was credited to Glover. The B-side was ''Old Blind Mole/Magician Moth''.

Music video

The song came with an animated music video featuring a guitar playing frog gathering animals in the forest for the upcoming ball. The animation was created by the

Halas and Batchelor Halas and Batchelor was a British animation company founded by husband and wife John Halas and Joy Batchelor. Halas was a Hungarian émigré to the United Kingdom. The company had studios in London and Cainscross, in the Stroud District of Glouces ...

studio and one of the animators was Harold Whitaker. The video received a lot of airplay over the decades, particularly as a fill-in during technical difficulties, such as on the French TV channel

Antenne 2 France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews. Since 3:20 CET on 7 Ap ...

, and in the United States in children's TV programs such as ''

The Great Space Coaster ''The Great Space Coaster'' is a children's television show that was broadcast in first-run syndication from 1981 to 1986. Production The series was co-created by Kermit Love (original Muppet designer and builder for Jim Henson) and Jim Martin ...

'' and

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

morning shows. Those random airings, together with the psychedelic tone of the clip and the lack of subtitles, made it very popular amongst young viewers.

Reception

While ''Love Is All'' did little in the United Kingdom, it became an unexpected number one-hit in the Netherlands and Belgium for several weeks. In the Dutch Top 40, it reached number one for three weeks. In 1980, the video was featured on the Australian music show ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

'', and the song entered the Australian Top 10. The video was also used regularly as an

interstitial program In television programming, an interstitial television show (or wraparound program or wraparound segment) refers to a short program that is often shown between movies or other events, e.g. cast interviews after movies on premium channels. The ter ...

on Australia's ABC TV.

Cover versions

The song was covered by

Sacha Distel Alexandre "Sacha" Distel (29 January 1933 – 22 July 2004) was a French singer, guitarist, songwriter and actor who had hits with a cover version of "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" in 1970, which reached No 10 in the UK Charts, "Scoubidou", ...

in 1976. In 2002, Flemish singer Dana Winner released a cover version. Other artists who covered the song have been Gonzales (2008),

Keedz Keedz is a musical project of a group of young French singers who release songs as a choir accompanied by electro-disco-dance influences. In 2008, Keedz released a studio album entitled ''Stand on the Word'' containing 11 tracks on Elias Music / Me ...

(2010) and

Playing for Change Playing For Change is a multimedia music project, featuring musicians and singers from across the globe, co-founded in 2002 by American Grammy award-winning music producer/engineer and award-winning film director Mark Johnson and film producer/ph ...

(2013).

In popular culture

The song was used in a 1991 French TV advertisement by Sironimo, a brand of flavored syrup. In 2006, the song was used by the Dutch political party CDA in its advertisements for the

2006 Dutch General Election General elections were held in the Netherlands on 22 November 2006 following the fall of the Second Balkenende cabinet. The elections proved relatively successful for the governing Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) which remained the largest part ...

. In 2014, it was featured in the video game ''

Just Dance 2015 ''Just Dance 2015'' is a 2014 dance video game developed by Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Milan, Ubisoft Reflections, Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Bucharest and published by Ubisoft. The sixth main installment of the ''Just Dance'' series, it was announced ...

'' by Ubisoft. In 2021, it was the music to the latest Cartier advertisement.

Sources

{{authority control 1974 songs 1975 singles Songs about music Songs written by Roger Glover Animated music videos Number-one singles in Belgium Dutch Top 40 number-one singles Fictional frogs