Released June 1969 (U.S.) Recorded 1969 Length 3:00 | Format 7" Genre Country Label RCA | |
"All I Have to Offer You (Is Me)" is a song written by Dallas Frazier and A.L. "Doodle" Owens, and recorded by American country music artist Charley Pride. It was released in June 1969 as the first single from the album The Best of Charley Pride.
The song, released that June, reached the top of the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart that August, and in doing so it was Charley Pride's first No. 1 song. It also accomplished a feat not done in 25 years: an African American entertainer having a No. 1 hit on the Billboard country chart. The last song by a black performer to reach the summit was "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby" by Louis Jordan, in July 1944. Pride became the third black singer to have a No. 1 country hit (the Nat King Cole-led King Cole Trio had a No. 1 hit earlier in 1944).
While Cole would top the charts only once and Jordan twice, "All I Have to Offer You Is Me" would be the first of 29 No. 1 hits for Pride, spanning to 1983's "Night Games."
The song has also been recorded by The Statler Brothers on their 1970 album Bed of Rose's, McBride & the Ride on their 1992 album Sacred Ground, the Kaʻau Crater Boys on their 1995 album On Fire and by Ricky Van Shelton on his 2000 album Fried Green Tomatoes.
Content
The narrator speaks to his future wife, and tells her that if she chose to be with him forever, then she won't live a luxurious life every girl dreams about, as he says "All I have to offer you is me".