All of Me (John Legend song)

Background and composition

"All of Me" is a tender piano power ballad, which was inspired by his then-fiancée, model Chrissy Teigen. The couple met in 2007 on the set of his video for "Stereo". They were then married on September 14, 2013. The song was produced by Dave Tozer and Legend himself. It is a simple, modest proposal set against delicate keys.

Musically, according to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Gad Songs and John Legend Publishing, "All of Me" is written in the key of A ♭ major with a slow tempo of 63 beats per minute. The song follows a chord progression of F5–D♭–A♭–E♭5, and Legend's vocals span from F₃ to B♭₄.

Release and promotion

In June 2013, Legend premiered "All of Me" during a performance on Oprah Winfrey's Oprah's Next Chapter. On August 6, 2013, the full song was premiered as it was released to iTunes along with the pre-order for Love in the Future. "All of Me" impacted American mainstream urban radio as the third single from Love in the Future on August 12, 2013.

Dutch electronic producer Tiësto released a remix of the song in January 2014. A country-influenced duet version of "All of Me" with Jennifer Nettles, featuring Hunter Hayes on guitar, was released in June 2014.

Critical reception

"All of Me" was met with generally positive reviews from music critics. Ken Capobianco of The Boston Globe named the song the album's "essential track". Ryan Patrick of Exclaim! said the song, shows "Legend's current commercially friendly, sentimental sound." Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone called the song a "mountainous piano crusher". Julia Leconte of NOW stated that Legend's voice shines in the song. Molloy Woodcraft of The Guardian also praised Legend's vocal talents on the song. A live rendition of the song was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.

Commercial performance

After being stationary at number two for six weeks, "All of Me" finally reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 on the chart dated May 17, 2014. This was Legend's first Hot 100 number one single, almost 10 years since his first appearance on the chart. That was the longest wait for an artist's first number-one song from their first chart appearance since Snoop Dogg waited 10 years and 10 months for his. "All of Me" became the second best-selling song of 2014 in the United States with 4.67 million copies sold for the year. The song spent three weeks at number one before being dethroned by Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" featuring Charli XCX. Additionally, "All of Me" spent 23 consecutive weeks in the Billboard Hot 100's top 10 and spent an overall 59 non-consecutive weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. As of April 2016, "All of Me" has sold 5,878,000 copies cumulatively in the United States.

In the United Kingdom, "All of Me" peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, and it became the third best-selling song of 2014 in the UK. As of February 2016, the song has sold 1.18 million copies in the UK.

Live performances

On August 20, 2013, Legend performed the song live on the Late Show with David Letterman. On August 27, 2013, Legend performed the song at The Box in New York City. On September 2, 2013, Legend performed the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live! along with the album's second single "Made to Love". On October 10, 2013, Legend performed the song during his appearance on The Wendy Williams Show. The song was performed by Legend at the 56th Grammy Awards on January 26, 2014.

The song also performed at Taylor Swift's The 1989 World Tour.

Music video

The song's music video was shot in Italy just days before Legend's wedding, featuring his fiancé, model Chrissy Teigen. In the video the couple "gets naked and makes love in the shower and underwater, while he serenades her with the song." The video ends with footage from their actual wedding in Lake Como, Italy. On September 12, 2013, the first image from the music video was released. On October 2, 2013, the full version of the Nabil Elderkin-directed black and white music video for "All of Me" was released. The video was meant to bring the relationship full circle, as he chose the man who originally introduced them to each other, Elderkin, to direct it.

A duet version of the song with accompanying music video was filmed with violinist Lindsey Stirling and released on YouTube on October 26, 2013.

In November 2015, the YouTube video's title mysteriously changed from 'All of Me' to 'One Last Time' and then changed back. The same happened on Spotify and Google Play. There has been no explanation for this incident.

As of February 2017, the music video has received over 1.03 billion views on YouTube.

Cover versions

In June 2014, Puerto Rican Latin artist Anthony Torres released his Spanish cover version of "All of Me" in the rhythm of bachata titled "Todo de Mi", gaining more than 4.5 million streams in one year. In 2014, Blaine Anderson (Darren Criss) covered the song in the Glee season-finale episode "The Untitled Rachel Berry Project". In early March 2014, Bianca Ryan covered song. A music video was also released on Ryan's YouTube channel. Also in 2014, Josh Kaufman performed the song on The Voice. Kris Wu also did a vocal cover during the Beijing press conference for the upcoming Chinese romantic drama film, Somewhere Only We Know. London-born singer and songwriter Jasmine Thompson covered "All of Me" (album: Another Bundle of Tantrums, 2014) on her album Another Bundle of Tantrums. In February 2015, Chinese pop singer Jane Zhang performed the song on the stage of I Am a Singer. Again in July 2015, Victoria Bernardi performed the song at the final of the Argentine TV show Elegidos (La música en tus manos). On August 31, 2015, JM De Guzman covered the same title of the show, All of Me on ABS-CBN 2. K-pop star Chanyeol from the South-Korean boy band EXO has also performed on stage with this song in 2015.

James Reid and Nadine Lustre also covered the song from Diary ng Panget: Live in Concert in 2014.

The song is also used in films and other television shows such as Guapas, Mike & Mike, Baby Daddy, Pitch Perfect 2, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.

1. "All of Me" (album version) – 4:29

1. "All of Me" (Tiësto's Birthday Treatment remix) (radio edit) – 4:11

1. "All of Me" (featuring Jennifer Nettles and Hunter Hayes) – 4:19

1. "All of Me" – 4:29
2. "Made to Love" – 3:59

Certifications

Since May 9, 2013, RIAA certifications for digital singles include on-demand audio and/or video song streams in addition to downloads, resulting in the 8× Platinum certification for the track.