B-side "In the End" Format 7" | Released May 1977 Genre Disco | |
Recorded Criteria Studios, Miami, Florida
October 1976 Length 3:45 (album version)
3:32 (single edit) | ||
"I Just Want to Be Your Everything" is a song recorded by Andy Gibb, initially released in 1977. It reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks, starting on the week ending 30 July 1977, and again for the week ending 17 September 1977. It was Gibb's first single released in the United Kingdom and United States. His previous single, "Words and Music" was only released in Australia. It is ranked number 26 on Billboard's 55th anniversary All Time Top 100 list. The song became a gold record.
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Writing and recording
"I Just Want to Be Your Everything" was written by Barry Gibb in Bermuda as well as "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" with Andy Gibb credited as co-writer on the latter. It was recorded in October 1976; the sessions were produced mainly by Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson and with Barry on this track and "(Love Is) Thicker than Water"; Galuten also played keyboards and piano. Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh contributed guitar on this song. The track is a fairly dramatic love song, with the singer declaring his unending passion and stating that without her, he would die.
Andy reveals, "'I Just Want to Be Your Everything' was one of the most meaningful of all form, you know". He later recalls on Barry Gibb's writing style:
"So, once we discussed it all and got the deal together, me and Barry locked ourselves in a bedroom and Barry just started writing. When Barry writes, it is very hard to collaborate with him, because he is so quick. And before I knew it he was starting to do the chorus of ['I Just Want to Be Your Everything'], and I thought, 'Wow what a hook!'. He's an expert at his craft. Within about 20 minutes, he'd written a number one record; and then we went right into another one, ['(Love Is) Thicker than Water']
Two mixes were prepared for the song, the more popular mix was released on the album & as the single version and the earlier mix was used for promotional uses. The promotional version had an additional keyboard that at times competed with the lead vocal. The drummer's high-hat count during both breakdowns was completely mixed out and Gibb's harmony vocal is more prevalent during add-libs.
Release
The song spent a cumulative four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song first reached the top of the chart on July 30 for the first of three consecutive weeks. Then, The Emotions went to No. 1 with "Best of My Love" on August 20 for the first of four straight weeks. However, the song maintained strong popularity, remaining in the Top 10 before returning to No. 1 for one final week on September 17. "Everything" then fell out of the top spot for good, being replaced once again by "Best of My Love." The song spent a then record sixteen weeks in the top ten of the Billboard chart, a record it would hold until The Bee Gees spent seventeen weeks in the top ten with their song "How Deep is Your Love" starting near the end of 1977. "I Just Want to be Your Everything" was Gibb's longest-running chart single. It enjoyed one of the longest runs in the Billboard Hot 100 to that time; its 31-week run spanned from the end of April through the end of November. Billboard ranked it as the No. 2 song for 1977. The song also appeared on the Soul Singles chart, peaking at number 19.
Personnel
Connie Smith's version
The best-known cover version of "I Just Want to Be Your Everything" was recorded by American country music artist Connie Smith. Released in the autumn of 1977, Smith's version, according to AMG reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine, was "relatively faithful" to Gibb's version and — given its disco-influenced sound — also a departure from her honky-tonk songs of the 1960s and early 1970s.
"I Just Want to Be Your Everything" peaked at #14 on Billboard Magazine's Hot Country Songs chart in 1978, becoming her last significant hit, as her further hits for Monument Records, such as "Lovin' You Baby" and "They'll Never Be Another for Me," peaked in progressively lower positions on the country chart between 1978 and 1979.