Recorded 1974 (1974) Label 20th Century Records | Length 4:33
3:30 (7" version) | |
B-side "More Than Anything, You're My Everything" Released October 25, 1974 (1974-10-25) (UK) Genre Rhythm and blues, disco | ||
"You're the First, the Last, My Everything" or "You're the First, My Last, My Everything" is a popular song recorded by Barry White. Written by White, Tony Sepe and Peter Radcliffe and produced by White, "You're the First, the Last, My Everything" was White's fourth top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, reaching #2; it spent a week at #1 on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart. The early disco classic made it to number two on the disco/dance charts. In the UK Singles Chart it fared even better, spending two weeks at the top in December 1974. It appeared on White's 1974 album Can't Get Enough.
Contents
Radcliffe originally wrote "You're the First, My Last, My Everything" as a country song with the title "You're My First, You're My Last, My In-Between", which went unrecorded for 21 years. White recorded it as a disco song, keeping most of the structure and about two-third of the title, but he rewrote the lyrics.
In popular culture
The song is featured in the films Money Talks (1997; also on its CD soundtrack album, where White had recorded an alternative version, as simply "My Everything" as a duet with Faith Evans), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004; also on its CD soundtrack album), Zookeeper (2011), and anachronistically in Tim Burton's film Dark Shadows (2012; also on its CD soundtrack album) as the film was set in 1972, two years before the song was released.
It was also in several episodes of the Fox series Ally McBeal, accompanying John Cage (Peter MacNicol) during his life most of the time. Whenever he gets into a difficult situation, he withdraws and concentrates on the song, hearing it and dancing to it, to regain strength and concentrate on whatever comes along.
The song is featured in the music video game Just Dance 4 (2012) for PlayStation 3, Wii, Wii U, and Xbox 360.
Other notable recordings
A cover version of the song performed by Howard Brown was released in 2005 in the UK as a charity single. It peaked at #13 in the UK singles chart. Prior to its release it had been adapted for a popular television commercial for Halifax Bank in which Brown could be seen singing and dancing.