All of Me

#61 / April 22 Podcast

A young self-taught pianist named Gerald Marks was playing in a band in a resort on Lake Michigan in the summer of 1931 when he came up with a tune for his first completed song. Between sets at season-long engagement, Marks could be heard noodling on it. The melody caught the ear of bandmate Seymour Simons, who soon wrote lyrics for it.

They both agreed the phrase "all of me" was catchy and that the lovelorn lyrics quickly fell into place. However, no one wanted the song.

Hearing the lyrics’ pleading over lonely lips and arms, the publishers thought the follow-up line of "why not take all of me?" was, well, downright filthy by 1930s standards. "I peddled my song up and down the street,” Marks once told a writer, "and every single publisher turned it down."

Undeterred, the songwriters tracked down Belle Baker at a show in Detroit. Now, Belle was known for breaking in big numbers (she introduced “Blue Skies,” for instance, in 1926) and when Marks and Simons got just halfway through a demo of the song, the singer broke down in tears. It turned out that it was exactly six months since her husband's death, and some of those same lyrics — "Your goodbye left me with eyes that cry, How can I go on, dear, without you?" — resonated as an anthem for her grief. She incorporated “All of Me” into her act in Detroit, where it received seven encores. A few days later, she introduced it on the radio in New York.

After that, the song took off. By year’s end, Mildred Bailey had recorded it with Paul Whiteman’s orchestra; it went to the top of the US pop charts. Within weeks, two more versions also were charting. Louis Armstrong’s rendition reached No. 1 and Ben Selvin and his orchestra hit No. 19.

Of course, there have been other classic recordings of the song. Jazz critic Ted Gioia believes the definitive version was sung by Billie Holiday in 1941. “She staked a claim of ownership,” he wrote, “that no one has managed to dislodge.” Meanwhile, the song is credited, in part, with reviving Frank Sinatra’s career. In 1948, after being dropped by Columbia when three of his albums failed to chart, Sinatra went to Capitol where uptempo swing arrangements of jazz standards like "All of Me" created a new sound for him.

Our Take on the Tune

This song has been rattling around in the Floodisphere for a long time. Originally for us it was an instrumental. Then it became a Michelle Lewis special when the Chick Singer was still with the band. When Michelle moved on last year, it looked like the tune might retire.

But then last night darned if it didn’t poke its head in the door and became of a fun vehicle for Veezy and Sam in the solo space, and now… well, it appears “All of Me” is ready for another rebirth. Click here to hear the 2022 Floodifying of “All of Me.”