John Legend’s “All Of Me”

In The Quantity Ones, I’m reviewing each single #1 single within the historical past of the Billboard Scorching 100, beginning with the chart’s starting, in 1958, and dealing my method up into the current. E-book Bonus Beat: The Quantity Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the Historical past of Pop Music.

Pop music strikes shortly, and that’s how most of us prefer it. There’s a lot music on the market, and a lot of the stuff that cuts by means of the noise, at the least sufficient to reign over its however-brief second, needs to be loud and brash and vulgar sufficient to seize folks’s consideration. Oftentimes, a track that reaches the highest of the charts shoves its well past rivals by being sexier or meaner or extra energetic or extra obnoxiously catchy than its rivals. However there’s an enormous viewers on the market that doesn’t flip to pop music to really feel the shock of the brand new. That crowd has its personal radio stations and its previous favorites, and it desires to be soothed and flattered. Each on occasion, a track will soothe and flatter that silent majority so successfully that it goes all the way in which.

The Scorching 100 goes by means of boom-and-bust durations. There are moments of frantic competitors, the place a number of thrilling sounds battle it out for the highest spot, after which there are lulls, the place a soft-focus marriage ceremony ballad can slowly and quietly ascend to the highest spot. 2014 was a yr of deep lulls, and it gave us one of many softest, soothingest, most flattering #1 hits in current reminiscence. Wedding ceremony ballads like John Legend’s “All Of Me” are all the time mendacity in wait. Sometimes, they get their second of glory.

John Legend was simply sitting there in plain sight for a decade. He got here up as a supporting participant within the story of one of many loudest, brashest pop stars of this century, and he carved out a spot for himself as one thing like that man’s reverse, whereas nonetheless working intently with that man. He stored making quiet, unassuming background music and stacking up awards with out actually threatening the pop charts a lot. He was a genteel R&B traditionalist, and folks knew who he was, however he by no means fought to regulate the zeitgeist. In 2014, Legend was 35 years previous, and he appeared to exist largely as a pliable and respectable old-school kind who might come out on the Grammys and sing a track yearly. However then, out of nowhere, he fucked round and made a big hit. The circumstances lined up good, and John Legend landed at #1.

John Legend was a gifted child, and he’s all the time carried himself with the graceful self-assurance of somebody who by no means as soon as thought-about the concept that me would possibly fail at something. John Roger Stephens, the son of two working-class individuals who made music of their spare time, comes from Springfield, Ohio. (When Legend was born, Stylish’s “Le Freak” was the #1 track in America.) His mom homeschooled him when he was younger, and he began enjoying piano at 4 and singing in church at seven. He gained essay contests and spelling bees, and he skipped a few grades, beginning highschool when he was 12. At 16, he graduated and went off to review English on the College Of Pennsylvania — a Doogie Howser trajectory.

Whereas he was in faculty, John Legend led an a cappella group and met former Quantity Ones artist Lauryn Hill whereas she was engaged on her landmark solo debut The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill. After he auditioned for her, she requested him to play piano on her track “All the pieces Is All the pieces,” which ultimately peaked at #35 — a hell of a credit score for a younger musician who wasn’t but 20. However younger John Stephens didn’t drop out of faculty to pursue present enterprise. As a substitute, he graduated in 1999 and located a job as a administration marketing consultant, no matter that’s. Like his mother and father earlier than him, he labored on music in his spare time.

When he wasn’t working, John Legend performed small stay reveals and recorded a few demo CDs. Finally, he met the rising rap producer Kanye West, somebody who’s been on this column a bunch of instances and who, towards all odds, will ultimately return. West began utilizing Legend as an uncredited backing singer and musician, a texture to assist fill out his lush soul-sample beats. Legend sang on West-produced hits from folks like Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, and he performed keyboards on “Gradual Jamz,” the monitor that lastly turned West right into a chart-conquering celebrity.

John Legend was throughout The Faculty Dropout, Kanye West’s 2004 debut album, singing backups and enjoying keyboards. Legend bought his pseudonym from J. Ivy, a spoken-word poet who seems on The Faculty Dropout. Legend wasn’t actually into the thought of utilizing a stage identify, however West took up the nickname, and it caught on. In 2004, West produced and rapped on “Egocentric,” a single from Detroit underground rap legends Slum Village, and Legend sang the hook. That track made it to #55 on the Scorching 100, giving Legend his first featured-artist credit score on a chart hit.

When The Faculty Dropout got here out, Kanye West went on tour because the opening act on Usher’s gigantic Confessions tour, and his backing band was simply John Legend and DJ A-Trak. That very same yr, Legend turned the primary artist signed to Kanye West’s sony imprint GOOD Music. Legend was nonetheless on the Usher tour when he launched his debut single “Used To Love U,” which he co-produced with West. It peaked at #74.

Early on, Kanye West pitched himself as one thing of a rap traditionalist with a neo-soul streak, and John Legend served as his respectable R&B avatar. West produced or co-produced a lot of the tracks on Legend’s debut album Get Lifted, which got here out on the tail finish of 2004. However the album’s massive breakout turned out to be the self-produced “Strange Individuals,” a spare and stylish love track that’s largely constructed on his voice and piano, at the least till the strings burst in on the finish. “Strange Individuals” was a minor chart hit, peaking at #24 on the Scorching 100 and #4 on the R&B charts. It additionally made John Legend an instantaneous favourite amongst middlebrow sorts, particularly Grammy voters.

On the 2006 Grammys, John Legend gained three trophies, together with Finest New Artist, the large award that his benefactor Kanye West had did not safe the earlier yr. With that win, Legend defeated Fall Out Boy, Keane, Sugarland, and former Quantity Ones artist Ciara. On the ceremony, Legend carried out “Strange Individuals,” and he additionally took half in an all-star Sly & The Household Stone tribute. That turned a working theme in Legend’s profession. The Grammys stored asking him to do stuff, and he stored displaying up.

It took 16 years, however Get Lifted ultimately went double platinum. Within the years that adopted, Legend stored making visitor appearances on data from Kanye West and fellow Kanye collaborators like Widespread and Consequence. He additionally polished his old-school credentials, displaying up on duets albums to sing with legends icons Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, and Aretha Franklin. At any time when attainable, he did the sort of soft-liberal charity work and activism that doesn’t piss anybody off. He was a mannequin citizen, and so far as I can inform, he nonetheless is.

Legend launched his sophomore album As soon as Once more in 2006, and it went platinum, but it surely didn’t have any massive hits. Lead single “Save Room” was the one one which made the Scorching 100, and it peaked at #61. “Stereo,” the album’s fourth single, didn’t chart, but it surely nonetheless performed a serious position in Legend’s life and profession. Whereas he was capturing the video, Legend first met his co-star Chrissy Teigen, who was working as one of many suitcase fashions on Deal Or No Deal on the time.

Over the following few years, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen turned a really public couple, and Teigen advanced right into a full-on supermodel, showing on the Sports activities Illustrated Swimsuit Challenge cowl in 2010. I assume that was nonetheless an enormous deal then? It’s arduous to maintain monitor. Legend stored successful Grammys. (John Legend simply opened his mouth. Somebody go hand him a Grammy proper now.) In 2008, Legend campaigned arduous for Barack Obama, made his cinematic debut within the Samuel L. Jackson/Bernie Mac car Soul Males, and launched his album Evolver. He reached #24 — the identical peak as “Strange Individuals” — by teaming up with OutKast’s more and more reclusive André 3000 on the easily synthy single “Inexperienced Gentle.” I like that track.

Evolver went platinum, but it surely took greater than a decade. By this level, John Legend’s profession settled right into a sample. He made data that did fairly effectively with out setting the world on hearth. He projected genial professionalism each time he appeared wherever, and he racked up goodwill. He was a status artist, the sort who will get award nominations with out leaving an excessive amount of of a cultural dent. Within the subsequent few years, Legend made an album of soul covers with the Roots, toured with Sade, bought an honorary diploma from Howard, and served as a decide on the singing present Duets — all issues that you’d principally anticipate John Legend to do.

When Kanye West made his messy 2010 album My Lovely Darkish Twisted Fantasy, John Legend sang on “Blame Recreation,” a track constructed on an Aphex Twin pattern. The following yr, I noticed West headline a wild GOOD Music showcase at SXSW, enjoying what I consider was a transformed energy plant. The present climaxed with West and Jay-Z sharing the stage. West’s hungry younger proteges — Child Cudi, Large Sean, CyHi The Prince — confirmed out. Mos Def was up there in an opera masks for some motive. In the midst of all that, Legend got here out to sing “Blame Recreation” and to play that Aphex “Avril 14th” pattern on piano, and he appeared like an oasis of calm.

In 2013, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen bought married at Lake Como in Italy. By that point, Teigen was throughout TV, and she or he and Legend had been a full-on relationship-goals Instagram couple, radiating aspirational happiness each time anybody pointed a digital camera of their route. Simply earlier than the marriage, Legend launched his album Love In The Future. It’s an extended, labored document with an entire lot of Kanye West manufacturing. A lot of the songs have tons of credited songwriters and producers. There are visitors, samples, covers, and allusions throughout a lot of the tracks. West co-produced the primary two singles, the Rick Ross collab “Who Do We Suppose We Are” and the house-inflected, vaguely bluesy “Made To Love.” Neither made a ripple.

Within the context of the album, “All Of Me” was the exception. As soon as once more, it was largely simply John Legend and a piano. It’s a easy, straight-faced declaration of affection, and it builds on the picture of Legend as one half of a famously blissed-out couple with out going heavy on specifics. Legend co-wrote “All Of Me” with Toby Gad, a German-born pop skilled who bought his massive break co-writing Milli Vanilli tracks with Frank Farian. Gad has already been on this column for co-writing Fergie’s “Large Ladies Don’t Cry,” and he discovered a lane by working with Disney youngsters (Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Hilary Duff) and by writing on massive ballads like Beyoncé’s “If I Have been A Boy.” A supervisor paired Legend up with Gad, suggesting that they attempt to write a love ballad like Billy Joel’s “She’s All the time A Girl,” which peaked at #17 in 1977.

“All Of Me” is pure love-song sentiment. John Legend desires you to know that every one of him loves all of you — all of your curves and all of your edges, all of your excellent imperfections. He says that you simply’re loopy, however so is he, and he thinks that you simply’re stunning even whenever you cry. (Why is that a line that songwriters preserve coming again to?) It’s all absolute cliché, however Legend sells it with a powerful, easy central melody and with an association that leaves him nowhere to cover.

John Legend co-produced “All Of Me” with Dave Tozer, a New Jersey native who’d been a pal and collaborator since his faculty days. Tozer labored on Legend’s early demos and on his debut album Get Lifted. Afterward, Tozer additionally labored with folks like Kanye West and Jay-Z, however he was largely Legend’s man. John Legend doesn’t really play keyboards on “All Of Me”; it’s Dave Tozer and session man Mark Williams. Most of what you hear on the track is simply voice and piano, however there’s some refined synth-bass in there including shading, too. Close to the top of the track, Tozer sings backup vocals by means of a robotic filter. (He’s mentioned that he and Legend had been impressed by Imogen Heap’s “Disguise And Search.”) You may solely simply hear the robo-voice within the combine, but it surely provides some good little subliminal sad-computer flavoring.

The place “All Of Me” succeeds, it largely comes right down to John Legend’s vocal efficiency. His tone is mushy and wealthy and direct, and the sparseness of the association lends his efficiency a sure intimacy. It’s simple to think about him singing it whereas holding eye contact with somebody. He by no means oversings, and he stays proper in the midst of his vary for a lot of the track. When he lastly reaches into his falsetto for the refrain, it makes an actual emotional influence. The track is sturdily structured sufficient that Legend can occupy its middle, radiating the nice-guy sincerity that made him so well-known.

Right here’s the large drawback with “All Of Me”: It’s boring. That’s it. Nothing particular. I’m not a ballad individual, and John Legend isn’t a sufficiently bewitching vocal presence that I keep locked-in whereas he delivers Hallmark-card love poetry. Legend sings about being in loopy, whirling, disorienting love, however the track is just too reserved and managed to mirror that feeling. “All Of Me” isn’t dangerous. If I hear it once I’m in an emotionally susceptible place, it would soften me a little bit. Once I’m not in that place, I can respect the craft and even the sentiment, however I’m not going out of my method to hear it.

“All Of Me” had the nice fortune to return out when voice-and-piano ballads had been having one thing of a renaissance. This was the post-Adele period. In 2011, Adele turned the primary artist ever to high the Scorching 100 with nothing however voice and piano when the monster ballad “Somebody Like You” broke by means of. In 2013, Bruno Mars scored with the equally restrained “Once I Was Your Man.” Adele’s subsequent album was nonetheless greater than a yr away from launch when “All Of Me” hit, so John Legend crammed a market demand for that sort of factor.

John Legend didn’t simply promote the track; he additionally bought the picture. Each little bit of promotional materials surrounding the track introduced Legend and Chrissy Teigen as an final fantastical energy couple, the individuals who you would like you can be. The marketing campaign behind the track was each romantic and escapist. They filmed the crisp black-and-white video on Lake Como, they usually made it with Nabil Elderkin, the director who launched them within the first place. It’s fortunate that Elderkin was additionally certainly one of that second’s finest video administrators. Within the black-and-white clip, the 2 of them journey speedboats and stare into one another’s eyes and usually seem like they’re in an Antonioni movie. It ends with a silent second of footage from their actual marriage ceremony.

“All Of Me” first made it onto the Scorching 100 in September 2013. Simply by reaching that, it outperformed the opposite singles from Love In The Future. However the track took a really, very very long time to climb the chart. What in the end supercharged the track was a efficiency on the Grammys in January 2014. That one actually was simply John Legend at a piano. To me, it simply appeared like one other John Legend Grammys efficiency. My in-the-moment response is preserved for posterity under. Apparently, although, it caught out to lots of people.

There have been another makes an attempt to juice the chart fortunes of “All Of Me,” like a dance remix from Tiësto and a nation model, with Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles, that got here out after the track had already hit #1. In a 2022 Stereogum interview, although, Legend mentioned that it was largely the Grammy-night efficiency that made the track click on with common audiences:

It was attending to the highest of the city grownup modern chart, which is sort of my residence chart ’trigger that’s the place most R&B will get performed. However it’s nonetheless a fairly restricted viewers simply because it’s not an enormous portion of the nation that listens to these stations. So it doing effectively on that format is sweet, but it surely’s not enough to make it an enormous hit. So once I performed it on the Grammys, we had simply began going to different codecs with the track — so extra pop stations, extra Scorching AC stations. And proper once I carried out it on the Grammys, it simply opened it as much as the entire nation and the entire world. And it shot to the highest of the iTunes chart after which instantly turned a large hit from there.

“All Of Me” did effectively on just a few completely different radio codecs, but it surely in all probability reached #1 largely by means of iTunes downloads. The track was already double platinum earlier than it reached #1, and people downloads simply stored promoting. At this level, “All Of Me” has gone platinum an astonishing 14 instances. A few of that’s streaming — “All Of Me” has almost 10 instances as many Spotify performs as some other John Legend track — however the single positive made some huge cash at iTunes. Finally, that was sufficient to push it Pharrell’s juggernaut “Joyful” out of the #1 spot.

“All Of Me” was caught at #2 behind “Joyful” for a month and a half, and the success of each songs actually says one thing. Earlier than “Joyful” it had been greater than a yr for the reason that final #1 hit from a Black artist. White rappers and R&B singers had been topping the charts all that point, typically with Black visitors. This was the whitest stretch of #1 hits in chart historical past. Pharrell and John Legend had been each well-known, totally media-trained show-business veterans who didn’t deliver a lot messiness with them. Each of them made pop variations on nostalgic old-school soul sounds, and each of them reached #1 with songs that had been candy and healthful and family-friendly. That’s what the pop charts needed on the time. The charts turned far more anarchic within the years forward, and I believe pop normally is in a more healthy place when it’s messier. That doesn’t actually mirror on John Legend. I’m simply saying.

John Legend has by no means made one other hit wherever close to as massive as “All Of Me.” Observe-up single “You & I (No one within the World)” peaked at #66, so Legend didn’t instantly turn into a success machine. He did, nevertheless, visitor on “Like I’m Gonna Lose You,” a 2015 single from Meghan Trainor, an artist who will seem on this column quickly, and that track made it to #8. (It’s a 4.) Except you rely pianos and backing vocals on Kanye West tracks, “All Of Me” and “Like I’m Gonna Lose You” are the one top-10 pop hits of Legend’s complete profession. Apart from these two songs, #24 appears to be John Legend’s ceiling. I ponder if it felt like a triumph when he made it to #23 along with his dance-adjacent 2016 track “Love Me Now,” or whether or not somebody thought that one would possibly do “All Of Me” numbers.

As a substitute of creating extra hits, John Legend went on an absolute awards bender after “All Of Me.” Later in 2014, he and his GOOD Music labelmate Widespread recorded “Glory,” the end-credits track for the film Selma. That track peaked at #49, and it gained the Oscar for Finest Unique Tune. When Legend and Widespread carried out on the Oscars, they made Chris Pine cry on digital camera. In 2017, Legend gained a Tony for being one of many producers of the August Wilson play Jitney. A yr later, he performed the lead in a stay NBC manufacturing of Jesus Christ Famous person, and he gained an Emmy for it. That made Legend the second-youngest individual ever to lock down the total EGOT. He additionally served as Individuals’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2019, and that further distinction virtually calls for an entire new acronym. The SMAEGOT, perhaps?

After “All Of Me,” Legend lastly broke with Kanye West in each the enterprise and political senses. Legend and Teigen had a bunch of youngsters. Legend has been a coach on The Voice for a bunch of years now. He and Ariana Grande, an artist who will seem on this column a bunch of instances, coated the principle theme for Disney’s Magnificence And The Beast remake. Talking of flicks, Legend performed Ryan Gosling’s pop-careerist bandmate in La La Land, which is fairly humorous, after which he and Teigen voiced an obnoxiously excellent couple within the animated banger The Mitchells Vs. The Machines, which is even funnier. Teigen bought in a bunch of hassle for cyberbullying, which complicates her complete ultra-nice persona and lends some grim comedy to “All Of Me,” like if there’d been a chart-topping love track to Ellen DeGeneres. However, I imply, jerks want love, too.

John Legend continues to make music, and a few of that music even lands on the Scorching 100. Most just lately, he and former Quantity Ones artist Carrie Underwood reached #54 with their 2020 Christmas duet “Hallelujah.” (I’m completely satisfied to report that it’s not a Leonard Cohen cowl.) Lately, we’ve bought an entire new era of Grammy prestige-artist sorts, folks like H.E.R. and Jon Batiste. I don’t assume any of them will ever make a #1 hit, however I didn’t actually assume that about John Legend, both.

GRADE: 6/10