“All Of Me” — Frank Sinatra

John Legend had a Billboard Number One in 2014 with a song called “All Of Me”. This is an entirely different song, however, from a very different era.

I know it’s difficult for songwriters to come up with song titles no-one’s used before. I’m sure there are billions of potential combinations of letters in the English alphabet, but only a small proportion of them form into words we’d all recognise. So I don’t blame John Legend for using a title that had been used before.

John Legend co-wrote his “All Of Me” song with Toby Gad. But Frank Sinatra didn’t have a hand in writing his “All Of Me”. Ol’ Blue Eyes was one of the finest interpreters of a song you’re ever likely to come across, but he was strictly a performer, not a songwriter.

The original “All Of Me” was written by Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons back in 1931. After convincing Belle Baker…a big star of the time…to perform it, “All Of Me” was quickly picked up by many of the other great performers of the day.

Louis Armstrong had a big hit with his New Orleans jazz-infused version. Billie Holiday, let down so badly and so tragically by men, recorded a sparse, emotionally-charged version. Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra recorded a popular version as did Count Basie. Some years later, Willie Nelson recorded one of my favourite versions of “All Of Me” for his “Stardust” album of Great American Songbook tunes. (Here if you’d like a listen… https://youtu.be/X1ZSZUSrXc8 )