You're The First, The Last, My Everything

Album

Can't Get Enough

Label

20th Century Fox Records

Genre

Disco

Composer(s)

Barry White, Tony Sepe, Peter Radcliffe

Entered Chart

Nov 2, 1974

Peak Date

Jan 4, 1975

Released

October 25, 1974

Recorded

1974

Catalog #

20th Fox 2133

B-Side

More Than Anything, You're My Everything

White's friend Peter Sterling Radcliffe started writing this as a country song called "You're My First, You're My Last, My In-Between," but he couldn't get it recorded for 21 years. When White was down on his luck, Radcliffe stepped up and bought his children toys for Christmas - a kindness White didn't forget when he became famous. So when Radcliffe offered him the song, he didn't hesitate to hear it. Tony Sepe, another songwriter who was in the room (and whose name ended up on the tune), laughed when he heard the country song with the clip-clop of horses' hooves keeping the rhythm. He was shocked by White's positive reaction. The singer recalled to Billboard: "I said, 'Sterling, that song is a smash.' Tony's face actually changed. I said, 'Sterling, I want you to stay out of my face for the next two or three weeks. When you come back, you're going to be part of a smash.'" This was used in TV commercials for Black Cherry Vanilla Coke. >> Changing the genre from country to disco, he kept the chord changes and part of Radcliffe's melody but also added his own melody and nearly all new lyrics. "I heard what was inside that song," White explained. Most of the changes came to him during a rough recording session when it didn't seem like the song was going to pan out. "I went into the studio and made up my own melody all the way through. Half of the words in it I changed right in front of the microphone." When Radcliffe heard the final result, he cried. This was White's third #1 single on the R&B chart. Report an ad This was prominently used on Ally McBeal as John Cage's (Peter MacNicol) personal anthem. White appeared on the season 2 episode "Those Lips, That Hand" to perform the tune as a gift to John from Nelle. White re-recorded this as a duet with Faith Evans for the soundtrack to Money Talks (1997). This was also used in these movies: The Bachelor (1999) Kiss, Kiss (Bang Bang) (2001) Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) Date Movie (2006) Zookeeper (2011) Dark Shadows (2012) In 2005 a version by Howard Brown, a sales ambassador who sang in advertisements for the UK's Halifax Bank, released his version as a charity single after performing it in a commercial. It peaked at #13 in the UK. What song kept this #2 entry from the #1 spot on the Hot 100? Elton John's version of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds." But in the UK, White surpassed the English singer. His single went to #1 while Elton's topped out at #10.

We got it together, didn't we
We've definitely got our thing together don't we baby
Isn't that nice
I mean really, when really sit and think about it
Isn't it really, really nice

I can easily feel myself slipping
In more and more ways
That super world of my own
Nobody but you and me

We've got it together baby

My first, my last, my everything
And the answer to all my dreams
You're my sun, my moon, my guiding star
My kind of wonderful, that's what you are

I know there's only, only one like you
There's no way they could have made two
You're, you're all I'm living for, your love I'll keep forevermore
You're the first, you're the last, my everything

In you I've found so many things
A love so new, only you could bring
Can't you see it's you? You make me feel this way
You're like a fresh morning dew on a brand new day

I see so many ways that I
Can love you 'til the day I die
You're my reality, yet I'm lost in a dream
You're the first, the last, my everything

I know there's only, only one like you
There's no way they could have made two
Girl, you're my reality, but I'm lost in a dream
You're the first, you're the last, my everything

You and me baby
It's you, and me
And you are the first, the last, my everything