It’s hard to imagine Barry White singing “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything” any other way. But before White turned it into one of his biggest hits, the song was a country tune with a very different sound.
Peter Sterling Radcliffe wrote the song decades before White ever heard it, originally calling it “You’re My First, You’re My Last, My In-Between.” His country version sat untouched for 21 years.
By the time Radcliffe brought the song to White, the two already had a personal connection. When White was going through a rough financial period, Radcliffe reportedly bought Christmas presents for his children. So when Radcliffe later told White he had a song he wanted him to hear, White was willing to give it a chance.
What he heard was nothing like the classic that would eventually come from it. Radcliffe’s original was a country song that even featured the sound of horses’ hooves.
Still, White heard something worth working with. He reworked the melody and much of the lyrics while keeping elements of Radcliffe’s original composition.
“I said, ‘Sterling, that song is a smash,’” White recalled. He then asked Radcliffe to give him a few weeks to reshape it. “I said, ‘Sterling, I want you to stay out of my face for the next two or three weeks,’” he contiuned. “When you come back, you’re going to be part of a smash.”
White transformed the song in the studio, rewriting several of the lyrics in the process.
“I heard what was inside that song. … I went into the studio and made up my own melody all the way through,” he said. “Half of the words in it I changed right in front of the microphone.”
White’s version appeared on his 1974 album Can’t Get Enough and became a major hit. “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything” reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The only song standing between it and No. 1 was Elton John’s “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”
However, the record did spend a week at No. 1 on the Hot Soul Singles chart. It also reached No. 1 in the U.K., where it spent two weeks atop the chart.
The song was White’s fourth top-10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified Gold by the RIAA in December 1974.
Related: 1971 Rock Song, Rejected by Steppenwolf, Was Rescued by a Hit-Making Band
Leave a Reply