 |
| Gerald Marks |
You know that awkward feeling you get when someone means the world to you and you mean significantly less to them? If not, good for you. If so, you’re in fine company, including that of Gerald Marks, who in 1931 wrote the lyrics to All Of Me.
In the year 2000 the song won the Towering Song Award from the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame with these words:
“In 1931, while most of America was reeling from the already desperate years of the great depression, songwriters Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons had reason to celebrate. Their one important songwriting collaboration, “All Of Me,” first saw the light of day, beginning an open-ended dominance of the song category of great standards, the kind of memorable composition that supersedes any boundaries of specific years or eras.”
 |
| Photo Courtesy FutureCycle Press |
It was first recorded by Ruth Etting and then became one of the most recorded songs of all time. Notable versions include Billie Holiday’s, Louis Armstrong’s, Willie Nelson’s, and the four versions recorded by Frank Sinatra, with four different arrangements.
It’s the Louis Armstrong version that I keep hearing and that made me want to take a crack at it.
Why not take all of me?
Can’t you see
I’m no good without you?
I want to lose them.
Take my arms
I’ll never use them.
Left me with eyes that cry
How can I go on dear without you?
That once was my heart.
So why not take all of me?
Why not take all of me?
Can’t you see
I’m no good without you?
I want to lose them.
Take my arms
I’ll never use them.
Left me with eyes that cry
How can I go on dear without you?
That once was my heart.
So why not take all of me?
So why not take the rest?
Why not take all of me?
Words & Music by Mike Power 