John Legend, “All of Me”

by Hannah Salamon | April 7, 2021

In 2013, John Legend wrote “All of Me” as part of his fourth studio album, Love in the Future, dedicating it to his then fiancée and now wife, Chrissy Teigen. In 2014, “All of Me” became Legend’s first number-one single in the US. On Youtube, it continues to be his most popular song. The music video has 1.9 billion views, the most by far of any of his music videos. On Spotify, it is his most streamed song with 1.4 billion streams, compare to 47 million which “Wild,” his second most streamed song, has. Legend co-wrote “All of Me” with Toby Gad and it was produced by David Tozer. It is in A-flat major and has two verses with a recurring pre-chorus, chorus, post-chorus, bridge, and outro. In this post, I will be seeking to show why “All of Me” has been so popular through discussing its topic and lyrics, illustrating examples of word painting from the score, and showing how the music video plays a vital role in fully realizing the lyrics.

When one thinks about common themes in pop songs, the topic of heartbreak is very high on the list of common themes that come to mind, which is accurate. “All of Me” is different in this respect because it is a song about love and commitment, not love and heartbreak, a very common theme in pop songs. Despite there being so much sadness and heartbreak in our world, people still crave beauty and hope in relationship with others, which this song speaks about and inspires hope for in the listener. In the chorus, which is the most well-known part of this song, and which it is named after, Legend sings: “cause all of me loves all of you,” and in the post chorus, “I give you all of me and you give me all of you.” He is not singing about an imaginary person or relationship, but one that he has with his then fiancée and soon-to-be wife, Chrissy Teigen, who he has been married to since 2013. The lyrics are speaking from Legend’s perspective of his intoxicated love for Teigen, which is shown to be mutual in the music video. One of the most beautiful aspects of the lyrics are the mutual giving of one to the other in love that Legend sings about.

Harmonically “All of Me” is interesting because it is written in A flat major, but the chord pattern, with slight variations through the song, that forms the harmonic foundation for the two verses is F5, D flat, A flat, and E flat 5.

This conveys a sense of perpetuity, symbolizing how their love never dies or ends. “All of Me” ends on an E flat chord, which is the V chord in A flat major, resulting in a hanging half cadence, serving to depict the never-ending nature of their love as the cadence does not sound conclusive and could continue on forever. The line: “I give you all of me and you give me all of you” is repeated twice at the end of the song, and it could be continued more times if desired as there is no conclusive final cadence.

Another example of word painting in the text setting is in the recurring post-chorus and outro sections where we have the words: “’cause I give you all of me and you give me all of you.” For the word “all” in the three occurrences of the post-chorus and outro sections, it is set melismatically, emphasizing the commitment that Legend and Teigen are making to each other. This is in contrast to the other occurrences of the word “all” in the song which are set syllabically.

A vital component of understanding the full musical intent that Legend had for “All of Me” is the music video that accompanies it because the video is not just one of Legend performing the song. Instead, the song is brought alive through a choreographed snapshot into the magic of Legend and Teigen’s relationship. A striking element of the video is that it is filmed in black and white for the entirety, except a picture that is in colour from their wedding which is shown at the end. Even though the song is specifically about Legend and Teigen’s love story, it is something that resonates with so many people because it can be taken to be about anyone’s love story. We live in a very visual age where many people prefer to watch a video or see pictures while listening to a song instead of just listening to the audio. The music video helps us as the audience fully understand the musical intention that Legend had for it, which are expressed well in the music, but are given a whole additional dimension through the music video as it feels like watching a movie about their love story.

A unique aspect of this music video is that it stars both people who the song is about instead of actors. I think that this is one of the elements that makes the “All of Me” music video so appealing. This is different from Justin Bieber’s 2020 song “Holy” and the accompanying music video which stars himself with Ryan Destiny even though the song seems to speak about his relationship with his wife, Hailey Bieber. Overall, it is clear why “All of Me” is popular for many reasons, including the popular topic, word painting in the music, and the captivating music video, all coming from Legend’s amazing talent.