How to Produce a #1 Hit Song: “All of Me” by John Legend

There’s always a song in the #1 slot. But not all those chart-toppers are destined for true greatness – they come and then they go, entertaining millions for a shining moment before fading away.

John Legend led the way the last few weeks with “All of Me”.

“All of Me” by John Legend is not that kind of #1. It’s the other kind of #1 – a song that grows and grows, and then will never go. The track enjoyed an enviable three-week run atop the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, is currently at #3, has led a number of other charts besides, and will stick around in the Western music canon…maybe forever.

It will join a slowly growing list of indispensable classics that you best expect to hear everywhere: in your car, in the supermarket, on your celebrity-curated streaming playlist of So Legit Love Songs.

And you’ll probably be just fine with that, because “All of Me” has what it takes to live on, age gracefully, and never grow old. On our first listen last year, we said “All of Me” was “a stirring interplay of Legend’s vocals and piano, it’s a strong love song filled with awe. Engrossing and gorgeous, this track may very well endure for years to come.”

Clocking in at 4:30, “All of Me” grips you instantly with its plaintive piano chords – tension, mystery and emotion hang heavy in its atmospheric air. When the first verse kicks in at :09, Legend shows up soulfully, and you’re hooked into his journey with the words, “What would I do without your smart mouth?/Drawing me in, and you kicking me out/You’ve got my head spinning, no kidding, I can’t pin you down.”

Nothing more is needed than Legend’s voice and his darkly thoughtful piano for the first verse and then the chorus, which delivers the uplifting lines that make this a number one song: “’Cause all of me Loves all of you/Love your curves and all your edges/All your perfect imperfections.”

It’s a cosmic confession – perfectly simple words and pure piano, saying what everyone wishes they’d been able to tell their partner more than once. Fortunately, Legend says it for us, and thank God he did: these are lyrics that change lives with their power.

How many proposals on bended knee have already taken place to the soundtrack of “All of Me”? Conflicts mediated? Marriages saved? Its music at its fullest promise – communicating something essential that words alone just can’t.

As the song progresses, the arrangement gets only slightly more complex. When the second chorus arrives at 2:25, the subtlest of vocal doubling kicks in, courtesy of a flangey vocoder effect that fulfills the promise of the album title, Love in the Future. A lush, choral synth pad also sings far in the background, lifting this already emotionally soaring experience just a little more.

The bridge comes at 3:10, and its back to the core of just piano and voice, but not for long. Listen for that pad to slowly resurface, beautifully managing the transition to the third and final chorus. That’s where the vocoder harmonizer comes on a little stronger, a tiny touch of unreality, somehow making this legendary expression very real.

The pad is slightly up in the mix too, until it glides under the horizon at 4:12, leaving Legend’s vocals and piano alone for the denouement that goes to a calming close at 4:30. Listeners are left alone to contemplate what just happened to them – and press “play” again if possible.

The Producer’s View

Overseeing all these magical moments throughout the year-long process of recording “All of Me” was Love in the Future’s executive Producer Dave Tozer. A longtime songwriting partner of Legend’s since the late 1990’s, Tozer is a producer/engineer/arranger/composer/multi-instrumentalist whose platinum portfolio also includes Jay-Z, Kanye West, Justin Timberlake, John Mayer, and many more.

Dave Tozer had a good feeling about “All of Me”. (Photo: Michael Vecchio)

Tozer has been on the ground floor for many a hit, but “All of Me” takes it to the next level – this is a song for the ages. For virtually everyone who makes records, this is the dream come true.

To get a producer’s perspective on the before, during and after of a #1 hit’s creation, SonicScoop sat down with Tozer. Read on to see how “All of Me” actually happened:

What shape was this song in when you first heard it? Did you think it was hit material?

Yes I did. When John brought this song to me, it was pretty much there. He thought it was very special – you could sense his excitement about it.

John and I have both written a lot of songs, together and separately. I like to think that we both have written a lot of well-crafted songs that are really good. But having said that, you still get a sense when a special one comes along.

I think John had that feeling about “All of Me.” He felt it could be a career-defining song if a couple of things happened: if we got the production and arrangement right. In a song like this, the simplicity is deceptive, because there’s so many places you can go.

We tried some things that were more ambitious, production-wise, but we would constantly question, strip it back, and think “What’s necessary here? Or what’s here that isn’t necessary? Is anything distracting from it, or keeping you from telling the story?”

That’s the process. You go down all the roads, explore all these arrangement ideas, and then you start stripping it down to the essentials.

How did you and John work on it in the pre-production phase?

At the time that John brought the song in, we had already started to establish a sonic identity for the album. We knew that “All of Me” wouldn’t turn into a huge production, but rather something that was simple and tender.

Once he brought it in, he let me do my thing: take it in and study it for how I wanted to do the arrangement. Then I started bringing various ideas to John to hear his feedback. He’d like things, then live with them for a bit, get into it, and come back and have some suggestions or critiques. I’d do the same thing as well on my end.

All the while we were working on it at my studio, Night Fox Studios. I did some tracking on it at Electric Lady and at Germano Studios. We tracked a variety of things to it. Through the course of the year, we tracked the main piano part three different times.

Why is that?

Initially, we had more of an arpeggiated part to it. On the finished version, it’s more plodding chords – we were constantly changing and tweaking the feel of the piano part.

At different points I also recorded a cellist on it, Mellotron, and a Theremin. I cut a variety of guitar parts, and I put a talk box on it I did myself. We also used a harmonizer for the robot voices. At one point I even had a John Coltrane sample in the bridge that I tweaked to the point you wouldn’t recognize it. I even put in a xylophone, and we recorded a harp player.

So at one point I had real harp, real cellos, guitar, synths, a theremin player, a John Coltrane sample, and different piano parts! Even that said, it was all tastefully done.

We worked through several different versions of the arrangement along the way, until we arrived at the final version that we all know.

What are some of the major changes that happened in the studio that you think really took the song to the next level?

In the end you have vocal, piano, some synths there that add some low end padding and girth to it, and then I have the “harmonizer” vocals, which give it the robot voices.

Ultimately, we wanted to strip it back. The final piano we recorded, which was the one we went with, was tracked at Electric Lady on their Yamaha. That final take was the winner because of the mood.

As I said, we had more of an arpeggiated part before, but we simplified it to give it a weight and a mood that was simpler and more open. That really allowed room for the melodies and John’s vocal to shine.

Everything was recorded through tape machines, and into Logic. The vocalmicrophone was a Neumann U 47. John with a U 47 is a great combination. I think for just about all those vocals on the album, I used a U 47.

Shades of Ramone and Joel are in the production philosophy of “All of Me”.

As a producer of a record like that, a big part of it is knowing how to get out of the way. Let the things that should be there be there, and not overproduce it. For example, look at what Phil Ramone did for a song like “She’s Always a Woman” by Billy Joel. It’s a simplified arrangement, but it pushes the song in just the right places.

Producing a record is about knowing how to steer the ship into that direction, get great vocal production, and produce great arrangements.

Why do you think this song has gone to #1? What’s special about it?

One of the things that really helped was that he sang it at the GRAMMYs in February – that really got it into the living rooms of America, and that always helps. The promotion was key, but you’ve gotta have a great song that resonates with people.

It’s an honest song that has a great story behind it: because John’s a public figure a lot people know that he’s just been married to Chrissy Teigen, and that the song is about her. Even though they’re a celebrity couple, that sentiment still resonates with a lot of people who are in love with each other and can relate to that emotion.

So, because it’s so well composed and crafted and heartfelt, it connects broadly at the core of people. And sometimes you get lucky! (Laughs) sometimes the Zeitgeist is right.

Is it important to you to have a #1 hit? What’s the most satisfying thing about it?

It’s nice to have the work recognized. You work very hard on these records, and you’re always doing your best job possible. When you can touch that many people, there’s a sense of accomplishment tied to that.

For the 100 you’ve done that haven’t resonated, you finally got one that has resonated so well. It’s very gratifying to be part of a work that has touched so many people.

Do you get tired of listening to “All of Me”?

(Laughs) Great question! I don’t listen to it very often. That’s often the case — I work on a song, then I’m on to the next project.

— David Weiss

Dave Tozer in his element at Night Fox Studios. (Photo: Michael Vecchio)

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