"You're All I Need to Get By" is a song recorded by the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

R&B/

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

duo

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...

and

Tammi Terrell Tammi Terrell (born Thomasina Winifred Montgomery; April 29, 1945 – March 16, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter, widely known as a star singer for Motown Records during the 1960s, notably for a series of duets with singer Marvin Gaye. ...

and released on

Motown Records Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmant ...

' Tamla label in 1968. It was the basis for the 1995 single "

I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need to Get By "I'll Be There for You/You're All I Need to Get By" is a duet song by the American recording artists, rapper Method Man and singer Mary J. Blige who sings the intro, the choruses, and backing vocals. The song is a remix of Method Man's "All I Nee ...

" from

Method Man Clifford Smith, Jr. (born March 2, 1971), better known by his stage name Method Man, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is known as a member of the East Coast hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan. He is also half of t ...

and

Mary J. Blige Mary Jane Blige ( ; born January 11, 1971) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Often referred to as the " Queen of Hip-Hop Soul" and " Queen of R&B", Blige has won nine Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, four American Music Award ...

Overview

Written by

Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson Ashford & Simpson were an American husband-and-wife songwriting-production team and recording duo of Nickolas Ashford (May 4, 1941 – August 22, 2011) and Valerie Simpson (born August 26, 1946). Ashford was born in Fairfield, South Carolina, ...

, it became one of the few Motown recordings of the 1960s that was not recorded with the familiar "

Motown sound Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

". Instead, "You're All I Need to Get By" had a more soulful and gospel-oriented theme surrounding it, that was influenced by the writers, who also sing background vocals on the recording, sharing vocals in a church choir in New York City. Marvin and Tammi recorded the song at Hitsville. Ashford & Simpson later stated how the session was hard as Terrell was recovering from surgery on the malignant brain tumor that ultimately caused her death less than two years after they recorded the song. During moments in the recording, Gaye can be heard encouraging Terrell to sing her verses, ad-libbing ''come on Tammi'' several times. A year later, Gaye was performing this song with

Stax Streaming API for XML (StAX) is an application programming interface ( API) to read and write XML documents, originating from the Java programming language community. Traditionally, XML APIs are either: * DOM based - the entire document is read i ...

vocalist

Carla Thomas Carla Venita Thomas (born December 21, 1942) is an American singer, who is often referred to as the Queen of Memphis Soul. Thomas is best known for her 1960s recordings for Atlantic and Stax including the hits "Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)" (1960 ...

at the

Apollo Theater The Apollo Theater is a music hall at 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is a not ...

, when Terrell, who was seated in the front row in her wheelchair, began singing along, prompting Gaye to leave the stage and sing the song with Terrell, who was offered a microphone. It was Terrell's final performance before her death in March 1970. The song was played during Terrell's funeral while Gaye gave a brief, tearful eulogy. The original recording by Gaye and Terrell peaked at number seven on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number-one on Billboard's Hot R&B/Soul Singles chart for five weeks, becoming one of the longest-running number one R&B hits of 1968 and the most successful duet recording of Marvin Gaye's career. It reached #19 on the British singles charts in late 1968, staying there for 19 weeks. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' described the single as a "driving rhythm follow-up" to the duo's previous hit single "

Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" is a 1968 single released by American R&B/soul duo Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, on the Tamla label in 1968. The B-side of the single is "Little Ole Boy, Little Ole Girl" from the duo's ''United'' LP. The ...

" which "will hit hard and fast." ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' called it a "tremendous ballad with a hearty beat," saying that the "scintillating opening excites listener response with an impending explosion that develops slowly unfolding solid performance."

Personnel

* All lead vocals by

and

* Background vocals by

Ashford & Simpson Ashford & Simpson were an American husband-and-wife songwriting-production team and recording duo of Nickolas Ashford (May 4, 1941 – August 22, 2011) and Valerie Simpson (born August 26, 1946). Ashford was born in Fairfield, South Carolina, ...

* Produced by Ashford & Simpson * Instrumentation by

The Funk Brothers The Funk Brothers were a group of Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972. Its members are considered among the most successful groups of stud ...

Chart history

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams version

Johnny Mathis John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standard music, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum s ...

and

Deniece Williams Deniece Williams (born June Deniece Chandler; June 3, 1951) is an American singer. She has been described as "one of the great soul voices" by the BBC. She is best known for the songs " Free", " Silly", "It's Gonna Take a Miracle" and two ''Bill ...

recorded "You're All I Need to Get By" for their 1978 duet album ''

That's What Friends Are For "That's What Friends Are For" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager. It was first recorded in 1982 by Rod Stewart for the soundtrack of the film '' Night Shift'', but it is better known for the 1985 cover version by Dionn ...

''. It was the follow-up to their U.S. number-one hit, "

Too Much, Too Little, Too Late "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" is a song performed by singers Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams. Lyrics and music were arranged by Nat Kipner and John Vallins. The single was a comeback of sorts for Mathis as his last U.S. top 10 hit was 196 ...

". Their version of "You're All I Need to Get By" peaked at #47 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, #10 on the Hot Soul Singles Chart, #16 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and #45 on the UK Singles Chart. It did best on the Canadian Adult Contemporary chart, where it reached #5.

Chart history

Weekly charts

Notable cover versions

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With ...

recorded the song as a single in 1971 (Atlantic 45-2787). The song was also included on her compilation album '' Aretha's Greatest Hits'' which was released later the same year. Her version peaked at #19 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and #3 on the

Hot Soul Singles The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

chart. It also features in a 2020 holiday advertisement for

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

. *

Tony Orlando & Dawn Tony Orlando and Dawn is an American pop music group that was popular in the 1970s, composed of singer Tony Orlando and the backing vocal group Dawn (Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson). Their signature hits include " Candida", "Knock Three ...

's version became the third to reach the U.S. Top 40, peaking at #34 in 1975. They also reached #13 on the Adult Contemporary chart. *

Kathy Troccoli Kathy is a feminine given name. It is a pet form of Katherine, Kathleen and their related forms. Kathy may refer to: In sports *Kathy Bald, Canadian freestyle swimmer *Kathy May, American tennis player *Kathy Radzuweit, German volleyball player ...

recorded her version on her debut album '' Stubborn Love'' in 1982. The lyrics had minor changes to make it fit into the CCM genre. *The song was covered in the 2021 film ''

CODA Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...

'', which tells the story of the hearing child of deaf parents who discovers her own singing abilities. The song was performed as a duet by

Emilia Jones Emilia Annis I. Jones (born 23 February 2002) is an English actress. She played the lead role of Ruby Rossi in the Academy Award-winning 2021 film '' CODA''. She has received several accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award and a nomi ...

and

Ferdia Walsh-Peelo Ferdia Walsh-Peelo (born 12 October 1999) is an Irish actor and musician. He made his film debut in the musical ''Sing Street'' (2016) and television debut in the History Channel, History series ''Vikings (2013 TV series), Vikings'' (2017–2020) ...

several times throughout the film.

References

External links

List of cover versions of "You're All I Need to Get By"
at SecondHandSongs.com {{Authority control 1967 songs 1968 singles Marvin Gaye songs Tammi Terrell songs Aretha Franklin songs Songs written by Nickolas Ashford Songs written by Valerie Simpson Male–female vocal duets Tony Orlando songs Johnny Mathis songs Deniece Williams songs The Angels (American group) songs Song recordings produced by Ashford & Simpson Tamla Records singles Columbia Records singles