Barry White ~ You're The First, The Last, My Everything 1974 Disco Purrfection Version

Barry White could hear the hit potential of a song brought to him by songwriter Sterling Radcliffe called “You're The First, My Last and The In Between“ that even the cowriter, Tony Sepe was skeptical of. You see, Barry wanted to pay Sterling back for his Christmas generosity to his kids one year when Barry was in financial straits. Sterling never asked for a return favor. He did ask Barry to listen to his homemade demo of a country western style song he wrote that used the clip clops of horses to keep time. Barry rewrote the lyrics and added a new melody part to the song and went into the studio. Facing a deadline, he recorded the first version and while listening to the playback, knew that he was in trouble with that take and did not have time to figure out why. The engineer ran the music again for a second take and Barry made up some new lyrics and a whole new melody as he went along, right in front of the microphone. The second take was the keeper and became Barry's third #1 R&B hit single. It peaked at #2 for two weeks on the Hot 100, unable to dislodge Elton John's “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds“.