And so we arrive at the ultimate love song. The song I will have played at my wedding…
All About You / You’ve Got a Friend, by McFly (their 3rd of seven #1s)
1 week, from 13th – 20th March 2005
Two slight caveats here: you must always allow me room for hyperbole when it comes to McFly, and I have little-to-no plans to ever get married. But still, I do think that ‘All About You’ is a lovely song.
First we have to skip the cheesy harps and strings intro, and imagine they’re being delivered with a knowing wink. Skip straight to the harmonies in the first chorus, and the pretty verses, with their timeless melodies. It is hard to write timeless, hard to write a song that sounds like it might always have existed.
The acoustic guitar solo is more of its time – though that ‘time’ would be a soft-rock song from the eighties – and the second bridge and chorus, when the band finally come in, is pure power-pop. Okay the lyrics are trite – Dancing on the kitchen tiles, Yes you made my life worthwhile, So I told you with a smile… – but eighteen year olds can get away with trite.
McFly songs provide a real chicken vs egg scenario for me. Do I blindly argue their brilliance because I think McFly are a truly underrated band; or are songs like ‘All About You’ truly great and deserve to have me arguing for them? I’ve been a McFly fan for so long now that I can’t judge this clearly.
Actually that’s a lie. The other side of this double-‘A’ will give me a chance to appraise McFly impartially. Since this was the official Red Nose Day single for 2005, the suits presumably needed a song with more of a message (and a music video in which the band could run around with lots of Ugandan orphans…) So they chose Carole King’s classic ‘You’ve Got a Friend’.
It is on the one hand completely unnecessary. It does not improve in any way on King’s original, or on James Taylor’s definitive cover. And I really don’t like all the woodwind. (See, I can write something bad about McFly.) But Tom’s voice sounds nice on the first verse. Plus, I sang this in my primary school choir, and it really does have one of the most heart-string tugging choruses in all of pop history.
The flutes, and the full-blown orchestra in the background of ‘All About You’, bring up one of the reasons why McFly’s second album, ‘Wonderland’, is my least favourite. They threw the kitchen sink at it, production-wise, with string sections and three-part rock operas about teen suicide. I think it was an attempt to prove themselves, to show that they weren’t just a boyband; but it led to bloat, and some boringly worthy music. By their third album, they seemed to have shaken that monkey off their back, and returned to making great pop-rock.
As this was the official Red Nose Day single, it opened with McFly’s highest ever weekly sale. It also meant this record didn’t have the massive second week collapse that they would become synonymous with. And yet, ‘All About You’ was still eclipsed by the unofficial Red Nose Day single, which brought about one of the biggest, and unlikeliest, hits of the entire decade, and which is up next.
Just the audio…
The UK Number Ones Blog 
First time hearing both of these McFly songs. “All About You” is pretty cute. I detect a slight 60s and 70s influence with the horns and string arrangement respectively. It’s a nice little pop rock ballad. The band seems to have quite a bit of reverence for 60s and 70s pop/rock while still keeping their music rooted in the contemporary music, which is always nice. Is that Graham Norton and Dermot O’Leary in the music video? And the Busted boys on the mag cover, that’s funny.
Their version of “You’ve Got a Friend” is fine. It’s basically what you’d expect. It’s a perfect song and you can’t really mess it up unless you’re actively trying to make a bad version. I agree James Taylor’s version is the best and really can’t be touched but McFly done a perfectly acceptable job. So far, definitely enjoying all their No. 1s more than Busted, I can see why you like them so much they’re a very solid pop rock group.
McFly visually kinda remind of The Monkees mixed with Green Day and Supergrass for some reason.
Glad you’re liking McFly so far. The Busted comparisons are fair, obviously, but McFly had much more depth to their music, and more references like you said from the 60s and 70s. I do wonder if Busted were forced to stick to the pop punk stuff by their label, or if the band themselves decided to stick to the formula. Considering that Busted wrote for McFly and vice-versa, they should have been capable of branching out more. The reason Charlie quit and basically ended the band was down to these musical restrictions. Tom Fletcher auditioned but failed to get in to Busted, and in the long run he was probably very glad as he’s taken McFly further than Busted ever could have gone.
And yes, the video to All About You is a who’s who of mid 00s BBC ‘comic talent’. I can just about see Graham Norton being known in Australia, but Dermot O’Leary??
I’m definitely in the minority of Aussies who know O’Leary. I only know Dermot O’Leary because he was in an episode of Would I Lie to You? and one of the best and funniest segments on the show, the one with Mel Giedroyc and Josh Widdicombe. And he did a pretty good interview with Paul McCartney for the anniversary of Band of the Run which is one of O’Leary’s favourite albums. Graham Norton is hugely popular and very well known in Australia, particularly among the 18-49 demo. He’s one of the few non-Americans I could see hosting the Oscars and he’d be a big international draw in his own right.
I knew McFly and Busted wrote/co-wrote songs for each other. I was quite surprised to learn that but that’s cool. I’m glad that it seems like Busted and McFly were/are actually good friends – and I believe they toured together multiple times and even had a side project with the members of the band together McBusted – and they seemed to play into the media-fabricated rivarly between them for fun publicity. Same with NSYNC and Backstreet Boys who were pitted as rivals by the press but were actually good friends and the rivalrly was very friendly and in good fun.
From interviews I’ve seen of the band at their peak, they don’t seem to have enjoyed the boy band label and heavily resented it, especially Charlie Simpson. I think they enjoyed the pop punk music, they’re clearly influenced by Green Day, Rancid, The Offspring, blink-182, etc, so their musical direction after the first album was what they wanted. Probably McFly’s sound was too pop rock for them to try out especially once they became stars (though I believe their first album has more of a teen pop/pop rock sound than they pivoted towards more snotty pop punk on the 2nd album).
Definitely enjoying McFly far more than I was expecting. They seem like just a really good pop rock band and are quite talented pop rock songwriters.
All About You is a great song.
My only McFly fact (that I’m sure you’ll mention when we get there!) is that they had the last ever double A side to reach number one. In fact, they had the last 3!
Yes, I was aware that McFly did love a double A, and that ‘Baby’s Coming Back / Transylvania’ was the last ever double A side #1, but didn’t realise that they had the last three!
All About You is probably their most-memorable song, jaunty and singalong, but the video is very annoying, I hate time-wasting acting intros and mid-song breaks, they need to be banned! It was their first track to break into my weekly top 40, the next would be Star Girl. Later singles Party Girl and Lies went top 20, and their first top 10 was Shine A Light in 2011, so I got there eventually with a hand from Taio Cruz. You’ve Got A Friend, well the song totally deserves to be a UK number one, so there’s that as a plus, but I’ll stick with Carole King’s version, not even James Taylor’s is as good.
You’re right about the video. I’ve added just the audio for those who find Ruby Wax and co. annoying.
You were quite late to the party with McFly, then. I remember liking that Sine a Light gave them such a big hit late into their careers, but not the song so much… Party Girl aside that album was so-so (though the band apparently dislike Party Girl as being a Lady Gaga chasing, pop sellout…)
I was at a pub quiz last night and All About You came on in between rounds, sounding pretty good in that environment!