All About You/You've Got a Friend

"All About You" / "You've Got a Friend" is a double A-side single by English pop rock band McFly. The former song is an original McFly track while the latter is a cover of the 1971 song written by Carole King. The band's first double A-side single, it was released on 7 March 2005 as the lead single from their second studio album, Wonderland (2005). The single was the official Comic Relief charity single for 2005, with all royalties being donated to the charity. The single was also used to promote Make Poverty History.

"All About You" / "You've Got a Friend"
Single by McFly
from the album Wonderland
B-side	"Room on the 3rd Floor"
Released	7 March 2005 (2005-03-07)[1]
Length	3:07 ("All About You") 4:38 ("You've Got a Friend")
Label	Island Universal
Songwriter(s)	Tom Fletcher ("All About You") Carole King ("You've Got a Friend")
Producer(s)	Hugh Padgham
McFly singles chronology
"Room on the 3rd Floor" (2004) "All About You" / "You've Got a Friend" (2005) "I'll Be OK" (2005)

The single peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart as well as in Ireland. Having sold over 536,000 copies in the UK, "All About You" is McFly's best-selling single^[2] and received a platinum sales status certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for sales and streams exceeding 600,000 units. "All About You" was nominated for the Record of the Year in 2005.^{[clarification needed]}

Song information

The song was written by Tom Fletcher for his then-girlfriend, and now wife, Giovanna Fletcher, as a gift for Valentine's Day as a result of him forgetting the actual day. It is the lead A-side single, and the first of McFly's singles to feature an orchestra, conducted by Simon Hale and the string leader, Gavin Wright. The second track on the double A-side was "You've Got a Friend", written and originally recorded by Carole King.

Chart performance

"All About You" debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, giving McFly their third UK number-one single, as well as their fifth top-five hit in less than a year.^[3] It debuted at number one, only to be knocked off the top spot the following week by the unofficial Comic Relief single "Is This the Way to Amarillo", by Tony Christie and (mimed by) Peter Kay.

Music videos

The video for "All About You" was filmed on 14 January 2005, the same day good friends Busted announced their break-up.^[4] In the video, Harry Judd tries to get into the studio where the rest of McFly are in progress recording the song, but a security guard outside refuses to let him in, until Harry sneaks in by distracting the guard with Smash Hits magazines all with Busted on the front cover (of whom a badge announced him to be a fan). The song is stopped halfway when a cleaner unplugs the equipment to plug in a vacuum, Harry then arrives, the song starts again and the recording is finished. The comedic video features a number of British celebrities including Fearne Cotton, Johnny Vegas, Davina McCall, Ben Miles, Lee Hurst, Graham Norton, Dermot O'Leary, Simon Amstell, Ruby Wax as the cleaner, Kate Thornton, Harry Hill as the security guard, and violinist Johanna McWeeney-Oxer.

"You've Got a Friend" was shot on location in Uganda. The boys spent a week there in January 2005 for Comic Relief. The video sees McFly with the children of Uganda, playing with them, performing for them, and teaching them to sing. Towards the end of the video, McFly's vocals are removed for a chorus sung by the children.

Track listing

UK CD single^[5]

1. "All About You"
2. "You've Got a Friend"
3. "Room on the 3rd Floor"
4. "All About You" (orchestral version)
5. "All About You" (video)

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (2005) Peak position Europe (European Hot 100)[6] 2 Iceland (Íslenski listinn)[7] 8 Ireland (IRMA)[8] 1 Scotland (OCC)[9] 1 UK Singles (OCC)[10] 1 Chart (2010) Peak position South Korea (GAON)[11] 64

Year-end charts Chart (2005) Position UK Singles (OCC)[12] 6

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[13]	Platinum	600,000‡
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

1. "New Releases: Singles". Music Week. 5 March 2005. p. 23.
2. Myers, Justin (5 November 2016). "Girlbands vs Boybands – their biggest songs of the century revealed". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
3. "Comic Relief song tops the chart". BBC News. BBC. 13 March 2005. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
4. "McBusted: The day Busted broke up & Year 3000 | Star Stories". YouTube. 17 December 2014.
5. All About You / You've Got a Friend (UK CD single liner notes). McFly. Island Records, Universal Records. 2005. MCSTD40409, 987 063-0.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
6. "Hits of the World – Eurocharts" (PDF). Billboard. Vol. 117, no. 13. 26 March 2005. p. 37. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
7. "Íslenski listinn". DV. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
8. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – All About You/You've Got a Friend". Irish Singles Chart.
9. "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company.
10. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company.
11. ":: 가온차트와 함께하세요 ::". Gaonchart.co.kr (in Korean). Archived from the original on 6 March 2012. Retrieved 22 December 2011.
12. "End of Year Singles Chart Top 100 – 2005". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
13. "British single certifications – McFly – All About You". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 19 January 2024.