All Day

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All Day ft. Theophilus London, Allan Kingdom & Paul McCartney

(Kanye West, Paul McCartney, Tyler Bryant, Kendrick Lamar, Karim Kharbouch, Ernest Brown, Cydel Young, Victor Mensah, Allan Kyariga, Mike Dean, Che Pope, Noah Goldstein, Allen Ritter, Mario Winans, Charles Njapa, Malik Yusef Jones, Patrick Reynolds, Rennard East, Noel Ellis)

Please Gimme My Publishing/EMI Blackwood Music Inc. (BMI)//MPL Communications Inc. (ASCAP)//Tyler Bryant Publishing Designee//WB Music Corp. (ASCAP)/ Hard Working Black Folks Inc. (ASCAP)/ Top Dawg Music (ASCAP)//Excuse My French Music (ASCAP)//EMI Blackwood Music Inc. (BMI)//Monarchy Music/Abou Thiam Publishing (ASCAP)//Victor Kwesi Mensah Publishing Designee (BMI)//Copyright Control// EMI Blackwood Music o/b/o Papa George Publishing (BMI)//Kaya and Ethan Music (BMI)/Primary Wave Brian (BMI)// Noah Goldstein admin. by Reach Music Publishing (ASCAP)//Ritter Boy LLC (ASCAP)//Mario Winans Publishing Designee (BMI)// Broken Locks/Songs of Universal, Inc. (BMI)// Jabriel Iz Myne (ASCAP)/Universal Music Publishing//Plain Pat What Up (ASCAP)//Smooth Thug Music (ASCAP)//Noel Ellis Publishing Designee (SOCAN)

Produced by Kanye West, Puff Daddy, French Montana, Velous & Charlie Heat

Co-Produced by Mike Dean #MWA & Noah Goldstein for ARK Productions, Inc.

Additional Production by Plain Pat, Travis Scott, Allen Ritter & Mario Winans

Recorded by Noah Goldstein at Shangri La, Malibu, CA & Jungle City Studios, NYC; Matthew Testa at Windmark Studios, Santa Monica, CA; Mike Dean #MWA at Dean’s List House of Hits, Soho, NYCB; Anthony Kilhoffer at No Name Studios, Mexico; Steve Orchard at No Name Studios, London

Assisted by Sean Oakley at Shangri La, Malibu, CA; Zeke Mishanec at Jungle City Studios, NYC; Jeremy “Head” Hartney at No Name Studios, Mexico; Tristan Bott at Windmark Recording, Santa Monica, CA

Mixed by Noah Goldstein and Anthony Kilhoffer @ Health Farm Studios, London with Hudson Mohawke

Mastered by Vlado Meller
Mastering assistant: Jeremy Lubsey

Contains a sample of ‘Dance With Me” written and performed by Noel Ellis, (Noel Ellis Publishing Designee (SOCAN), used courtesy of Light In The Attic Records.

Contains a sample of “Going Down” written and performed by Omer Ozyilmazel (Flatliners).

From slate.com, March 2, 2015:

After months of leaked snippets, a flamethrower-assisted performance at last week’s BRIT Awards, and the widespread circulation of a radio rip earlier this afternoon, you can finally hear the complete, studio version of Kanye West’s “All Day” below, via iHeartRadio.

While the studio version, for the most part, closely matches the live version, it departs most dramatically in the last minute. While the song seems designed to be this album’s “Ni**as in Paris”-like club favorite (it even reprises that hit’s “ball”/“mall” rhymes and “that shit cray” refrain), the last minute takes an abrupt left turn into acoustic strumming and whistling. Though it’s the last thing you’d expect on a track like this, it actually comes courtesy of new frequent collaborator Paul McCartney (as confirmed by rapper and singer Theophilus London, who also features on the track), from back when McCartney had his own first child with his wife Linda.

You can listen to Paul tell the whole story behind the interlude below, but here’s the gist. Paul says that, while hanging around in the hospital after the birth, he was looking at a Picasso painting of an old man playing guitar (presumably The Old Guitarist), when he noticed that the man was playing a chord that used “only … two fingers.” He tried to recreate the chord, and he thought it sounded nice, so he tried to write a whole song around this two-finger motif.

He later recorded the song during the Ram sessions as a peaceful guitar-and-whistle track called “When the Wind Is Blowing.” It was never released, but recordings have found their way online.

Though the 45-year-old chord progression is hardly recognizable when sung in “Monster”-style layered vocals and played in synth bass, it also seems to be the basis for “All Day’s” own chord progression throughout. Did West and McCartney, who also recorded the parental ballad “Only One” together, bond over memories of having their first children—and end up with this? What’s really cray is that this old lullaby of a song would, after decades, become part of Kanye West’s new club banger.

Last updated on February 28, 2021