The Small Faces were very popular in the UK in the 1960s. Because of management they never toured in America. Their best-known songs are Itchycoo Park and Lazy Sunday in America but had many hits in the UK.
All or Nothing was written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane. The song peaked at #1 in the UK in 1966.
The Small Faces would splinter in 1969 and Steve Marriott would start Humble Pie with Peter Frampton. The Small Faces would welcome Ron Wood and Rod Stewart and become the Faces…Kenney Jones would later replace Keith Moon in the Who.
It was said to be written either about Marriott’s break up with his with ex-fiancée Sue Oliver, or for his first wife who once dated Rod Stewart. It is possible that both these explanations may be true…somehow.
Drummer Kenney Jones: “It was us getting to where we wanted to be musically. It wasn’t as poppy as our previous hits, but still commercial enough and better than anything we’d done before.”
Steve Marriott in 1984: “I think ‘All Or Nothing’ takes a lot of beating. To me, if there’s a song that typifies that era, then that might be it.”
From Songfacts
Not to be confused with a later song of the same title, “All Or Nothing” was recorded by the Small Faces in 1966. In his 2004 autobiography Mr Big, their manager at the time, Don Arden, said this was “top-drawer…[and] still gets played on the radio today”. Arden produced the record. Co-written by guitarist Steve Marriott and bass player Ronnie Lane, it was backed by “Understanding” and was written
For Marriott it was very much all or nothing; he married three times and appears to have sired at least two children out of wedlock. He died in a fire in April 1991, apparently after lighting a cigarette in bed and falling asleep. Prior to his death, he had taken cocaine as well as Valium and alcohol.
Here are two quotes about the song from 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh.
Kenney Jones recalled to Uncut magazine: “We were on tour and staying in the Station Hotel, Leeds, when Steve suddenly run down the corridor screaming, ‘I’ve got it! I’ve just written our next hit!”‘
Jones based his opening drum fill on the intro of Wilson Pickett’s “In The Midnight Hour.”
All Or Nothing
I thought you’d listen to my reason
But now I see, you don’t hear a thing
Try to make you see, how it’s got to be
Yes it’s all, all or nothing
Yeah yeah, all or nothing
All or nothing, for me
Things could work out
Just like I want them to, yeah
If I could have
The other half of you, yeah
You know I would,
If I only could
Yes it’s yeah, all or nothing
Oh yeah, all or nothing
You’ll hear my children say,
All or nothing, for me
I didn’t tell you no lies
So don’t you sit there and cry girl
Yeah, all or nothing
Oh yeah, all or nothing
Oh yeah, all or nothing
Do you know what I mean
You got to, got to, go to keep on trying, yeah
All or nothing, mm yeah
All or nothing, to keep on working on to me
All or nothing for me, for me, for me
Come on children, yeah
All or nothing, yeah,yeah, yeah, yeah
All or nothing, I kept on singing to myself
All or nothing, yeah for me, yeah
Nice tune. I don’t know their music in detail. It really comes down to this one, “Sha-La-La-La-Li”, “Itchycoo Park” and a few other songs, which I all dig.
BTW, I’ve been listening to Big Star over the past couple of days and agree they pretty darn good!
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Lazy Sunday is a funny one that hit…
Awesome Christian! Thanks for giving them a chance.
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The Small Faces were all short.
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I always liked this group, but have only heard their few songs, including this one, that made the radio. They still get played on UK streaming radio, which is nice. I think they would have done well in the US. Wish they’d had the chance. I do want to read Kenney’s memoir.
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I have to say…other than Graham Nash’s autobiography it covers that time and place rather well as any book I’ve read…bios that is.
I’m happy they still play their songs. I wish Marriott would have stayed. They got a long great.
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Yeah, I really need to read that book.
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Amazing that all the fella’s that rolled in and out of this band had no problems attaining success after as well
That usually doesn’t happen
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I will say this… Steve Marriott the singer, I would take over his replacement Rod Stewart any day of the week….he was great with Humble Pie.
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Cool by the way I sent you a cool Canadian article to your messenger account
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Ok…I’ll check it out…I’m just learning Facebook lol.
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All good dude! I just post music stuff
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You’re just learning Facebook?
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You know that Vic…I know nothing about it.
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Fair warning…it is a cesspool. I have an account but, haven’t posted in years. I keep the account so Messenger will work. Commenting there is not like commenting on WP. There are some nasty folks on there. I’d keep your profile tightly locked. Get used to your settings, too. You can actually block people on there unlike here. All you can do here is moderate comments and, if you get a follower you don’t want, you can disconnect them. You can’t stop someone from reading/visiting your site.
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I make sure no politics are mentioned…I made a statement about that. So far it’s been fine but I don’t get on everyday. All I do is post my music lol.
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Max, I had to create a facebook account again for the dVerse pub as I’m going to be one of the hosts and need to have an account for it. I agree with EVERYTHING Hinoeuma says about it. Beware. Another thing she didn’t mention is it is a sinkhole of time!!!!!!!!
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Yea the only thing I do is watch Deke’s broadcasts and don’t accept friends requests. I have some family and that is it…. WP is my sinkhole of time! I get a lot of enjoyment out of it though.
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I hear you! I’m already drawn back to fb and it is not good 😦 Not adding a bunch of people to the account and staying far far away from any political messes. WP already takes all my time!
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I stay far away…I would shut anyone down if they said any thing political on my facebook. I go there around once every two days.
Yea with WP…I think coming up I’m going to take a 2-3 day sabbatical …I’ll line a few posts up to publish or republish some of my first ones. I haven’t had time off since last July with my stone.
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Go for it!
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Steve Marriott, IMO, had one of the most amazing voices in rock. “All or Nothing” is my favorite by the Small Faces.
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Just a personal preference but I would take him over Rod…and I really like Rod Stewart but what a voice Steve had… I’ve heard them live from around 66-67 and his voice was incredible.
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Early Rod takes a lot of beating, perhaps the perhaps the perfect rock voice….but I kind of agree as well. Steve Marriott had an incredible voice as well. Hard to pick a winner for me!
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I don’t know why these guys never hit bigger here. Maybe everyone was getting tired of the British Invasion when they hit…
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One of their managers Don Arden didn’t want to pay for a tour over here…that is one of the reasons they split…they never could build a following here…I’m re-reading the Kenney Jones autobiography.
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That’s a shame; they’d’ve sold a lot more records, so it would hae been an investment…
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All they thought of was short term it seems
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I don’t really know much about them, although certainly I do know “Itchicoo Park.” This one sounds ok first time through… funny , I didn’t particularly know McLagen’s name but I mentioned him in a post on the Rolling Stones today!
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Ian Mclagan was in the Faces also…he has toured yes with the Stones and Dylan…he married Keith Moon’s wife…he was a lucky man.
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Yeah. Kim Kerrigan. Died in a car accident in 2006 in Austin, TX. I remember that, too.
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Were you living down there at the time?
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Yep. I was a Texan from 09-2002 to 05-2011. I remember hearing about it but, at the time, had no clue who she was.
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I think I remember you saying that…Jennifer was about to purchase something from her online business and that happened.
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I remember the convo…and the online business.
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Never heard this before but it’s good – I used to have Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake on CD but never really took to it.
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They did have some good singles. If they would have stayed together it probably would have been a Faces/Humble Pie type of band. I’m a huge fan of Marriott’s voice.
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Yeah there’s some weird stuff on there…bit hit or miss. Did you have it in the circular metal tin? Brilliant case. Though could have been a collectors edition I happened upon.
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Yup I got the tin edition off Trademe. I’ve never really explored The Faces/Small Faces further – probably my loss.
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I think the Small Faces were more interesting…That round sleeve caused record shops all kinds of aggravation…they would roll off shelves.
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Record Clerk Killed By Rolling Tins
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film at 11!… The idea looked good on paper I’m sure.
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Small Faces suit a greatest hits. I never found much interest in their other tracks. Fantastic singer though
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Marriott’s voice isn’t bad but, I lean towards Rod.
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Rod’s is great…I’m just a huge fan…I would take his vocals over Plant, Rodgers and almost any other rock singer.
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They look like they were having a good time performing this one on a cold street. I got to give it to them for passion. Nice tune.
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What a great song by a really good band. Another bunch that sounds better as the years go by. Good pic Max.
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I’m such a fan of this band…Marriott had some pipes.
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I looked ahead and see that you have some more Steve coming.
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