"You and Me Against the World" is a song written by

Kenny Ascher Kenneth Lee Ascher (born October 26, 1944, in Washington, D.C.) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger who is active in jazz, rock, classical, and musical theater genres — in live venues, recording studios, and cinema productio ...

and

Paul Williams Paul Williams may refer to: Authors * Paul Williams (Crawdaddy) (1948–2013), American music and science fiction journalist; founder of ''Crawdaddy'' and the Philip K. Dick Society * Paul Williams (Irish journalist) (born 1964), Irish journalis ...

, recorded by

Helen Reddy Helen Maxine Reddy (25 October 194129 September 2020) was an Australian-American singer, actress, television host, and activist. Born in Melbourne to a show business family, Reddy started her career as an entertainer at age four. She sang on ra ...

for her 1974 album '' Love Song for Jeffrey''. "You and Me Against the World" was the first written by Williams teaming up with Ascher, a member of his band. It began as a gag song. Williams and Ascher had a discussion about their favorite songwriters which led to the spontaneous composition on the subject whose tune, Ascher then realized, had real hit potential. The song is sentimental in its lyrics, discussing "all the times we cried" and "when one of us is gone and one is left to carry on." Williams himself debuted "You and Me Against the World" on his 1974 album ''

Here Comes Inspiration ''Here Comes Inspiration'' is a studio album by Paul Williams, released in 1974. Notable songs from the album include " Rainy Days & Mondays", "You & Me Against the World" and "If We Could Still Be Friends". Kenny Ascher was credited for the pr ...

'', singing it as a traditional love

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

. Helen Reddy considered the lyrics too "paternalistic" to be convincing as a woman's declaration of love for a man. Instead, she interpreted it as a mother singing to a child, which her version clarified by her young daughter Traci's speaking to "Mommy" at the start and end. Williams’s version includes additional lyrics pertaining to circus: “Life can be circus/They underpay and overwork us/Though we seldom get our due/And when each day is through/I bring my tired body home/And look around for you...” Released as the second single from ''Love Song for Jeffrey'', "You and Me Against the World" reached number 9 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in September 1974 and became the fourth of Reddy's six consecutive

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

number ones. The song did equally well in Canada.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Cover versions

"You and Me Against the World" had also been recorded by

Ann Burton Ann Burton (March 4, 1933 – November 29, 1989) is the pseudonym of Johanna Rafalowicz (between 1938 and 1971: Johanna de Paauw), a Dutch jazz singer. Early life In about 1930 the mother of Ann Burton (pseudonym of Johanna Rafalowicz) immigr ...

Robert Goulet Robert Gérard Goulet (November 26, 1933 October 30, 2007) was an American‐Canadian singer and actor of French-Canadian ancestry. Goulet was born and raised in Lawrence, Massachusetts, until age 13, and then spent his formative years in Canad ...

Gladys Knight & the Pips Gladys Knight & the Pips were an American Rhythm and blues, R&B, soul music, soul, and funk family music group from Atlanta, Georgia, that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for over three decades starting from the early ...

Vera Lynn Dame Vera Margaret Lynn (; 20 March 1917 – 18 June 2020) was an English singer and entertainer whose musical recordings and performances were very popular during World War II. She is Honorific nicknames in popular music, honorifically known ...

Johnny Mathis John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer. Starting his 69-year career with singles of standard (music), standard music, Mathis is one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century and became highly popular as ...

Matt Monro Matt Monro (born Terence Edward Parsons; 1 December 1930 – 7 February 1985) was an English singer. Known as "The Man with the Golden Voice", he performed internationally during his 30-year career and sold a reported 23 million records. AllMus ...

, and Matt Monro Jr. A Swedish rendering, "Du Och Jag Emot En Värld", was recorded by

Lill-Babs Barbro Margareta Svensson (9 March 1938 – 3 April 2018), known by her stage name Lill-Babs, was a Swedish singer, actress and television host. From the early 1950s until her death in 2018, she was one of Sweden's best-known and popular singers ...

Robert Downey Jr. Robert John Downey Jr. (born April 4, 1965), also known as RDJ, is an American actor. One of the highest-grossing actors of all time, his films as a leading actor have grossed over $14 billion worldwide. In 2008, Downey was named by ''Time ...

played a cover of "You and Me Against the World" in the TV adaptation of ''

The Sympathizer ''The Sympathizer'' is the 2015 debut novel by Vietnamese-American professor and writer Viet Thanh Nguyen. It is a best-selling novel, and recipient of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The novel received generally positive reviews from cr ...

''.

References

External links