Songfacts®:

• Pete Townshend did most of the songwriting for The Who, so when their frontman, Roger Daltrey, decided to make a solo album, he had to find a different songwriter. His problem was solved when Leo Sayer came to Daltrey's recording studio in Sussex, England, to make his first solo album with producer David Courtney. Daltrey liked what he heard and asked the pair to write songs for him. They complied, and came up with 10 tracks for Daltrey's album, including "Giving It All Away," his first single as a solo artist.
  
  When Sayer became a star a few years later with the hits "When I Need You" and "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing," few would have suspected he had anything to do with Daltrey, but at the time, Sayer was an unknown.
• "Giving It All Away" made #83 in America but was much bigger in the UK, where it climbed to #5. This made Daltrey the first member of The Who to land a hit outside the band. Pete Townshend and John Entwistle had both released solo albums, but they were hitless.
• In this song, Daltrey has learned a showbiz lesson: don't give it all away. Leo Sayer wrote a song with a similar theme he recorded himself called "The Show Must Go On."
• The song's co-writer, Dave Courtney, played the piano on the track.
• Leo Sayer included his own version on his second album, Just A Boy, in 1974.