Format 7" Genre Pop | Recorded 1976 | |
B-side "It's Really Nice to Be in Love Again" (1977)
"Somewhere in My Life" (1982) Released 28 July 1977, February 1982 Length 3:49 (1977)
3:47 (1982) | ||
"I've Never Been to Me" is the title of a ballad, written and composed by Ron Miller and Kenneth Hirsch, which is best known via a recording by American pop singer Charlene. Its original release in 1977 barely registered on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, but its re-release in 1982 hit #3 and earned her a Gold certification in Australia. In addition, the song topped the charts in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
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Content
The song is best known as lyrically formatted for a female vocalist and as such is addressed to a desperate wife and mother who would like to trade her prosaic existence for the jet setting lifestyle the song's narrator has led. The narrator alludes to various hedonistic episodes in her life, concluding that while she's "been to paradise," she's ultimately failed to find self-fulfillment expressing this with the line, "I've never been to me." There is also an alternative set of lyrics for the song formatted for a male singer, in which the narrator is an elderly man, destined to die the very next day, begging for a dime for a cup of coffee, addressing a younger man who is "raising hell" the way the old man used to do.
Early versions
Charlene had recorded "I've Never Been to Me" in 1976 for her 1977 debut album Songs of Love which was essentially reissued the same year under the title Charlene; the reissue had a slightly different track listing but retained "I've Never Been to Me". Upon its September 1977 single release, "I've Never Been to Me" became Charlene's third consecutive single to stall in the lowest part of the Hot 100 in Billboard following "It Ain't Easy Coming Down" - also from the Charlene album - and "Freddie" whose respective Hot 100 peaks had been #97 and #96: the Hot 100 peak of "I've Never Been to Me" in its original release was #97 and while Charlene's precedent two singles had both reached Billboard's Easy Listening chart - "It Ain't Easy Coming Down" at #23, "Freddie" at #40 - "I've Never Been to Me" failed to appear on that chart.
The earliest version of "I've Never Been to Me" to be released was that by Randy Crawford which appeared on her 1976 album release Everything Must Change. Besides Charlene's version, 1977 also saw the release of versions of the song by Nancy Wilson and Walter Jackson: Nancy Wilson's version served as the title track of her June 1977 album release and was the first version of the song to be released as a single reaching #47 on the Billboard's R&B chart, while Walter Jackson's version - featuring the lyric formatted from a male perspective - was featured on his I Want To Come Back As A Song album released in the spring of 1977.
In February 1978 a mid-tempo recording of "I've Never Been to Me" by Mary McGregor was released as the advance single from her In Your Eyes album: this single reached #29 on Billboard's Easy Listening chart. A modified version of MacGregor's version was sent out to radio stations with the possibly controversial line in the final chorus: "I spent my life exploring the subtle whoring that costs too much to be free", amended to "I thought my heart would wait but I learned too late that it costs too much to be free." Also in 1978 Marti Caine recorded "I've Never Been to Me" for her album release Behind the Smile from which it was issued as a single, and Mary Roos recorded the German rendering by lyricist Michael Kunze entitled "Doch mich selber kenn ich nicht" (But I do not know myself) for her album Maryland.
Revival
In 1982 Scott Shannon, a disc jockey at Tampa radio station WRBQ-FM, began playing the "I've Never Been to Me" track off the Charlene album, and response from local listeners was such as to motivate Shannon, a former Motown employee, to alert Motown president Jay Lasker to the track's hit potential. Lasker located Charlene who, discouraged by the poor performance of her 1977 Motown releases and by the label's decision not to release a second album she had recorded, had left the music industry and met and married an Englishman, subsequently accompanying him to his native land and taking a job at a sweet shop in Ilford. Lasker located Charlene and personally telephoned her with the invitation to re-sign with Motown Records to facilitate the re-release of her "I've Never Been To Me" single, which was done in the spring of 1982.
The Billboard Hot 100 dated March 6, 1982 showed "I've Never Been to Me" by Charlene debuting at #84 - thirteen notches higher than the peak of its 1977 original release – to ascend to the Billboard Top 40 in four weeks. It subsequently rose as high as #3 on the Hot 100 – where it held for four weeks during May and June. The track had even greater impact internationally – attaining #1 status in Australia (six weeks), Canada (four weeks), Ireland (three weeks) and the United Kingdom. "I've Never Been to Me" also afforded Charlene a Top Ten hit in Belgium (Flemish Region) (#7), the Netherlands (#7), New Zealand (#5) and Norway (#5). In 1982 Charlene's "I've Never Been to Me" was also a Top 10 hit on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart (#7) and a minor C&W chart crossover (#60).
As Charlene was unable to successfully follow up the success of "I've Never Been to Me" - her only subsequent Hot 100 entry "Used to Be" (a duet with Stevie Wonder) stalled outside the Top 40 (at #46) - she remains a high-profile one-hit wonder: on the 2002 VH1 special 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders, "I've Never Been to Me" by Charlene was ranked at #75.
A Spanish language recording of "I've Never Been to Me" entitled "Nunca He Ido A Mi" was recorded by Charlene and was one of two B-side tracks featured on the re-release of "It Ain't Easy Coming Down" - the followup to the 1982 release of "I've Never Been to Me" - in its UK format (in other territories "It Ain't Easy Coming Down" featured only the one B-side "If I Could See Myself").
Charlene re-released the song in the form of a dance remix via download music in 2008.