I've Never Been to Me


"I've Never Been to Me" is a ballad, written and composed by Ron Miller and Kenneth Hirsch and made popular via a recording by American singer Charlene. Although its original release in 1977 barely registered on the Billboard Hot 100, its re-release in 1982 hit number three in the US and earned her a Gold certification in Australia, where it held the number one spot for six weeks. In addition, the song topped the charts in Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. It was also a Top Ten triumph in Norway, Belgium, New Zealand, and the Netherlands, and became Motown's first Top Ten hit by a white female solo singer.

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 debut album, the self-titled Charlene, a Prodigal release, and the ballad contained a controversial spoken section. Songs of Love came out six months later in 1977 and was essentially a re-issue of Charlene, having a slightly different track listing but retaining "I've Never Been to Me" without the spoken bridge. In October 1977, "I've Never Been to Me" became Charlene's third consecutive single to stall in the lowest part of Billboard's Hot 100. From the Charlene LP, the first single, "It Ain't Easy Comin' Down", went to #97 in March 1977. The following single, "Freddie" from the Songs of Love album, made it to #96 on the Hot 100 in May 1977. The Hot 100 peak of "I've Never Been to Me" in its original formal release without the monologue was #97, and while Charlene's preceding two singles had both reached Billboards Easy Listening chart, "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 by Randy Crawford and 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 Billboards 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 Billboards Easy Listening and Canada's Adult Contemporary charts. 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" 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 sweetshop in Ilford. Lasker 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 occurred in February 1982.
The Billboard Hot 100 dated March 6, 1982, showed "I've Never Been to Me" by Charlene debuting at #84 – already 13 places higher than its 1977 peak. It subsequently rose as high as #3 on the Hot 100, where it held for three weeks during May and June, prevented from further chart movement by "Don't Talk to Strangers" by Rick Springfield and "Ebony and Ivory" by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder. The song ranked at #38 on the Billboard Hot 100 year-end chart for 1982. The track had even greater impact internationally, attaining #1 status in Australia, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. "I've Never Been to Me" also afforded Charlene a Top Ten hit in Belgium , the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Norway. In 1982, Charlene's "I've Never Been to Me" was also a Top 10 hit on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart and a minor C&W chart crossover.
When the song was revived in 1982, the version being played on radio was the take with the monologue, so it was the one Motown re-issued, not the Songs of Love single version from 1977. The song was never actually re-recorded by Charlene in 1982.
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" got as high as #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" was ranked at #75. In the program, it was stated that her entry "expresses the post-'70s hangover."

Chart history

Weekly charts

Nancy Wilson
Chart Peak
position
US Billboard Hot Soul Singles47

Charlene
Chart Peak
position
US Billboard Hot 10097

Mary MacGregor
Chart Peak
position
Canada RPM Adult Contemporary29
US Billboard Adult Contemporary29

Charlene
Chart Peak
position
Australia 1

Year-end charts

Other versions

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 Comin' Down" - the followup to the 1982 release of "I've Never Been to Me" - in its UK format.
Charlene re-released the song in the form of a dance remix via download music in 2008.

English cover versions

European