Guitar Learning Journey: "I've Never Been to Me" cover - vocals

Guitar Learning Journey: "I've Never Been to Me" cover - vocals

composer: Ron Miller and Kenneth Hirsch
original performer: Howard Keel (1975 - male version)
made popular by: Charlene Marilynn D'Angelo (1977 - female version)

"I've Never Been to Me" is a ballad, written and composed by Ron Miller and Kenneth Hirsch
This song has a male version originally recorded by Howard Keel (1975)
and a female version recorded by American singer Charlene Marilynn D'Angelo (1977)

The female version 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."

The male version of the song 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.

Although Charlene's original release in 1977 barely registered on the Billboard Hot 100, its re-release in 1982 hit #3 in the US and earned her a gold certification in Australia, where it held the #1 spot for six weeks. In addition, the song topped the charts in Canada (4 weeks), Ireland (3 weeks) 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.