Charlene - I've Never Been To Me (1977/1982)
Click "Show More" for complete lyrics, and see my YouTube Channel for an HD version of this song that also includes the spoken bridge in the middle that is missing from this version. This seems to be a polarizing song, people either love it or hate it. I expect a lot of thumbs up and thumbs down on this one :) From Wiki: Charlene Marilynn D'Angelo (born June 1, 1950, Hollywood, California) is an American R&B singer best known as Charlene. She is known for her 1982 popular song "I've Never Been to Me", and is considered a one-hit-wonder. Charlene originally recorded "I've Never Been to Me" in 1976, and the single reached #97 on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1977. When released again in 1982, the single reached #3 in the United States (US), and #1 by June 1982, in the UK Singles Chart. The song has been her only Top 40 hit. In 1982, Tampa, Florida disc jockey Scott Shannon, then at WRBQ, started playing the song at the behest of a girlfriend, by which time Charlene had lost her recording contract, moved to England and was working in a sweetshop in Ilford, London. Audience reaction was impressive, resulting in the song's second release with the original spoken bridge. The second release was a hit in England as well. When the song was first released in the US in 1976, Charlene's legal name was Charlene Duncan from her marriage to record producer Larry Duncan; by the time the song was released in 1982, her name was Charlene Oliver by her subsequent marriage to Englishman Jeff Oliver. The single reached the top of the US pop and adult contemporary charts that year, and the concurrent release of her album I've Never Been to Me, was also relatively successful. The single was one of the year's biggest hits, and the video for the song was filmed at Blickling Hall, Norfolk, England and Charlene wore the wedding dress that she got married in. "I've Never Been to Me" was featured as the opening song to the 1994 film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. The song is mimed onstage by two Sydney drag queens at the Imperial Hotel in Erskineville, Sydney, Australia. The latter performance includes a scene where a plastic "baby doll" (actually a rubber chicken) is hurled into the audience by one of the performing drag queens. Lyrics: I've Never Been To Me (R. Miller / K. Hirsch - Motown Records, Inc) Hey lady, you lady Cursing at your life You're a discontented mother And a regimented wife I 've no doubt You dream about the things you never do But I wish someone had talked to me like I wanna talk to you Oh, I've been to Georgia and California and anywhere I could run Took the hand of a preacher man And we made love in the sun But I ran out of places and friendly faces Because I had to be free I've been to paradise but I've never been to me... Please lady please lady Don't just walk away Cause I have this need to tell you Why I'm all alone today I can see so much of me still living in your eyes Won't you share a part of a weary heart that has lived a million lives Oh, I've been to Nice and the isle of Greece When I sipped champagne on a yacht I moved like Harlow in Monte Carlo And showed them what I've got I've been undressed by kings And I've seen some things that a woman ain't s'pose to see I've been to paradise but I've never been to me... Hey, you know what paradise is? It's a lie A fantasy we created about people and places as we like them to be But you know what truth is? it's that little baby you're holding And it's that man you fought with this morning The same one you are gonna make love to tonight That's truth, that's love Sometimes I've been to crying for unborn children That might have made me complete But I, I took the sweet life I never knew I'd be bitter from the sweet I spent my life exploring The subtle whoring That costs too much to be free Hey lady I've been to paradise But I've never been to me... I've been to paradise but I've never been to me...
