What About Me? (Kenny Rogers song)

"What About Me?" is a song first recorded in 1984 as a trio by singers Kenny Rogers, Kim Carnes, and James Ingram. The song was written by Rogers, noted producer David Foster, and singer-songwriter Richard Marx, who would later achieve superstar status as a musician ("Right Here Waiting", "Now and Forever"). It was the lead single from Rogers's Platinum-plus 1984 album of the same name.

"What About Me?"
Single by Kenny Rogers with Kim Carnes and James Ingram
from the album What About Me?
B-side"The Rest of Last Night"
Released1984
Recorded1984
Length4:20
LabelRCA Nashville
Songwriter(s)Kenny Rogers, David Foster, Richard Marx
Producer(s)David Foster, Kenny Rogers
Kenny Rogers singles chronology
"Evening Star"
(1984)		 "What About Me?"
(1984)		 "The Greatest Gift of All"
(1985)
Kim Carnes singles chronology
"I Pretend"
(1984)		 "What About Me?"
(1984)		 "Make No Mistake, He's Mine"
(1984)
James Ingram singles chronology
"Yah Mo B There"
(1984)		 "What About Me?"
(1984)		 "It's Your Night"
(1984)

Background and writing

Rogers has described "What About Me?" as "like a three-way love song...Everybody involved said 'Hey, what about me?' I think it's a beautiful record." Originally the male and female parts not sung by Rogers were to be performed by Lionel Richie and Barbra Streisand, but after Richie backed out of the project, Streisand did as well. The second proposed trio of singers was Rogers, Olivia Newton-John, and Jeffrey Osborne, but Newton-John began working on a duet with Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees and decided not to do both projects simultaneously. Osborne had a conflicting schedule as well, so the line-up of Rogers, Carnes, and Ingram was ultimately the one that recorded the song. Rogers, Olivia Newton John and Ingram was recorded at Sunset Sound in the Summer of 1984 – Carnes came on later for unknown reasons[1] Rogers, Carnes, and Ingram made their second trio collaborating in the supergroup, USA for Africa, on the 1985 worldwide hit song "We Are the World".

Chart performance

"What About Me?" charted on four Billboard singles charts in the United States at the time of its release in late 1984. It was most successful on the adult contemporary chart, where it spent two weeks at number one in November, knocking Stevie Wonder out of the top slot. It was the first adult contemporary chart topper for Carnes. Ingram had a No. 1 adult contemporary song with Patti Austin "Baby, Come to Me" in 1983). For Rogers, it was his eighth (and to date, final) number one on the AC chart. On the Billboard Hot 100, the song peaked at No. 15, while it accomplished the rare feat of charting on both the R&B (No. 57) and country (No. 70) charts. It was Rogers's second single to reach the R&B chart, following his 1980 hit "Lady". That song, written by Richie, had reached No. 42 on the R&B chart as well as going to No. 1 on the pop, country, and AC charts.

Chart (1984) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 15
U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary 1
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles[2] 70
Canadian RPM Top Singles 18
Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary Tracks 1
Canadian RPM Country Tracks 25

See also

References
  1. Hyatt, Wesley (1999). The Billboard Book of No. 1 Adult Contemporary Hits (Billboard Publications)
  2. Whitburn, Joel (2013). Hot Country Songs 1944–2012. Record Research, Inc. p. 289. ISBN 978-0-89820-203-8.
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