Songoftheday 11/13/13 - I see you here with me I've waited all my life for someone like you...

Kenny Rogers with Kim Carnes and James Ingram - "What About Me?"
from the album What About Me? (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #15 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 9

Today's Song of the Day teamed up three of the top middle-of-the-road performers in country, rock, and soul music for a rare "tri-et" hit record. In 1984 Kenny Rogers was coming off of his big top-ten Bee Gees-produced album Eyes That See In The Dark, which spun off the #1 hit "Islands In The Stream" and top-40 follow-up "This Woman". His next effort ventured even farther into easy-listening pop territory, and for the first single, he enlisted gruff-voiced singer Kim Carnes, who had already scored a top-ten hit with Kenny on "Don't Fall In Love With A Dreamer", and had a top-40 hit with the new-wave-ish "Invisble Hands" in 1983. To complete the menage a trois would be soul singer James Ingram, who had stepped from his apprenticeship under Quincy Jones to a top-40 hit off his debut solo album with "Yah Mo B There" with Michael McDonald in 1984.

The song that brought them together, "What About Me?" was written by Rogers with producer David Foster and a newcomer named Richard Marx. Penned from the standpoint of each person in a love triangle, the song volleyed back and forth between the vocalists, who originally were supposed to be Lionel Richie and Barbra Streisand with Rogers...

"What About Me?" became Kenny's most recent top-20 pop hit in November of 1984, while also topping the adult contemporary radio chart in Billboard (Marx's first #1 as either a writer or singer). The single also popped on the country chart, stopping at #70, as well as the R&B chart, topping out at #57. Kenny wouldn't reappear on the pop top-40 again until 1999 with "Buy My A Rose" (also featuring two guests with Billy Dean and Alison Krauss)..

And as much as I love these three singers, I would've loved to have seen Lionel and Barbra going at this song...

Up Tomorrow: The unusual girl does the graveyard shift.