"What About Me?" is a 1984 song written by
Kenny Rogers, producer
David Foster, and singer-songwriter
Richard Marx, and recorded by Rogers,
Kim Carnes, and
James Ingram as a trio song from Rogers' 1984
album of the same name. It was the lead single from the album and reached at number 15 on the US
Billboard Hot 100 chart (Rogers' last Top 40 hit in the United States until 1999's "
Buy Me a Rose" peaked at number 40) and at number one on the US
Adult Contemporary chart, Marx's first number one hit as a songwriter.
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]