Kenny Rogers & Kim Carnes & James Ingram – What About Me?

“What About Me?” is a 1984 trio recording by Kenny Rogers, Kim Carnes and James Ingram, released as the lead single from Rogers’s album of the same name. The song was co-written by Kenny Rogers, David Foster and Richard Marx and produced by David Foster alongside Rogers. Issued in 1984, the single anchored a commercially successful album and was positioned toward adult contemporary and pop radio as well as the soft-rock crossover market that Rogers frequented at the time.

The collaboration brought together three distinctive voices from adjacent commercial spheres. Kenny Rogers was an established country-pop star with a long string of hits; Kim Carnes had achieved mainstream recognition with a raspy, chart-topping pop single earlier in the decade; and James Ingram was an R&B and adult-contemporary vocalist rising through high-profile session work and solo success. Their joint presence on a single created a trio dynamic aimed at broad radio formats rather than a genre-specific country single.

Recording and production reflect the glossy adult-contemporary sensibility of mid-1980s mainstream pop. David Foster’s involvement as co-writer and producer shaped the track’s polished arrangement, which balances vocal prominence and radio-friendly instrumentation. The writing credit for Richard Marx on the track is notable as an early professional milestone; his role as a co-writer on a hit recorded by major artists preceded his later success as a performer and songwriter in his own right.

Musically, “What About Me?” is built around a midtempo pop ballad structure with an emphasis on vocal interplay. The trio format allows for alternating lines and blended choruses, giving each singer a distinct moment while keeping the focus on the collective emotional question posed by the title. The lyric frames a relational complaint or plea—an expression of personal feeling that asks to be acknowledged—rendered plainly and designed for immediate accessibility on AC playlists.

Commercially, the single performed strongly on adult-contemporary radio and crossed over to the pop singles chart. It reached number one on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart and achieved the same peak on the equivalent Canadian adult-contemporary listings. On the Billboard Hot 100 the song reached the mid-teens, marking one of Rogers’s final Top 40 pop entries for more than a decade. The parent album went on to strong sales and is counted among Rogers’s commercially significant mid-1980s releases.

Promotion for the single followed standard major-label practice of the era: the record was serviced to radio across formats and included in album campaign activity that featured televised appearances and press support. The trio recording was presented as a high-profile event within Rogers’s catalog, framing the track as a cross-market bid that leveraged the combined name recognition of three established vocalists rather than focusing on any single stylistic identity.

In retrospective terms, “What About Me?” is often cited as an example of mid-1980s adult-contemporary crossover work and as a notable collaboration in Kenny Rogers’s catalog. The song’s chart-topping performance on AC playlists and its Top 20 pop showing illustrate how Rogers continued to reach broad audiences beyond country radio. For listeners tracing the early songwriting credits of Richard Marx or the duet and trio collaborations of the period, the track occupies a clear place as a professionally produced, commercially oriented single from 1984.