She Used to Be Mine (Sara Bareilles song)


"She Used to Be Mine" is a song written by American singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles for Waitress, a musical stage adaptation of the 2007 film of the same name. It was recorded by Bareilles for her fifth studio album, , and was released to digital retailers as its lead single on September 25, 2015.
The song was recorded by Jessie Mueller for the cast recording of the Broadway production of Waitress in 2016, and performed by Mueller and Bareilles at the 70th Tony Awards.

Composition

"She Used to Be Mine" is a sentimental ballad written and composed by Sara Bareilles with a duration of four minutes and ten seconds. The song is instrumented primarily by the piano and also features guitar and drums. Bareilles' vocal performance has been described as "powerful", with a vocal range of F3 to D5. According to the digital sheet music published by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the song is composed in the key of F major with a "moderately slow" tempo. Lyrically, the song discusses losing one's sense of self and struggling with changes in circumstances, sung from the perspective of the musical's protagonist, Jenna. In the Broadway production, it is usually played in the key of G-flat major, and was played in the key of G major for the original Boston production. When both Sara Bareilles and Katharine McPhee took on the roles, the song was played again in F major.

Critical reception

Madison Vain of Entertainment Weekly called the song "delicate, nostalgic, and wonderfully theatrical," in the magazine's "7 Tracks We Loved This Week" feature and praised the song as "a beautiful introduction" to the musical's story. Charles Isherwood of The New York Times said it is a “gentle but wrenching song, featuring a melody that soars and then recedes in waves, is the high point of the show—and for that matter a high point of the Broadway season. Suddenly, a pleasant and polished but weightless musical comedy rises to transporting heights, and sweeps up your heart along with it.”

Commercial performance

"She Used to Be Mine" was the most-added song on hot adult contemporary radio the week of its release, according to radio monitoring organization Mediabase. The song debuted at number 40 on the Billboard Adult Pop Songs chart on the chart dated October 17, 2015.

Charts

Release history