Songfacts®:

• In this song, Cher lets an ex lover know that he made a big mistake. She's with another guy now, and he's quite satisfied. "It could've been you," she tells her ex.
• "Could've Been You" was written by the songwriters Bob Halligan Jr. and Arnie Roman for Halligan's debut album, Window In The Wall. Letting Cher record the song pretty much guaranteed that his version would get buried, but it also meant a lot more people would hear it.
  
  "It was a great song for me to sing, and then good news, bad news, it was a great song for Cher to sing also," Halligan said in a Songfacts interview. "The whole issue was that her record was coming out when mine was going to be the first single from my solo album. The really good news is that Cher did the song and had a minor hit with it in Europe and the album did really well, and I made the down payment on my house. So we can't complain about that."
• Cher returned to music in 1987 with the hit single "I Found Someone." Her 1989 album Heart Of Stone had some big hits, including her Peter Cetera duet "After All." She followed it up in 1991 with Love Hurts, which didn't do nearly as well. "Could've Been You" was one of the singles; it didn't chart in America but was a minor hit in the UK, where it reached #31. Cher's musical popularity (she was still a big draw as an actress) continued to wane until 1998 when she released the #1 hit "Believe."
• The song's co-writer Bob Halligan Jr. wrote another Cher song as well: "Still In Love With You" from her Heart Of Stone album. Halligan made his mark as a heavy metal songwriter, with cuts recorded by Judas Priest and Blue Öyster Cult. He entered the realm of soft rock in the late '80s when he teamed with Michael Bolton, his co-writer on "Still In Love With You."
• Two members of Toto played on this one: drummer Jeff Porcaro and guitarist Steve Lukather. It was produced by Peter Asher, known for his work with Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor.