Three months after Tiffany's debut single "I Think We're Alone Now" went to #1 in the US, "Could've Been" followed it to the top spot, where it stayed for two weeks. The song was written by Lois Blaisch, who recorded it in 1983 when she signed a deal with George Tobin. Her version was never released, and a few years later when Tobin discovered Tiffany, he had her record the song and released it as her second single. Tiffany's version has the same musical backing as Blaisch's original.
In a Songfacts interview with Lois Blaisch, she explained how a broken relationship with a smooth-talking oral surgeon inspired this song. "He led me to believe he was going to finance my career and all this stuff," she said. "I bought the whole thing, which is actually what inspired the lyric of 'Could've Been' because what I fell in love with was not necessarily him but all the things that he promised - all the big lies and the bulls--t. He probably was just trying to score. I don't know. So, I didn't really fall in love with him, I fell in love with what could've been."
Like Alfred Lord Tennyson's belief that 'Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all, this song arrives at a similar conclusion, as Tiffany sings: Still what could've been is better Than what could never be at all "You have to take a risk when you fall in love," the song's writer Lois Blaisch told Songfacts. "You open your heart to someone and it might not be right, but if you don't try it you'll never really find out what can happen."
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