About The Song
Reba McEntire’s For My Broken Heart produced a No. 1 in its title track at the end of 1991. The second single followed the first hit sequentially on the album, and thanks in part to a memorable music video, it became an anthem for women going back to school at an older age.
“Is There Life Out There” almost wasn’t a Reba McEntire single. An unnamed major artist was set to record it, but made a request of songwriter Susan Longacre: change the line in the chorus, “Is there life beyond her family and her home,” to something less controversial.
Longacre refused, and the song found its way to McEntire instead, who included it on her landmark For My Broken Heart album. She filmed an epic and triumphant music video for the single, where a mom balances her job as a waitress and her responsibilities at home with earning a college degree. The clip ends with her graduating, while her family cheers on.
There’s no such celebration in the actual record, which is frozen in time at a moment of hesitation and regret. As the woman in the song remembers thinking she was ready for marriage and homemaking, she contemplates action that she never actually takes: “Would she do it the same as she did back then? Oh, she looks out her window and she wonders again.”
The production is all nervous anxiety, with a carefully plucked guitar capturing her tormented indecision. Like so many of the songs on For My Broken Heart, it grants the listener no easy answers and no easy way out of the emotions being felt.
Video
Lyrics
She married when she was 20
She thought she was ready, now she’s not so sure
She thought she’d done some living
But now she’s just wonderin’ what she’s living for
Now she’s feeling that there’s something more
Is there life out there? So much she hasn’t done
Is there life beyond her family and her home?
She’s done what she should, should she do what she dares?
She doesn’t want to leave, she’s just wonderin’, is there life out there?
She’s always lived for tomorrow
She’s never learned how to live for today
Oh, she’s dyin’ to try something foolish
Do something crazy or just get away
Oh, something for herself for a change
Is there life out there? So much she hasn’t done
Is there life beyond her family and her home?
She’s done what she should, should she do what she dares?
She doesn’t want to leave, she’s just wonderin’, is there life out there?
There’s a place in the sun that she’s never been
Where life is fair and time is a friend
Would she do it the same as she did back then?
Oh, she looks out her window, and she wonders again
Is there life out there? So much she hasn’t done
Is there life beyond her family and her home?
She’s done what she should, should she do what she dares?
She doesn’t want to leave, she’s just wonderin’, is there life out there?
Oh, is there life out there?
Is there life out there? So much she hasn’t done
Is there life beyond her family and her home?
She’s done what she should, should she do what she dares?
She doesn’t want to leave, she’s just wonderin’, is there life out there?
Oh, she doesn’t want to leave, she’s just wonderin’, is there life out there?