Antedating of "Been There, Done That"

[Garson O'Toole]

OED (DRAFT ADDITIONS APRIL 2001) there, adv. (adj. and n.)
colloq. to have been there, done that and variants ...
1982 is the first cite in the OED.

The phrase "been there, done that" was discussed on the ADS list in 2008.
Fred gives an excellent exact cite in 1979 further below.

Here is a unverified 1976 GB citation that may be considered a close
variant or a precursor: "We've been there and we've done all that--and
more."

Circa 1976, The Middle-Age Crisis by Barbara Fried, Page 112, Harper &
Row, New York. (Google snippet view; Not verified on paper; WorldCat
agrees with date; Data may be inaccurate)

It is impossible to forget after all those years of being mature that
we're supposed to have outgrown such youthful nonsense. We've been
there and we've done all that - and more. And who in his right mind
wants to go back and relive every aspect - not just the fun parts - of
a situation he left behind him twenty-five years before?

http://books.google.com/books?id=Km5qAAAAMAAJ&q=%22done+all%22#search_anchor

Garson

On Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 12:37 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Antedating of "Been There, Done That"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I have previously pushed back the phrase "been there, done that" to 1982.  Here is a 1979 citation from Google News Archive.  It is from an Australian newspaper, reinforcing the apparent Australian provenance of the phrase:
>
> 1979 _The Age_ 3 Dec. 11 (Google News Archive)  Mr. Lynch has continued to recover from the 1977 crisis when he was forced to resign over his family financial affairs.  Although he now appears certain to stay past the next election, he has the air of the man who says "I've been there, done that."
>
>
> Fred Shapiro
> Editor
> YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS (Yale University Press)
>
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