Cher Scholar and Robrt Pela Discuss the Quagmire of Cher Comps

This conversation was held on Facebook Messenger on November 10, 2022 about the compilation list Robrt and Mary compiled in 2021 and 2022.

Mary: So happy we’re finally doing this. We both are obsessed with Cher compilations.

Robrt: We kind of are.

Mary: This project has been quite a few years in the making. There are also 147 total compilations we’re talking about, so it was also kind of intimidating. Should we start by talking about what a compilation is? I don’t think it has to have hits, do you?

Robrt: A comp need only contain previously released material.

Mary: Definitely.

Robrt: And as you’ve said before, if it says “hits,” it needs to HAVE them.

Mary: Yes, you have to deliver on the promise of the title. It’s like an oath to God.

Robrt: NOT like those shitty Cher Springboard LPs.

Mary: Unless you’re trying to be postmodern or something, and what Cher comp has any business doing that?

Robrt: Comps are easy if you’re a singer with, say, two or three actual hits.

Mary: Oh, yeah. Interesting. The more hits, the more problems.

Robrt: I think it’s fine for a comp to be about something other than hits. For example, there’s that really great non-hits comp of Cher’s called Behind the Door. The guy who compiled that one was saying, “Wait, listen to all these deep tracks from the 60s and early 70s!”

Mary: But it also has to have songs from different sources, and not loaded from one album.

Robrt: No, you’re right. Don’t give us a reissue of an old album and retitle it “Best of.” Has Cher been victim of that?

Mary: I think you found quite a few that were basically one album recrafted as a comp.

Robrt: Well, sometimes you can’t really DO a hits comp if you’re an artist who only released seven singles and ONE of them was a true hit.

Mary: Yeah, then maybe just don’t call it your “greatest hits.” Solve that problem in the title.

Robrt: I guess I did find a lot of those fake hits comps on Cher. And what about the reverse of that? I mean, where you call a comp “Half Breed,” when there is actually already an actual studio album with that title.

Mary: The “This Is Cher” comps I think are questionable there, although I do love that title. It’s covertly snooty.

Robrt: Yes. Good example. The albums with that title are really just my fave Cher album, Backstage, with one song removed.

Mary: Yeah, that’s confusing.

Robrt: But then there’s an actual comp that’s called This is Cher. I think from Germany. And it’s actually an import of Golden Greats.

Mary: I guess my thing is, just to do what the title says. If you want to reissue an album, just do that. Hits, do that. Best of, do that or what you think is the best. Deep cuts can be called something creative like “Behind the Door.”

Robrt: The world of Cher comps is not a perfect one.

Mary: I did a survey of comps with song titles in their name. “All I Really Want to Do” was in five. There were oddly two “Behind the Doors.”

Robrt: How many did you find that used “Bang Bang” in the title?

Mary: Four!

Robrt: Gah! And why, oh why was there a comp called “You Better Sit Down Kids”? Shoot me now!

Mary: Three different comps named “Holding Out for Love.” What non-Cher-fan would even know that song?

Robrt: Oh, god, that one! It’s just a bunch of tracks from the Casablanca disco albums, and for some reason it got reissued over and over again in different markets. Don’t get me started on that one.

Mary: Three Cher comps have the title “Turn Back Time.”

Robrt: Huh.

Mary: There are three “Half Breeds,” and four “I Got You Babes.”

Robrt: Oy. Okay, so you asked me the other day what my first Cher comp was.

Mary: Yeah. What was it?

Robrt: In 1967, I got a promo of the just-released Atco Best of Sonny and Cher from my uncle, who hosted a local version of American Bandstand in New Orleans and used to send us promo LPs all the time.

Mary: Nice! Hot of the presses.

Robrt: I know.

Mary: I got my copy of that one at a used record store in St. Louis. I used to write to used record stores all over the country and get them to send me their Sonny and Cher records.

Robrt: No way.

Mary: I was like 9 or 10 and my mom would bankroll it.

Robrt: The old days.

Mary: I got addresses from the rock guides at Walden Books. That’s the kind of nerd I was.

Robrt: We all did that back then. God, we’re old. So, what was your first Cher comp?

Mary: My first comp was The Beat Goes On from 1975 on Atco. That was also my first Cher record and my first record I bought all by myself.

Robrt: I love that record, despite the cover. NO PHOTO.

Mary: I made my parents sit and listen to parts of it.

Robrt: Really.

Mary: Yeah. They were unimpressed. It was the only record I could afford, the pictureless one. I had $5 and it was $8. I borrowed the other three dollars from my friend Krissy’s brother who was at the mall with us.

Robrt: You were a serious fan. And, see, that one is a perfect example of the listener going, “WHY is ‘I Walk on Gilded Splinters’ on here?”

Mary: I don’t know why, but I’m sure glad it was. I could get started loving that song right away!

Robrt: Oh, me too. But: weird choice. And, it’s a solo Cher song.

Mary: Have you heard the mash up with Gorillaz?

Robrt: No, I haven’t. I’ll listen to that later. So, I know you hate the “here are two new tracks” thing on Best Of albums.

Mary: Oh, yeah. I’m real torn about that. How do you feel about it?

Robrt: It’s manipulative.

Mary: Totally manipulative.

Robrt: And a reminder that record labels are in the business of making money.

Mary: But…sometime those songs, which never become hits by the way, are pretty nice for fans. Like bonuses. And adding never-released tracks like rare B-sides or previously-unreleased tracks are like catnip.

Robrt: Yes. I love the Cher comp from the UK, The Greatest Hits, the one that came out a few years after “Believe,” that included all her big WB UK hits.

Mary: Yeah, it has lots of songs I hadn’t heard before that were good. And live versions of things like “Many Rivers to Cross” before the Heart of Stone concert DVD came out. Also “Oh No, Not My Baby” and “Whenever You’re Near.” And “Dead Ringer for Love” with Meat Loaf, which I didn’t even know existed until then.

Robrt: I know. With that one I was like, “Wait. Cher released some singles last year? Oh, got it. Only in the UK.”

Mary: Right! Me too. It was like she was cheating on us with another country.

Robrt: That’s funny. “She’s OURS.” Okay. Shall we talk worst Cher Comp titles? I think mine is Lift Me Up Sonny. What does that even MEAN?

Mary: There’s a lot wrong with Lift Me Up Sonny besides just the title. First of all, grammatically speaking, it’s problematic. There’s a missing comma there. Secondly, the hyper-sexualized cartoon (and that look was already sexualized, so that’s saying something) with the distorted face (a drawing which feels a little contemptuous). Then we have the typeface on the back cover. It’s both silly and unreadable. And since this is a mashup of 1960s and late-1970s disco material, it promises to be a cacophonous mess. And what did Sonny have to do with Cher’s disco era? Nothing. And so we’re back to a title that is lunacy. This is actually a comp I do not own and so I’m dealing with the awkward pressure of needing to own it to be a completist but totally not wanting to buy this thing. My least favorite title is You Better Sit Down Kids, the one on Disky, from Holland. It came out in 1996.

Robrt: Oh, that one. Yes, that’s a terrible title for a comp.

Mary: But really there are so many bad ones.

Robrt: The Star Collection is a bad title.

Mary: A really bad title. So is The King of the World.

Robrt: Oh, that might be THE worst one: King of the World. You’re right.

Mary: Gypsy Lady really aggravates me as a title, because there was no “Dark Lady” on it. It’s such a dumb combo of words to begin with and then… they make it a lie.

Robrt: Yes. Pair Records.

Mary: When you compiled our lists of comps into one, you compiled them by date of release. What do you think of my idea to organize these by country and then by date?

Robrt: Hmmm. Cher fandom takes a turn toward compulsive organization…

Mary: Did early Cher fandom lead me to compulsively organize things or am I a Cher fan because I like to compulsively organize and there is so much stuff to work with here? I see benefits to both ways.

Robrt: So do I. And I think it’s inevitable that you were going to be the sort of Cher fan who catalogs and categorizes and tries to make sense of her career.

Mary: Seeing the sheer number of comps by year is impressive. But if you’re trying to determine appropriateness of song inclusion, it gets so complicated when you introduce countries with different hits.

Robrt: Right. Because some Cher songs were released as singles in other countries but not in the United States. Like, “Sunny” was a hit in some countries but never a single in the US.

Mary: Which is a mind-boggling factoid.

Robrt: I know. Also “Sing C’est la Vie” was huge in Australia and Belgium. In Belgium, it went to Number One! So you have to ask yourself, where is a hit a hit?

Mary: So we see “Sunny” or “Sing C’est La Vie” on a hits comp and think this is wrong, it wasn’t a hit, it shouldn’t be there. But it was an international hit, so…

Robrt: I suppose, now that you mention it, I’d like to see how many comps came out in the US, as opposed to the number in other countries, and in which countries is Cher most collected on comps. And should we also do a list that sets aside all the bootlegs?

Mary: Yeah. Or maybe color-code them differently. Maybe we can just do that with international comps, too. Keep it simple.

Robrt: I would like to pause and point out that we are not crazy list-makers.

Mary: Err…actually, I do have a lot of lists and sub-lists and auxiliary lists going at the moment.

Robrt: Okay, we both make lists. But we’re not crazy.

Mary: Unfortunately, I can’t concede that point either.

Robrt: Can we talk about Cher comp cover art? I know you absolutely hate when a comp has, say, an 80s photo and it’s a collection of all 60s Cher songs.

Mary: It hurts my heart.

Robrt: Is it just stupidity by the art department of the record label issuing the comp, or is it cheapness? Like, someone at the label saying, “This photo of Cher from 1966 is free from this UPI service, so we’ll go with that”? Even though they’re compiling songs from the 80s.

Mary: But there has to be dirt-cheap photos of Cher available from any decade.

Robrt: Good point.

Mary: So I think it’s lazy researching. Documentaries of Cher do this all the time, too. The voice-over is talking about the variety show and they show us an un-mustached Sonny. It’s not okay. I just watched a Top of the Pops from 1971 and they used a photo of Cher from 1967. They’re professionals. This should never have happened.

Robrt: Yes, that’s awful.

Mary: Cher is so defined by decade visually and vocally. So when it’s mismatched, I really hate it. I think those elements are closely tied together in lots of ways for fans.

Robrt: A good point. It’s almost like each of her reinventions make her into a different singer.

Mary: Right! It’s a full, three-dimensional evolution.

Robrt: And while we’re talking artwork, do you want to tell me your most-hated Cher comp LP cover? I know mine. It’s been my most hated Cher album cover for decades.

Mary: You go first. I’m still thinking.

Robrt: For me, it’s the cover of Cher Sings the Hits, one of the two super-cheap Cher comps issued by extra-low-budget Springboard Records during one of her early fallow periods. That cover gives me hives.

Mary: But wait…doesn’t that count as art?

Robrt: Yes. Shitty art! It looks to me like a teenaged girl’s doodle on her notebook cover. And the back cover image is a grainy half-tone of the Golden Greats cover photo. It’s embarrassing

Mary: Yes, it is. That comp is a major disappointment in so many ways.

Robrt: You mean because Cher’s NOT singing ANY hits on it?

Mary: Yeah. I was thinking she’d be covering other people’s hits.

Robrt: I’m telling you, it’s the worst vinyl Cher comp in the history of the world.

Mary: There’s one really unattractive Sonny and Cher comp cover where they’re wearing those matching checkered outfits and sitting in a very unflattering posture. And I don’t love the first Sonny and Cher Greatest Hits from 1967 with those by-the-water photos.

Robrt: You know, at some point we’re going to have to stop and marvel at the titles Superpak and Superpak Volume II. What the fuck is a pak?

Mary: LOL. My friend Christopher hates those because of the willful misspelling. Who knew super pacs would become such a big political thing? Cher was so before her time.

Robrt: Christopher is right. And getting back to that first Sonny and Cher’s Greatest Hits double LP on Atco, I meant to tell you: I was at a thrift store the other day and they had one of those little boutique-y sections where they had a copy of that album and it was priced at NINETY FIVE DOLLARS.

Mary: Holy shit.

Robrt: I’m not kidding.

Mary: LOL. When I was shopping in the early 80s, that album was like five dollars.

Robrt: It’s still a five-dollar LP. I’m like, please. It doesn’t even come with paper inner sleeves. But unlike you, I love that cover. I love how there’s no titling on the front. It uses an outtake from their last studio album cover shoot. Please, Atco. SUCH big balls.

Mary: No liner notes either right?

Robrt: Right. It’s the Columbia Record Club exclusive expanded version of the Best of Sonny and Cher album that came out at the same time. So, do you have a fave comp cover?

Mary: I do like the cover of Gold a lot.

Robrt: Mine is Golden Greats. That wig! Those eyelashes! The photo is so great.

Mary: Oh, yeah. The Golden Greats wig and her hand with all the rings. That’s a great one. I like the cover of Superpak and the Bang Bang: Remastered cover. And actually now that I think about it, Golden Greats, This is Cher and Superpak covers were both the inspiration for the covers of my first three Cher zines. So those might be my real faves. All three zines I did were titled after Cher comp titles.

Robrt: The cover of Gold bums me out. I don’t understand why her wig has those little pieces in the front. It’s like Cher’s hair has escaped its barrettes. But you’re right: Superpak has a glorious cover. So daring for the time. And, again, no titling on the cover.

Mary: That Superpak photograph: All nose.

Robrt: Sonny was a really good photographer.

Mary: You know, he was, and people don’t talk about that.

Robrt: I think the only photo he ever took (that I’ve seen) that I don’t like is the cover shot from With Love.

Mary: I love that one. Anything with Cher “outside in the wild.” So I disagree with you there, but it’s an odd pic to be an album cover. I can see that.

Robrt: Well, don’t take a photo of someone where you’re shooting straight up their nose. I do like her baby doll dress era, though.

Mary: Wasn’t she pregnant in that With Love photo? One of the miscarriages.

Robrt: Yes! I was just typing that. WHY DO WE KNOW THIS STUFF?

Mary: We shouldn’t. You know, I would like to compile all Sonny’s photos of Cher on some page.

Robrt: I’d like to see that.

Mary: I thought the cover of that EMI comp, Bang Bang, was very hip, visually.

Robrt: Yes, that’s my fave 60s comp.

Mary: So, what about the sheer volume of Cher compilations?

Robrt: Well, I counted 147 comps. But I know there are more.

Mary: And I counted at least one comp every year over 54 years, and only ten years in which not a single Cher comp was issued.

Robrt: I want to know something, and it’s something you brought up recently: If you’re Cher, do you KNOW that there are 147 compilations of your music for sale out there?

Mary: It’s the question of the day: Does Cher know about these?

Robrt: I believe artists typically are only aware of a) comps they’re involved in, and b) stuff that requires their sign-off.

Mary: Or is this a loophole that mushroomed into so many collections of old material? I prefer to think it’s a loophole. But I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that it isn’t.

Robrt: A loophole?

Mary: What I mean is, could Cher stop these comps from being issued if she wanted to?

Robrt: Right. Usually a singer doesn’t have rights to their recordings and the label can compile and reissue old material all they want to.

Mary: Yeah, but then why does Cher seem to have so many more comps than other artists?

Robrt: I think it’s partly that she’s an international artist, and partly all the bootlegs. More countries issuing more comps and more bootleggers stealing her name and music.

Mary: It’s hard for me to tell a bootleg comp from a shitty-product comp.

Robrt: I know. There are so many of both. So, you asked me recently to think about my fave comps from each era. You ready?

Mary: I am.

Robrt: 1960s solo: Liberty Legendary Masters set; Sonny and Cher/Cher: The Singles Plus; 1970s Cher solo: The MCA Greatest Hits LP; Cher and Sonny and Cher: that MCA collection called All I Ever Need; 1980s Universal Millennium Collection Volumes 1 and 2; 1990s and beyond 2 CD Very Best of Cher.

(See a list below with covers.)

What are yours?

Mary: 1960s Cher solo: Liberty Legendary Masters (and I never want to hear “Needles and Pins” ever again without Sonny saying “Basses hit that BOOM!”), but a close second is the EMI Bang Bang collection from 1992. And for Sonny and Cher: The Beat Goes On: The Best of Sonny and Cher from 1990 on Atco. 1970s Cher solo: the MCA Greatest Hits. For Sonny and Cher: the Kapp/MCA double CD All I Ever Need anthology, same as you.

Robrt: That is an excellent collection. My friend Lisa worked on the packaging of that one.

Mary: 1980s Cher, the UK The Greatest Hits. 1990s and beyond The 2 CD Best of from Warner Bros in 2003 and Gold from 2005.

(See a list below with covers.)

Robrt: Good call on those.

Mary: The good ones really rise to the top.

Robrt: You and I were talking the other day about how it appears that no comps can include the mid-70s Warner Bros stuff. Or CAN they, but the compilers choose not to? I wonder if this is material that Cher somehow has rights to, so she can say, “NEVER use THAT stuff!” Like, maybe Geffen (who was her boyfriend when she signed with WB at this time) told her to keep the performance rights or the rights to the masters or something?

Mary: They have a patina of respect on them. It’s really hard to make a good streaming mix of Cher songs without those four albums. Unless you resort to a YouTube playlist (which I have). I listen to streaming a bit more now and have started to curate a few mixes and there’s a big black hole in them at the mid-1970s point.

Robrt: Right. Though I admit I never play the 70s Warner Bros albums. In fact, my copy of Allman and Woman is still sealed. I’m bad. Oh, and we should mention that Black Rose rarely gets compiled.

Mary: “Young and Pretty” is on one of the good comps. Which is really the only comp-able song from that album.

Robrt: It is? I just realized that I should check the Casablanca disco-era comps, because Black Rose is on Casablanca. Is there a Casablanca-era comp that includes Black Rose stuff? I should know this.

Mary: It’s on The Essential Collection from 2001. I also did a tally of comps by year of release. Should we talk about that?

Robrt: Yes. You mean, like, why doesn’t she have a comp in certain years, and what does it mean?

Mary: Yes. The years without Cher comps are 1978, 1983, 1984, 2010, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2020-2022.

Robrt: Well, I guess those would be years where she didn’t “merit” a hits collection, based on prospective sales? Or that she already had a recent hits collection out from one of the major labels, so it was pointless to bring out yet another “official” one?

Mary: My theory is that she was MIA those years, relatively ; but I haven’t thought that through as much as the peaks which look like they come a year or two after a big comeback.

Robrt: That’s a good theory.

Mary: Cher Comp peak years were 1967, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1985. 1989-90, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, and 2007. Those were years with four or more comps. Her comeback years were 1965 (first arrival), 1971 (the variety show, new look and hits), 1974-5 (big tabloid years, Cher show), 1979 (small blip with a disco hit), 1985-88 (with movies Mask to Moonstruck and an Oscar), and 1999 (with mega-hit “Believe”).

Robrt: Jesus. So what about the comp Gold and why it exists, coming so soon after the purple Best Of?

Mary: Didn’t you previously mention it was a deal between Warner Bros and Geffen to share the hits?

Robrt: Yes. Universal, which owns Geffen, did a licensing agreement with WEA International, which released Very Best of in 2003 saying essentially that WEA could use songs now owned by Universal/Geffen in return for loaning them rights to compile WEA songs on a Universal/Geffen comp a couple years later. That’s Gold.

Mary: These two comps were important in that they were both as comprehensive as we’d ever seen (minus the black hole of four albums previously mentioned above) and some quality curation was made to produce them. Very Best of did not list the songs in chronological order, which I respect because often the songs don’t sound that great next to each other in chronological order. But Gold does present the songs in chronological order so you can get a sense of the full spread of Cher’s evolution.

Robrt: Did we exhaust the topic of worst comps? Or weirdest comps? You pointed out that this one is annoying because it’s a lie: Best of Cher: The Early Years on Columbia River Entertainment from 1999.

Mary: LOL. Yes, because it was neither best nor early.

Robrt: Because it’s all Kapp stuff. NOT her “early years.”

Mary: I really hate the cheap ones that have no liner notes, no rare things, no curation and really bad photography.

Robrt: Yes, those shitty midline things.

Mary: They’re a waste in the space, time and money continuum.

Robrt: But remember that we found the alternate version of “Like a Rolling Stone” with Sonny talking in the background on one of those shitty cheap comps. You’d have to be a “real” Cher fan to notice. Like, “Hey. This isn’t the same version I’ve been listening to since 1967.”

Mary: You’re very good at locating alternate takes on a comp.

Robrt: I believe you’re the one who discovered the different versions of “Somebody,” though. You’re the queen of that song.

Mary: That is my favorite song so…I’m sensitive to its variations. For everybody I’ve ever dated and made a mix tape for, I’ve always ended with that song to see how they would react to it. My first boyfriend was so great about it. He said, “This is actually a gospel song! How cool!” And I was so happy because I had never noticed that before.

Robrt: You slay me. When Todd and I were dating, the first mix tape I made for him had Cher singing “It’s Not Unusual” as the last song. He was like, “You’re not very subtle.”

Mary: LOL. What is a Cher song that you keep thinking was a hit or should have been a hit? For me, it’s “Needles and Pins.” I always think that was a hit, but it wasn’t even a single. Cher’s version doesn’t even get a section on the song’s Wikipedia page. And in my opinion hers is the best version.

Robrt: See? This is why I hate it when compilers add a random album track to a hits comp. “Needles and Pins” was never a single, you’re right. Including it in a hits comp suggests otherwise and it’s one of the ones that gets included in a lot of comps. And to answer your question, I’m sort of half-knowledgeable about the 80s era Cher stuff, and I can never remember if “We All Sleep Alone” was ever a single. Likewise, the remake of “Bang Bang.” Was that a single? I can never recall.

Mary: “We All Sleep Alone” was a single. I have the 45 with one of the great photos from her Saturday Night Live appearance. And you can’t forget the video(s)! It went to number 14 in the US. Her remake of “Bang Bang” was not ever released as a single. Okay, I want to go back to some of your irksomes.

Robrt: Well, you have mentioned in the past how annoying it is when a comp collects two divergent eras of her career, like it will be stuff from Imperial combined with stuff from Casablanca…and nothing else. I agree: It’s confusing and bad. I think it’s always a licensing thing. Like if it’s a WEA comp, they can collect stuff from Atco and from the later Warner and Reprise labels, so you get early Sonny and Cher, then you get Late Disco Cher. I always worry that the uninitiated won’t get a whole Cher picture.

Mary: Like the Holding Out for Love comp.

Robrt: That one. Jesus. There are SO MANY iterations of that one.

Mary: If two eras are depicted but not all….that’s worse than just sticking to one. Because, yeah, non-fans will get a very weird view of Cher and what she’s done over time. Her story is about the span of her career in many ways.

Robrt: I think it’s because it’s cheaper for compilers to license the two Casablanca disco albums. Also, there’s only one real hit from that era/label. Hey, did we already talk about how the first Cher album was a comp?

Mary: No, but that was an excellent point. Is Cher just suffering comp karma?

Robrt: Of course I’m talking about the Reprise LP Sonny and Cher and Friends: Baby Don’t Go from 1965 on Reprise.

Mary: That is such an odd record.

Robrt: A weird compilation of Caesar and Cleo/Sonny and Cher singles, plus other junk from different Reprise artists.

Mary: It’s good to have Caesar and Cleo songs though.

Robrt: I know. I have a soft spot for those sides.

Mary: That album is like an odd little precursor to those K-Tel records.

Robrt: I love “The Letter.” Do you still want to be my friend?

Mary: I suppose. How do you define soft versus hard hits?

Robrt: Oh, that’s easy. A soft hit is one that charted below the Top 40. Like “Train of Thought,” which pretty much no one who isn’t a diehard Cher fan even knows was a single.

Mary: So Top 40 is the cutoff.

Robrt: Another soft hit would be “Living in a House Divided.” And on the other end you have singles that tanked like “I Saw a Man and He Danced with His Wife” and “Pirate.” Singles that never charted at all or never got above, like, #87 on the Billboard Hot 100. And is it weird that “Sunny” and “Alfie” both got to #32? I mean, they were released simultaneously in different countries.

Mary: I feel her “Alfie” wasn’t given a chance.

Robrt: I feel that way, too. You know I collect versions of “Alfie,” right?

Mary: No. I did not know that.

Robrt: I have something like 70 versions of it. Hers was the one used in the movie. I’m still upset that her new recording wasn’t used in the remake of that movie, 20 years ago.

Mary: Do you have a bootleg of the new recording she did? What about the song do you love?

Robrt: Oh, how I wish I had a bootleg of her remake of “Alfie.” Do YOU have one? As for why I love it, it’s partly because I remember when it was on the radio BECAUSE I’M 400 YEARS OLD. I loved Cher’s voice already back then.

Mary: I do not have it either. Do you like the Dionne version?

Robrt: Sort of. My dad had a Jack Jones album where he covered “Alfie” in about 1967, and that’s a nice version, too. But then as an adult I really got into Burt Bacharach and his weird tonal changes and his time shifts. I mean, he practically reinvented tempo with some of those songs. But I love how sincere Cher’s version is.

Mary: Yes, I like that about the song too. So, does volumizing bother you? I hate orphaned Volume Ones.

Robrt: Oh, always. You better have a Volume Two in the wings or I’m pissed at you. I’m talking to you, United Artists.

Mary: And it often feels like early-career hubris.

Robrt: I can’t remember. Is the first Superpak actually called “Superpak Volume One,” or is it implied because then later that year “Volume Two” came out?

Mary: My memory is it had a volume on it but we should check.

Robrt: I can’t go look at the album because the cat is asleep on my lap. Hang on. I’ll ask Google. Okay, here you go. I found photos of the LP and its labels. Nope. It’s just called Superpak, A FAKE WORD. Sorry. Had to mention that again.

Mary: LOL. I respect that they didn’t set up expectations.

Robrt: You know, I coveted all the Cher and Sonny and Cher comps when I was a little kid.

Mary: I would just randomly come upon them and be like, “Okay, I guess I gotta buy this because I’m 9 years old and already a completist.” Speaking of being 9 years old, that Christmas I remember my mom coming out of Record Bar one day at the mall and I just knew she had Sonny and Cher Live in that bag. She did.

Robrt: I’m glad your mom bought you that album. It started an institute!

Mary: What started the institute was my aunt sending her sister, my mom, two Sonny and Cher albums from their Alaska record distribution company. I was about five or six and was hooked.

Robrt: You know how I got into Sonny and Cher, right? When I was 4, my sister moved out to get married and she left behind her copy of Look at Us because Sonny and Cher weren’t cool. I missed her a lot, and I adopted the record and played it constantly. This was during that time when Sonny and Cher were has-beens, before the variety show happened.

Mary: I still have my parents’ Sonny and Cher albums. I was really bad about absconding with albums left unattended.

Robrt: And then my uncle sent me the promo of Best of. And everyone I knew, all the teenagers in my house, were like, “You’re a dumb kid, Sonny and Cher suck.”

Mary: Sometimes it was a hard childhood being a Cher fan. Almost Dickensian, socially speaking.

Robrt: But I kept loving them and then one day a few years later, they had a TV show and started making hit records again and I was like, “I loved them all along!” I felt vindicated.

Mary: I felt that way on Oscar night when she won. It’s hard to imagine, now that she’s a solid-plated icon.

Robrt: I never wavered in my Cher love. Like, everyone rolled their eyes, and I was always like, “Eat me.”

Mary: I was like, “I have very little agency as a kid, but I’ll be damned if anyone is going to tell me what I should like.”

Robrt: Okay. So, is there such a thing as a Desert Island Cher Comp? Like, you have to choose ONE.

Mary: Gold is my desert island comp. Package, listing.

Robrt: Mine would have to be the purple Best of, then. Okay. Before we wrap this up, I have to do a callout to another really stupid comp title: “She’s No Better Than Me.” (The song is my all-time fave Cher recording.)

Mary: LOL. But you don’t want a comp with that song as the title?

Robrt: I love that song, but please…you just named your Cher comp after a rare B-side that no one remembers!

Mary: Right, a song that was not on any album. Is that comp a big-hits comp or just random tracks?

Robrt: It’s all big Imperial hits. But brace yourself. It collects 60s music and it has an 80s photo for the cover.

Mary: Oh, for Pete’s sake.

Robrt: Mary, I hate to end this, but my husband has come home and he’s wandering around looking hungry. Also my hands are about to fall off from all this typing. I have loved this.

Mary: I think we’ve covered a lot.

Robrt: We did. And thank you for filling a void in the universe with your love of and knowledge of Cher.

Mary: It’s truly a labor of love. Have a good night and enjoy your dinner!

Robrt: Night.

Robrt’s Picks

1960s

Cher: Liberty Legendary Masters set, Bang, Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down): The Best of Cher (1990)
Sonny and Cher: The Singles Plus (2000)

1970s

Cher: The MCA Greatest Hits LP
Cher and Sonny and Cher: The Kapp/MCA Anthology (1995)

1980s

The Best of Cher: The Millennium Collection (20th Century Masters Series) (2000)
The Best of Cher: The Millennium Collection Vol. 2 (20th Century Masters Series) (2004)

1990s and beyond

The Very Best of Cher (2-CD “International” version) (2003)

Mary’s Picks