To those of you who thought I overreacted last week about the bad Cher compilations, let me just say I appreciate your concerns. However, the fact is I care so much…because I love too much. And I just want each little compilation (each one like a fuzzy misfit in an overpopulated bunny farm) to be the best little compilation they can be.
That and it would be nice to save a few trees and a barrel of oil. Frankly, the last thing this troubled world needs is another bad Cher compilation. And a good Cher compilation is as rare as a Vancouver Island Marmot.
On my birthday a week ago, I visited the Amoeba record store in Hollywood where I did the obligatory look through the used CD and record bins for Cher stuff. Besides the aforementioned bad Cher compilation, I also bought my third copy of the All I Ever Need is You(KS 3660) album, but this one was with the pink and orange Kapp label as opposed to the black label my parents had. I wondered if the pink vs. black label might explain the differences in the gospel choir endings in the song “Somebody.” My latest thesis was that maybe only the black Kapp label printings had it. Maybe this would explain why other fans didn’t know what I’ve been taking about all these years?
“Somebody” happens to be my favorite Cher song. I talked about this on Cherscholar.com years ago:
http://www.cherscholar.com/topten.htm#somebody and I won’t regurgitate that bit here but I will add that I still love the whimsical bass line, the honking horn that almost blares like a headlight flash, Cher’s smooth intro and then singing like Sonny (d.b.a harmonizing) in the second half of the song, the nasally sax, and most of all the gospel send-off at end.
To my surprise and glee, the pink-label Kapp version didhave the accented wailings at the end. Compare your All I Ever Need The Kapp/MCA Anthology CD version (and my CD bootleg version is also robbed of this ending) to this copy I have burned from the Amoeba album (see link at bottom of page).
There’s a fuller gospel sound at the end, complete with some solo stand outs (including the final “Iiii said!”). Now there’s even a third version, the 45 which predates the album version, with completely different ending lines, but discussing that is for another day.
Thanks for share this great song!!
Yeah…I don’t know if the 45-version intro really adds anything…what do you think?
The 45 version also has a short musical intro, where the album version just starts with the vocals.
The All I Ever Need is YOU album was the very first album I ever owned I was 10…that was just a few years ago
I used to have the 45 of that song before my evil grinch of a sister made it into a frisbee…
OK,
not weeks… just A week…
it was a furniture store, not a record store……
i never knew they changed that… i thought the choir was always there…esp. that one woman’s voice what sounds like an Afro-American
lady singing background to cher’s vocals…..kinda like when she was in concert with Darlene Love and Edna Love-wright… how they would play off her vocals……
i have always loved this song too…. it’s like it just sprung up on an album where it didn’t belong…or
maybe it did… i shouldn’t say that,hun????? either way, i love that whole album. i sing every word of every song… i got it the same time i got the “GYPSYS,
Tramps & Thieves” LP….
i was sooooo happy….
but, then it turned out both LPs were warped and i had to take them back…
took weeks to get replacements…..
imagine if “SOMEBODY” had been on the “it’s a man’s world”
cd….???????
MARY! I don’t even think I have an ALL I EVER NEED IS YOU LP on the black kapp label! DAYUM!! I also think there are 4 versions of Somebody floating around. 2 of which are totally different vocal recordings. More later when I can compare! XO