My friend Christopher is an avid reader of Billboard Magazine and minutes ago he sent me this from Billboard’s Q&A column:
Ask Billboard (Experts answer your questions).
For July 25, 2008,
Ask Billboard is updated every Friday. Submit your burning music questions to Keith Caulfield at askbb@billboard.com.
SHARING CHER ON CD
Keith, Cher released four albums on the Warner Bros. label from 1975-1977 and they still have not been released on CD. The titles are “Stars,” “I’d Rather Believe In You,” “Cherished” and an album billed as Allman and Woman (which she made with then-husband Gregg Allman) entitled “Two the Hard Way.”
Do you know why these have not been released on CD? Or do you know when they will be on CD? It seems to me that Warner Bros. would have released them in 1999 when Cher was riding high with “Believe,” but they didn’t.
Also do you know anything about an album recorded by Cher right after “Take Me Home” came out in 1979 that was rejected by her record company and never released by Casablanca? Her album “Prisoner” was released instead.
Thanks for your help with these two questions.
Michael Birr
Hi Michael,
As it turns out, Cher owns the masters for those four Warner albums, so she controls their fate. We reached out to Warner Bros. and Rhino Records to confirm this.
So, why haven’t they come out on CD? We’d have to ask Cher the next time we get her on the phone.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any information about the alleged aborted Casablanca album.
Interesting; but there you have it.
I have to admit my desire
to own these & play them at will on CD was SOO incredible, we purchased them from someone in Mexico, who created their own recordings, last year. It took over $200 and my firstborn (no actually, my family purchased them for my birthday) & 4 weeks PLUS to wait.
I have concluded that these should be released by CHER on CD SOON–because they are FABULOUS & SO MANY young people have NEVER heard them & have absolutely no recollection of them!!
Also, I believe that when things are underrated it is often simply a function of limited exposure. I.e., Underground Rock would not exist at all,
Not.com.mercial or DEADSY’s Key to Gramercy Park Instrumental would not be as collectible, if they were promoted heavily commercially, & at Shows, Concerts, Cable, & in record stores. The curiosity factor maybe high but affordability & quality is not always in line for the true CHER Fan.
Once I purchased a CD on eBay that advertised cover art of the 4 original bandmembers of DEADSY–a rare CD–and when it arrived, it had the mansion on the cover–so it was falsely represented.
WELL…
Methinks NOW would be an IDEAL time (and I am not an Advertising Exec, just a big CHER Collector/ Conniseur who enjoys promoting) with the Concerts SELLING OUT and it’s not like she isn’t getting Media Exposure…
She could make some press comments and they could sell at Caesar’s in The CHER Store & outside the Lobby when you first go in!!
Same with the 4 (is it?) Unreleased TV Specials?!!
People are offering copies on DVD on eBay that may or may not be blurry…
And…
I just think if CHER were watching over it, all bootleggers would stop.
At least, the ones who aren’t representing the proper lyrics to “Pirate.” Pun intended :))
It just doesn’t seem fair to the fans or the artist to purchase by mail & not know what they are getting/what it is supporting…
After their eons of obvious devotion to CHER.
And…
I believe in ALL of the original art & layout of the vinyls.
We fans have hung onto our original vinyl AND got CD compilations, totally different order but the same songs, for so long.
We were completley happy with original releases & how vinyl sounded really REAL & not plastic-ky, and welcomed CD size but we didn’t want to GIVE UP anything we CHER-ish either.
And sometimes when you wait too
long for something…And have to deal with the confusion of searching & searching to find the CDs that has Chastity Sun (or David’s Song or Prisoner),it somehow takes away the combustion of interest that an CHER original just released CD provides!
Not to mention that the bootleggers have succeeded with saturating the market with possibly inferior product in sight & sound.
It just doesn’t seem fair some are getting hundreds for something that CHER wasn’t even offered to inspect–granted she is probably so busy, it is tough to reach her, even through her publicists.
We adore her family.
I for one want the proceeds to go to her & them.
Imagine all the shoes you can buy for $100 million.
OH that darn Cher!!!!
it’s not about the $$$$.
she has enuff!!!!
it’s about loyalty to her fans and her catalogue of music for all the world to have…. 🙂
If she sells that “house”-
then she can just celebrate by passing something on to all of us. everything she and Sonny ever did video/audio wise(including rare
outtakes and personal home concert video) released to todays format… and what about all those tv shows and tv specials???
45mil for a “house”. 60mil for a 3rd time recycled concert series with the same songs and costumes??????
SHE just better pull her head out and start making good on a few things….
love jimmydean
🙂
Mary:
It’s rare that artists own rights to their back catalogue, but I think we can assume that if Cher owned, say, rights to her Imperial catalog, those would never have been reissued, either.
Artists rarely look back on their work and say, “Well, that album wasn’t very good but let’s reissue it because the 4,500 copies it will sell will net me $277 in royalties!” If you catch my drift.
Another way to think of it: If someone said to you, “Let’s publish all the photographs taken of you while you were in high school, and hope that people will order prints of them for $1 each! You’ll get to keep 27 cents from each photo sold!”, would you endure the embarrassment of having photos of you wearing braces (or, in my case, elephant bells and a dashiki) published in hopes that people would toss teeny piles of coins your way in order to own their own copies?
Your blog today has made me want to go dupe my vinyl copy of ALL I EVER NEED IS YOU onto CD…
RP