a division of the Chersonian Institute

Karaoke Cher, I Got You Babe DVD and LP Covers

Karaoke1_2 I was Cher Scholar at no charge for two of my friends this week. A high school friend of mine who now works in Las Vegas as a singer and dancer was looking for a karaoke CD with "The Way of Love" on it. I’ve only ever been to karaoke as some sort of birthday obligation. So I wasn’t well steeped in Cher karaoke CDs although I knew there must be a plethora out there. This gave me a good opportunity to peruse the amazon.com market.

You Sing The Hits Of Cher

This has nine tracks: 2 from the dance era, 4 from the Geffen era, and 2 from 70s narrative period. There’s also "Shoop Shoop" which always sounded like a lame karaoke song to me anyway.

Hit Songs of Cher [ENHANCED]

Ooh…enhanced. This one has 10 tracks: "Believe" (twice…one vocal and one karaoke version although I don’t know the difference), 4 from the Geffen era, and 4 from the 70s narrative era.

Cher’s Greatest Hits Vol. 1

This one has 16 Tracks: 3 dance era, 8 Geffen era (including "Shoop Shoop"), 3 70s narrative tracks, and the recent "Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered" (although to me that’s quintessentially a Barbra Streisand song) and "Bang Bang" (which is either the 60s or Geffen era version).

Chartbuster Karaoke: Cher [ENHANCED]

What does enhanced mean for pete’s sake? This one has 12 tracks: 6 dance era (including "Runaway" and "Believe" twice…listed as mix, guide tracks or performance track…I’m so confused!) and 6 Geffen era tracks.

Hits Songs of Cher (Audio CD)

This one has no song list. Buy at your own peril.

Chartbuster Karaoke: Cher

This one has 15 tracks: 5 dance era tracks (including "Song for the Lonely" and "Different Kind of Love Song"), 5 Geffen tracks, 3 70s narrative era, and 2 60s era.

This one spelled Gypsies as Gypsys. I hate that. I really do.

Sing Like Cher Karaoke2_2

This one has 10 tracks, all from the Geffen era.

Sing The Hits Of Cher and Donna Summer (Karaoke)

Odd combination…but okay. This one has four obscure tracks from the Believe album ("Dove L’Amore" being the only exception) and four obscure tracks from Donna’s album ("This Time I Know It’s For Real" the exception…it also has Summer’s version of the operatic "Time to Say Goodbye" except the words are "I Will Go With You.")

Pocket Songs Just Tracks Karaoke – HITS OF CHER

No list.

Radio Starz – Cher’s Karaoke Anthology

This one was sent to me by a Cher yahoo-groups member. It’s the only one with "The Way of Love" and seems the best value with 22 tracks as follows.

  1. Believe – Cher
  2. A Cowboy’s Work Is Never Done – Cher
  3. If I Could Turn Back Time – Cher
  4. We All Sleep Alone – Cher
  5. The Way Of Love – Cher
  6. After All -Cher
  7. Strong Enough – Cher
  8. You Better Sit Down Kids – Cher
  9. The Beat Goes On – Cher
  10. Dark Lady – Cher
  11. Baby Don’t Go – Cher
  12. Half Breed – Cher
  13. I Got You Babe – Cher
  14. Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves – Cher
  15. Bang Bang – Cher
  16. I Found Someone – Cher
  17. Just Like Jesse James – Cher
  18. The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss) – Cher
  19. All I Ever Need Is You – Cher
  20. Take Me Home – Cher
  21. Little Man – Cher
  22. All Or Nothing – Cher

This is also the only one with "Cowboys," "The Beat Goes On," "Baby Don’t Go," "I Got You Babe," "All I Ever Need Is You," "Take Me Home" and "Little Man." All but two have the four signature songs: "Believe," "Turn Back Time," "Half Breed" (all but three) and "Gypsies." I didn’t see any CDs dedicated to Sonny & Cher.

I did my primary serach on Amazon but you might Google around for the right CD at the best price.

Last week a friend and I went to see two movies from the 70s at one of Santa Monica’s art house theaters. We saw Diary of a Mad Housewife which was interesting but pointless as the Leonard Maltin book says. I say what a doormat! This was followed by The Last of Sheila, a wonderfully fun who-done-it with a great cast including Dyan Cannon, Raquel Welch, George Mason and written by Anthony Perkins and Steven Sondheim.

Both movies featured Richard Benjamin; it was like a Richard Benjamin festival. Benjamin was great in both of them but I still blame him for Mermaids. After the movie my friend gave me two Cher albums he found at used record stores.

One was Bittersweet White Light. I said I didn’t know what the title meant. We laughed about Cher’s cover photo where she’s piled with turquoise and fur as if to say "I’m rich!" On the back cover she looks way too thin and there’s another infernal essay by Sonny about how Cher makes one feel when she sings. I hate those essays. But I honestly love this album. I know some think it’s god-awful but I really don’t understand the particulars on why. These funky standards are way cool IMHO. More creative than her versions on TV.

The other LP was a Canadian Mono print of In Case You’re In Love. Another odd title. In case you’re in love what? Both my friend and boyfriend were flabbergasted over the outfits on the cover. I love the back photographs in Europe (they look so bored) but the middle photo makes me dizzy. I think they’re trying to hypnotize us.

This week I finally received my Sonny & Cher I Got You Babe DVD. This is a German production that looks like a fancy bootleg. I can’t figure out how this thing was ever made and approved. It’s very mysterious consisting mostly of some of their more mundane TV show live performances; these are not clips I would pick. Oddly the first one ("A Cowboy’s Work Is Never Done") has the album track over-playing the TV show footage. The rest are live for the most part.

The track listing was not on Amazon:

  1. A Cowboy’s Work Is Never Done – From their early 70s show.
  2. The Letter – From their early 70s show.
  3. All I Ever Need Is You – From their early 70s show.
  4. Bad Moon Rising  – From their early 70s show.
  5. Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show/Mr. Tambourine Man – From their early 70s show.
  6. Cry Like a Baby – From their early 70s show.
  7. I Dig Rock ‘n’ Roll Music (with Bobby Vinton, Frankie Valli, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Chuck Berry and I just realized Jerry Lee looks like that jazz pianist I used to date) – From their early 70s show.
  8. Bad Bad Leroy Brown (the very kewl cartoon) – From their early 70s show.
  9. Let Me Down Easy – From their early 70s show.
  10. Love Grows Where My Rosemary Grows – I hadn’t seen this one before and it has interesting camera shots from behind left stage (including an great audience shot) and a front tracking shot like they never did. Very disorienting because it’s so unusual. I wish they had done these kinds of shots more often.
  11. Out of Sight/Get Ready – Hadn’t seen this one.
  12. Sonny & Cher Stomp – Hadn’t seen this one either but it’s a great self-deprecating send-up of themselves and their mannerisms complete with dancers.
  13. Silly Love Songs (with Donnie & Marie) – This one is from their later 70s Show.
  14. Without Love – Late 70s Show
  15. You Make Me Feel Like Dancing – Late 70s Show
  16. Little Man – This was an awesome rough video clip from the 60s. Worth the whole DVD.
  17. I Got You Babe – Old video footage we’ve seen before.
  18. What Now My Love – More greatness…seems like old live footage. Loved it!
  19. Let the Beat Go On – This is a really odd outro to the DVD with quivering still captures from the clips above…all backed by an indecipherable song. Those Germans.
  20. Biography – This is useless, impossible to read as it scrolls by too fast.

This DVD wouldn’t play on my TV player; it said the new DVD was dirty. It played fine on my computer, however.

I’m headed to St. Louis this weekend for the funeral of my friend’s father. Very sad. Joe Wiskirchen was a recent visitor to Chez Edgar (he even tried to instill discipline in him as did my mother to no avail) and was a move review contributor to Ape Culture. Needless to say he will be missed.

 

6 Comments

  1. peggy genoway

    Claudia James was my best childhood friend and passed away from leukemia when we were 12. My heart breaks every November.

  2. Rob

    New copies at all online retailers of the “In Case You’re In Love” CD are sold out. I see from that link that one Amazon seller doesn’t know this….the $7.49 listing…if someone needs it, grab it at that price! All the other prices there and on ebay etc…are much higher.

  3. Cher Scholar

    Tyler, my friend asked me who Claudia James was, too, and I shrugged. That would be a nice piece of trivia to get. This album has been released on CD by Sundazed records with great liner notes by Ward Lamb.
    http://www.amazon.com/Case-Youre-Love-Sonny-Cher/dp/B0000064YZ/ref=sr_1_1/104-7472641-6955111?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1181159160&sr=8-1
    You’re in KC?? Tell me where. I go there a time or two a year as my sweetie’s family lives in Overland Park. Let’s do lunch!

  4. Cher Scholar

    Rob, I will admitt the film was shot wonderfully. I best loved the opening sequence of Richard Benjamin berating her as she got up out of bed, down the elevator, through to the cab …nice sex shots too. But still…as the credits were rolling (loved that shot as you did, too) and everyone in group therapy was giving her annoying advice, someone in my theater shouted out “Get a job!” Too funny, as they say.
    Which is all not to deny that I am too rash.
    That is what it is. 😉

  5. Rob

    Oh girl, you are just so…..rash. Diary Of A Mad Housewife is great! Love that l – o – n – g closeup of her “at the end of her rope” face at the end. If it’s showing at a theatre maybe it’s been restored, and is FINALLY coming to DVD.

  6. tyler

    Oh Two great albums…The thing about Bittersweet White Light the photos were taken by Sonny who I guess thought he could expand his creativity if not his control more by taking the cover photos for Cher’s albums…As for her looking way too thin…guess the blame there also goes to Sonny…worked her ass off. I am sure you remember her talking about never getting a vacation. 98 pounds is way to skinny for her. Or any other adult. IMHO.
    You made me look in my cher-closet for these albums. Geesh why did I think I needed 7 copies of everything ever recorded by Cher..so many useless “Best OF CHER albums put out just to line the record companies pockets…LOL. So on the back of In Case You’re In Love it says “This Album is Dedicated to Claudia James”
    WHO THE F…is that? Any clue?
    And has this album been released on cd?
    Oh I saw Elihah’s new page on myspace where he is previewing some of his new tunes. Very good stuff, might wanna check them out.
    Flying to St Louis? Well You flew over my house here in KC…Thought I heard a CHERsonice boom this weekend.
    CHER
    fan4life
    Tyler

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