One of the things I brought home from my Christmas trip to see my parents was some old, late-80s exercise tapes I found in my stuff still stored in their basement.
For the last few years I’ve been doing pilates for my back and they always remind me of Doreen Rivera’s Stretch for Life tape I had back when I was doing aerobics. So not only did I get to re-explore that tape but tapes by Kathy Smith, Denise Austin and none other than fitness pixie, Jane Fonda. I used to favor the Rivera tape because the stretches made me feel good. In fact I hated the Fonda/Austin/Smith tapes and never did them. They were so chipper, so perky in that 80s happy-color way. And something about Jane Fonda’s voice used to annoy the hell outa me. My sister-in-law and I used to work out for years to Joanie Greggains records. I watched two Joanie Greggains tapes again last week and man, those were some really dangerous stuff we used to do. I can’t do half of it anymore but I throw my back out.
Surprisingly, now that I’m old, I loved the Jane Fonda, Kathy Smith and Denise Austin tapes. I decided Austin was very encouraging, Smith was challenging and the Fonda tape was most pleasant this time around. What the hell as happened to me?
The Golden Globe
So imagine my surprise to be having this new Fonda moment when it’s Jane herself who appeared last Sunday to do the somewhat awkward introducing of Burlesque for Cher at the Golden Globes. Jane called herself Cher’s friend and really gave a cheerful introduction to the dubious nominee. It was nice.
My friends thought the opening Ricky Gervais Cher joke was mean. How can tickets to a Cher show be considered a bribe, he asked. Do you want to see Cher in Vegas? No. Because it’s not 1975! I actually thought it was funny and athough a jibe, it diffused the drama somewhat. Besides the scholarly fact 
that Cher wasn’t touring in 1975, the point is…how big of a bribe was it? For real.
I admit, it didn’t look good and I hope it doesn’t hurt her chances for an Oscar nod for best song. I know. I know. I am not a huge Diane Warren fan. Well documented. But I was really happy she won a Golden Globe award for the song and I was moved by her acceptance.
The Burlesque DVD
You can now pre-order the DVD or Blu-Ray which are set to come out March 1. I’m really pissed the special features are only rumored to come out on Blu-Ray, which I don’t have and won’t be getting soon.
According to Sony:
Blu-ray extras will include director's commentary, an alternate opening, a blooper reel, The Burlesque Lounge: Alternate Full Musical Performances and 5 featurettes (Burlesque is Back!, The Performers: The Cast of Burlesque, Setting the Stage: Production Design & Performers, Inside the Dressing Room: Creating the Burlesque Look and The Set List: The Music & Choreography of Burlesque).
To Be Camp or Not to Be Camp
http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/piranha-3-d/
The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, a group of writers from publications like The Advocate and Us Weekly, which has announced that the winner for “Campy – Intentional or Not – Film of the Year” is “Burlesque.” It beat out worthwhile contenders like “Sex and the City 2” and “Piranha 3-D.” The win was especially notable because Steven Antin, the director of “Burlesque,” only recently told the Bagger that he didn’t care for the film’s reception. “It really wasn’t what I was aiming for, the camp,” he said of the film starring Cher and Christina Aguilera. “I wanted to make a fun film that was a throwback to Hollywood’s golden age of musicals, and people perceived it as camp for obvious reasons. I was surprised it was perceived that way.”
I am perplexed that Antin didn’t anticipate this.
Breaking the Record
So the big news last week was that Cher’s song from the movie, “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me,” not only won a Golden Globe for best song but also topped the dance charts. This marked a very impressive chart record for Cher.
From the LV Examiner:
http://www.examiner.com/live-music-in-las-vegas/cher-farewell
With all that to celebrate how appropriate is it that at press time, Cher had just received a Golden Globe award for Best Song in her latest big screen event “Burlesque.” She told her audience after winning that award that the director for the movie didn’t even want to add the song into the film. But Cher did and she now has another statue to prove it.
And here that song has been the most successful piece of the movie. You can already download a karaoke version: http://www.amazon.com/Havent-Seen-Last-Style-Instrumental/dp/B004H4L3GU/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1295721359&sr=8-15
Cher now has the record for biggest span of time between two hot 100 number 1 singles and is the only act EVER to have a #1 hit song on the charts in each of 6 consecutive decades. [Note: this is a different achievement than the one my friend Christopher was hoping for–a top ten hot 100 single in five decades.]
From Billboard:
http://www.billboard.com/news/cher-shines-with-no-1-in-sixth-consecutive-1004139281.story#/news/cher-shines-with-no-1-in-sixth-consecutive-1004139281.story
On the Dance/Club Play Songs chart to be released on Billboard.com Thursday (Jan. 20), the song reaches No. 1, making the leading lady the only act to have notched a No. 1 single on a Billboard chart in each of the last six decades.
In fitting Cher style, she tells Billboard, "How can it be six decades when I'm only four decades?"
Written by Diane Warren, the ballad was remixed into an uptempo number for dance floors by the likes of Dave Aude, StoneBridge, Edson Pride and Almighty.
Cher collected her first leader on a Billboard list Aug. 14, 1965, when Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe" began its first of three weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
In the '70s, she racked up a trio of Hot 100 No. 1s on her own with the story songs "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" (1971), "Half-Breed" (1973) and "Dark Lady" (1974). She notched another '70s No. 1 with Sonny, "All I Ever Need Is You," on the Adult Contemporary airplay chart in 1971.
Moving forward to the '80s, the AC chart continued to be a friend to Cher, as she locked up No. 1s on the survey in 1989 with "After All," with Peter Cetera, and her iconic "If I Could Turn Back Time."
In the '90s, Cher stormed back to the Hot 100, where she reigned for four weeks at No. 1 in 1999 with the title track from her album "Believe." The song would go on to finish 1999 has the year's top Hot 100 single. It also hit No. 1 on our Dance/Club Songs chart in 1999, as did two more singles from "Believe": "Strong Enough" and "All or Nothing."
In the '00s, Cher landed a further pair of No. 1s on Dance/Club Play Songs: "A Different Kind of Love Song" in 2002 and "When the Money's Gone" in 2003, both from her album "Living Proof."
The only. act. ever. Take that Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. [By the way, I just read an article on Sonic Youth in Newsweek and they don't think they'll ever get inducted either.]
A few weeks ago I netflixed Who is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talking About Him) to get some better insight into Cher and Nilsson’s unusual pairing for their Phil Spector single. Cher was not mentioned in the documentary, but then not many women were. Most of his compatriots were the big boys of the 70s, Monty Python, The Beatles, Van Dyke Parks, Randy Newman, Paul Willams, Brian Wilson, Cher-producer Jimmy Webb and Cher-friend Mark Hudson (with rainbow colored beard). Other than comments from his ex-wife and widow that is. There was seemingly no collaboration with women artists. Which makes the Cher duet even more interesting and mysterious.
