I was very excited Cher made this kewl list! Cher directed the video and cast her boyfriend at the time, Robert Camilletti. Allegedly her record label balked at that and Cher ended up hawking those fitness clubs to fund the production of the video herself. A real Cher DIY moment.
Category: Music (Page 31 of 34)
Here’s a link to a story on a new documentary about The Wrecking Crew, a gang of studio musicians who for Sinatra, Streisand, S&C and many others and included both a young Glen Campbell and a young Leon Russell.
Coincidentally, I just made Mp3s of three songs from my only Leon Russell album:
- Tightrope" – which is why I picked up the album in a used record store in St. Louis back in the 80s.
"I’m up in the spotlight
Oh does it feel right
Whoa, the altitude seems to get to me"
- "Stranger in a Strange Land" – which I can actually hear Elijah covering nicely in my head. Or Cher too for that matter.
- And the oft recorded "Song For You" – Russell wrote this song so I feel this should be the definitive version, not The Carpenters’ or Ray Charles'. However, I do think Cher’s version is great, far better than The Carpenters version because she sounds more experienced to Karen Carpenter’s voice of innocence. I feel the inverse applies to their dual recordings of “Superstar” – the innocence in Karen Carpenters voice here serves the song better. As for versions of “Song For You” I also really like the R&B/rap group City High’s version (I love their song “What Would You Do.” I really do). Actually, I think I take umbrage with the words 'definitive version'. What does that mean anyhow? The version that quintessentially defines the song? What the hell? Is that even possible?
But I digress. There’s this documentary out on The Wrecking Crew:
“The stars, he said, were accommodating, including Cher, Dick Clark and Campbell,” said producer Denny Tedesco, 47-year-old son of Wrecking Crew guitarist Tommy Tedesco. “As big as Cher is, she was very giving. It brought her back to that period when she was 16 years old. It was a wonderful time for her. And it was a lot of fond memories for Glen. He said he missed not having to be 'the guy.' Tedesco, a Woodland Hills resident, grew to admire his father even more after all the research and filming.”
Visit http://www.wreckingcrew.tv/upcoming.html to find a screening in your town.
Here's another Wrecking Crew interview that includes another S&C musician, Hal Blaine: http://www.modernguitars.com/archives/004300.html
As, you may know many S&C band members from the early 70s went on to form the band Toto and as I was starting to convert my vinyl to MP3s recently with my new turn-table, I came across these Chicago liner notes from Chicago 16(yes I bought it for “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” in 1983 when I was 13, I’m not ashamed of it!). I found many familiar names in the liner notes: Steve Lukather guitars; David Paich synthesizer, Steve Porcaro synthesizer programming. And I can’t shake this feeling that I’ve seen Chicago’s own Bill Champlin on a Cher album credit somewhere. Am I crazy? Please don’t answer that. Does this ring a bell with anyone?
Jimmy Dean also alerted me last week of Jerry Wexler’s passing. Wexler was a famous Muscle Shoals 
producer for many landmark albums of Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield among many others. The awesome Dusty in Memphis was recorded the same year as Cher's unheralded 1969 album 3614 Jackson Highway which Wexler was one of the producers on. Jimmy Dean also mentioned that no news reported his brief association with Cher. I searched google in vain to find such a reference myself. However, I did find this exert of a bio of David Geffen (scroll down and click the link "The Operator") that claimed Wexler was Geffen’s long-time nemesis. The excerpt covers details of the night Cher met Geffen and the general gist of his involvement and substantial aid to Cher in her time of mid-70s legal crisis, which is quite important in considering where she is today. You could almost say there would be no Sonny & Cher without Sonny and there would be no Cher solo without David Geffen. And possibly no Cher into the 21st century without Cher herself. She’s been svengali-less for decades now!
A rumor of this appeared on Chergroups. And it needs absolutely no commentary from me.
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.
Well, it seriously was my birthday this week. 39! The countdown begins today! 364 more days!
And although I’ve had the death of a cold, I did have a nice birthday and got some sweet stuff: a stereo for my iPod so I can share my entire Cher collection with my bf now. He himself bought me something I’ve been whining for all year: Rosetta Stone software so I can teach myself Spanish. At work they were teaching us Spanish earlier in the year and I really loved working the other side of my brain trying to learn it. But then the budget killed the program. Rosetta Stone commercials really spoke to me, all the total immersion stuff. I can’t wait to try it.
This also reminds me of the gift my bf got me last year, Sirius radio. For the first 9 months I couldn’t get it to work – bad reception. Finally I called to cancel the dern thing and God bless em, they offered me a professional installation if I’d stay in the Sirius family. Well, after the first installation, the equipment died. So they sent me replacement equipment and I’m happy to say it’s working great now. Sirius is really good on long car drives, I must say. When we drove to New Mexico I was able to set all my favorite artist alerts. Let me tell you, Sirius radio LOVES Billy Joel, much to my bf’s dismay. For my Cher alerts, I’ve been tentatively disappointed. For the first month I heard ONLY “Turn Back Time” and “The Way of Love” every few days. From her whole catalogue, that was it! But just this week they did play “Dark Lady” once on the 70s station and “Take Me Home” on the dance station. Stay tuned for more on that.
I found a blog post review of Cher’s 1967 With Love album. It earns Cher Scholar’s vote for best-Cher-revisionist-music-critique-of-the-day with this commentary:
Though there are those that would dispute their musical validity – I used to be one of them – their [S&C’s] Lps, as well as Cher’s early solo albums are a storehouse of late-period imitation Wall of Sound-isms, Sonny having studied at the tiny little feet of the master himself. That said, while Cher’s albums are often weighted down by ill advised versions of standards (but then so were any number of Motown LPs), there is almost always something cool waiting their for those willing to take the time to look. [The album] includes a version of ‘Hey Joe’ – which was pretty cool – but the tune that really hit me was her cover of Phil Ochs’ ‘There But For Fortune’. Oddly enough, the first version I ever heard of this song was a quiet, pretty cover by Francoise Hardy (Cher-like in her own Gallic way). As I said earlier, thanks to Sonny’s (and Cher’s) time with Phil Spector, there are many Sonny & Cher recordings that bear the mark of the Wall of Sound. An extra added bonus is the fact that their musical director was none other than New Orleans expatriate, Harold Battiste who brought many Crescent City players, like Earl Palmer, Alvin Robinson, Jesse Hill and Mac Rebennack out West. It has long been rumored that the first ‘Dr. John’ LP was recorded during leftover Sonny & Cher studio time. ‘There But for Fortune’ is a great showcase for Cher’s voice – not always my favorite, but outstanding when showcased properly, a la her version of ‘Alfie’ that runs over the end credits of the film of the same name – as well as a nicely layered arrangement. Posted by Larry.
Bradley Jacobson of West Hollywood and the “electronic trashy punky pop band” Swivek has posted a blog review of the album Prisoner.
Earlier, he also reviewed Take Me Home.
Fred Tackett was profiled recently online. He is still a member of Little Feet and he played in the band on Sonny & Cher shows:
“I played in bands for variety shows, like ‘Sonny & Cher,’ then the Cher show, Tony Orlando’s show, and Donny & Marie Osmond. You could do three of those shows and retire – they’d even pay you three-quarters of your pay for the summer reruns. It was a magical time.”
He was also credited on two of the best of Cher albums Two the Hard Way and Stars.
Learn more about Fred at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Tackett
Click here for a very funny blow-by-blow on the “I Found Someone” video and a link below so you can verify the essay’s claims – among which are:
- Cher walks out of the mirror room into a bedroom, which like the mirror room, appears to be decorated by Pottery Barn.
- Neither of them appear to be wearing a shirt, so rubbing foreheads basically equals full-frontal on-camera penetration.
- Most of the single’s kick comes from Cher selling the hell out of it.
- We hit the chorus and cut to Cher in performance, leading her band in front of a sparse crowd. She’s wearing a totally indecent outfit: a black mesh bodysuit over a black bra and panties, covered by a black leather jacket that she keeps trying to shrug off.
(That is actually an incorrect yet very hilarious description of the hole-fit – CS) - I don’t think there’s another 42-year-old woman on the planet who could have pulled this look off.
- Back to the Pottery Barn bedroom…Cher pulls chainmail pantyhose up her leg, fluffs her hair, and fastens the chainmail pantyhose to (yes!) a chainmail garter.
- In the Pottery Barn bedroom, Cher throws some clothes into a suitcase, and then hurls a framed photo of her and Boytoy against the floor. If you watch in slow motion, you can see that the glass is broken before it hits the tiles.
(I actually captured a screen grab of this above - CS)
Years ago someone posted a link to a video on the site of the guy who does the video mixes for Cher's shows saying that if you click the Elton John section and then the video for "Original Sin" – at the middle mark of the video, a Britney-Spears-blonde walks through a party, kisses Sonny Bono and then Cher who is holding a baby.
I’ve just watched the video and I don’t think it’s Cher at all because:
- It doesn'tlook like Cher in the eyes and lips
- That baby does not look like Chastity at all
- That Cher does not move Cher-like
Tell me what you Cher-scholars think.
