{"id":5794,"date":"2023-04-12T11:53:39","date_gmt":"2023-04-12T17:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherscholar.com\/cherblog\/?p=5794"},"modified":"2023-04-13T17:34:32","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T23:34:32","slug":"cher-scholars-ultimate-cher-comp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherscholar.com\/cherblog\/2023\/04\/cher-scholars-ultimate-cher-comp\/","title":{"rendered":"Cher Scholar’s Ultimate Cher Comp"},"content":{"rendered":"

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So when Robrt Pela and I were finishing our Quagmire of Comps<\/a> project, we talked about our dream Cher comp. I have probably made about ten mix-tape Cher comps in my lifetime (not including new YouTube<\/a> and steaming mixes<\/a>). I mean the olde timey cassette tapes. This was back in the day when there was not a single comprehensive, across-the-many-labels compilation to be purchased. My last cassette mix was made in my late 20s and even had a fold-out of liner notes written by me in a moment of prenatal-Cher-scholaring.<\/p>\n

By now, we’ve had a few good comps out there and it’s no longer a matter of wanting to see all her hits represented in one place. I’ve also done my share of sharing what I thought were the best songs (see the links above). So lately I’ve been creating thematic comps, like Love Songs<\/a>, Philosophical Songs<\/a>, Girl Power Songs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Robrt and I were talking about the Ultimate Comp I was thinking about songs that define Cher in some way, like personally. Which is very tricky. Somewhat newb interviewers since “Believe” have had a tendency to try to ask Cher what certain songs mean to her personally and she invariably responds like the person has just landed with that question from Mars. This line of questioning inevitably tanks. This is not an artist trying to reveal biography in her music (at least when taken as a whole). Her roots are too vaudevillian, too show-biz, variety-show for that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>But…fans like a little peak into the psyche of their stars from time to time, even from artists who don’t traffic in such disclosure. So it took me about ten minutes to come up with this ultimate bio mix. Then I was reminded of Biograph<\/em>, Bob Dylan’s 53-song Box Set comp from 1985. In my mind, that was the first box set I ever saw on the shelves and I immediately pined for the Cher! Box! Set!<\/em> And as you might recall, about a zillion box sets did<\/em> get released, so many that they had to devote a special bin for those things. But that box set of Cher’s best\/rare\/popular songs never did come through (although we did get a cool wooden box up-sale with lyrics on tarot cards for the\u00a0Love Hurts<\/em> album in 1991).<\/p>\n

Although my biographical\u00a0 framework is a risky premise for a compilation list because album (and TV show) producers like Sonny and Snuff Garrett controlled her song selection for decades, there is much we can<\/em> learn from the songs Sonny wrote for Cher, (some based loosely on their biography),\u00a0 songs they both selected for her to sing,\u00a0 songs she’s revisited over and over again through the years and songs Cher actually wrote, (what few there are). I didn’t include all of the songs Cher wrote in my bio mix, but you can see good summaries of those online:<\/p>\n