Cher has recorded 34 studio albums stretching over 7 decades, a fact that is making it harder and harder for her former critics to keep dismissing her as a bona-fide musical presence. She’s also released 3 live albums and is a major presence on 3 motion picture soundtracks.

1960s

  • 11 album releases total
  • 2 soundtracks
  • 9 studio albums
    • 3 as Sonny & Cher
    • 6 solo

1970s

  • 13 album releases total
  • 2 live albums (as Sonny & Cher)
  • 13 studio albums
    • 2 as Sonny & Cher
    • 1 as Allman and Woman
    • 10 solo

1980s

  • 4 studio album releases total
    • 1 as Black Rose
    • 3 solo

1990s

  • 3 solo studio album releases total

2000s

  • 3 album releases total
  • 1 live album
  • 2 solo album

2010s

  • 3 album releases total
  • 1 motion picture soundtrack
  • 2 solo

2020s

  • 1 solo

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

Respect for Cher musically is in an interesting flux. At the turn of the century, Cher started appearing on many retrospective best-of lists on TV shows and in magazines. She is moving from being merely cited as a footnote in texts about women in music (She Bop: The Definitive History of Women in Rock, Pop and Soul by Lucy O’Brien -1995 and Women and Popular Music: Sexual, Identity and Subjectivity by Sheila Whiteley – 2000) to being showcased as an influence and presence of substance (We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The True, Tough Story of Women in Rock by Gerri Hirshey – 2001). Read more details about this phenomenon in the introduction of my second Cher Zine, Cher: Critically Revised.

  1. Start with a breakdown of Cher’s studio and live recordings.
  2. Read Cher Scholars Top 10 Song Picks.
  3.  Try to  your head around the massive amount of Cher compilation albums.
  4. Read blog posts on current music events.

Thesis Ideas

Musically, we can deconstruct Cher product through these prisms:

  1. Rare vs. hits: the top ten hits vs. the b-sides and bootlegs
  2. Decade by decade evolutions
  3. Cher singing in French and Italian
  4. Lyric themes: for instance, the unwed mother in 60s folk songs vs. the jilted, pregnant lover in the 70s narrative ballads
  5. Genres: pop-folk, narrative ballads, standards, disco, dance, 80s-hair pop-rock
  6. The major producers: Sonny Bono, Snuff Garrett, Jimmy Webb, Jerry Wexler to the one-offs of Ron Dante and the results of song-by-song production in her 80s, 90s, and modern albums.

Cher’s discography and album details on Wikipedia.