Gay Icons - The Divas: Cher, part 1 & This Month's Statistics

If you grew up in the 60s, you fell in love with Cher for her pop masterpieces, like I Got You Babe (with then-husband Sonny) or Bang Bang (solo). If you grew up in the 70s, you fell in love with Cher for her defiant story-songs, like Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves or Half-Breed. If you grew up in the 80s, you fell in love with Cher for one of her great film roles, including a Best Actress Oscar, or for one of her spectacular power ballads, like If I Could Turn Back Time or Just Like Jesse James. If you grew up in the 90s, you fell in love with Cher for her successful remake of The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss) or quite possibly for her international #1 hit Believe, which was the first pop hit to use Auto-Tune creatively. Finally, if you are a Millennial you have probably enjoyed Cher overshadowing Christina Aguilera in Burlesque or stealing the show in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Or you may love her for her devil-may-care image; for her outrageous outfits; for owning up to her numerous plastic surgeries, which didn’t manage to hurt her image; for her long-time support of the LGBT tribe in general and of her trans son Chaz Bono in particular; for her political activism and her oh-so-enjoyable tweets. All I’m trying to say is, you can’t help but love Cher. She the kind of person that the term Gay Icon was invented for…

Cher was born Cherilyn Sarkisian in El Centro, California, on May 20, 1946. Her father, John Sarkisian, was an Armenian-American truck driver with drug and gambling problems; her mother, Georgia Holt (born Jackie Jean Crouch), was an occasional model and bit-part actress who claimed Irish, English, German, and Cherokee ancestry. Cher's father was rarely home when she was an infant, and her parents divorced when Cher was ten months old. Her mother later married actor John Southall, with whom she had another daughter, Georganne, Cher's half-sister.

Now living in Los Angeles, Cher's mother began acting while working as a waitress. She changed her name to Georgia Holt and played minor roles in films and on television. Holt also secured acting parts for her daughters as extras on television shows like The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Her mother's relationship with Southall ended when Cher was nine years old, but she considers him her father and remembers him as a "good-natured man who turned belligerent when he drank too much". Holt remarried and divorced several more times, and she moved her family around the country (including New York, Texas, and California). They often had little money, and Cher recounted having had to use rubber bands to hold her shoes together. At one point, her mother left Cher at an orphanage for several weeks. Although they met every day, both found the experience traumatic.

When Cher was in fifth grade, she produced a performance of the musical Oklahoma! for her teacher and class. She organized a group of girls, directing and choreographing their dance routines. Unable to convince boys to participate, she acted the male roles and sang their songs. By age nine, she had developed an unusually low voice. Fascinated by film stars, Cher's role model was Audrey Hepburn, particularly due to her role in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's. Cher began to take after the unconventional outfits and behavior of Hepburn's character. She was disappointed by the absence of dark-haired Hollywood actresses whom she could emulate. She had wanted to be famous since childhood but felt unattractive and untalented, later commenting, "I couldn't think of anything that I could do ... I didn't think I'd be a singer or dancer. I just thought, well, I'll be famous. That was my goal."

In 1961, Holt married bank manager Gilbert LaPiere, who adopted Cher (under the name Cheryl LaPiere) and Georganne and enrolled them at Montclair College Preparatory School, a private school in Encino, whose students were mostly from affluent families. The school's upper-class environment presented a challenge for Cher; biographer Connie Berman wrote, "[she] stood out from the others in both her striking appearance and outgoing personality." A former classmate commented, "I'll never forget seeing Cher for the first time. She was so special ... She was like a movie star, right then and there ... She said she was going to be a movie star and we knew she would." Despite not being an excellent student, Cher was intelligent and creative, according to Berman. She earned high grades, excelling in French and English classes. As an adult, she discovered that she had dyslexia. Cher's unconventional behavior stood out: she performed songs for students during the lunch hours and surprised peers when she wore a midriff-baring top. She later recalled, "I was never really in school. I was always thinking about when I was grown up and famous."

At age 16, Cher dropped out of school, left her mother's house, and moved to Los Angeles with a friend. She took acting classes and worked to support herself, dancing in small clubs along Hollywood's Sunset Strip and introducing herself to performers, managers, and agents. According to Berman, "[Cher] did not hesitate to approach anyone she thought could help her get a break, make a new contact, or get an audition." Cher met performer Sonny Bono in November 1962 when he was working for record producer Phil Spector. Cher's friend moved out, and Cher accepted Sonny's offer to be his housekeeper. Sonny introduced Cher to Spector, who used her as a backup singer on many recordings, including the Ronettes' Be My Baby and the Righteous Brothers' You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'. Spector produced her first single, the commercially unsuccessful Ringo, I Love You, which Cher recorded under the name Bonnie Jo Mason.

This is the Ronettes' Be My Baby:

This is the Righteous Brothers' You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin':

This is Ringo, I Love You:

Cher and Sonny became close friends, eventual lovers, and performed their own unofficial wedding ceremony in a hotel room in Tijuana, Mexico, on October 27, 1964. Although Sonny had wanted to launch Cher as a solo artist, she encouraged him to perform with her because she suffered from stage fright, and he began joining her onstage, singing the harmonies. Cher disguised her nervousness by looking at Sonny; she later commented that she sang to the people through him. In late 1964, they emerged as a duo called Caesar & Cleo, releasing the poorly received singles Do You Wanna Dance?, Love Is Strange, and Let the Good Times Roll.

This is Do You Wanna Dance?:

This is Love Is Strange:

This is Let the Good Times Roll:

Cher signed with Liberty Records' Imperial imprint at the end of 1964, and Sonny became her producer. The single Dream Baby, released under the name "Cherilyn", received airplay in Los Angeles. Here it is:

Encouraged by Imperial, Cher worked with Sonny on her second solo single on the label, a cover version of Bob Dylan's All I Really Want to Do, which peaked at #15 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1965 and at #9 in the UK. Meanwhile, the Byrds had released their own version of the same song. When competition on the singles charts started between Cher and the Byrds, the group's record label began to promote the B-side of the Byrds' single. Roger McGuinn of the Byrds commented, "We loved the Cher version ... We didn't want to hassle. So we just turned our record over." Cher's debut album, All I Really Want to Do (1965), reached number 16 on the Billboard 200; it was later described by AllMusic's Tim Sendra as "one of the stronger folk-pop records of the era". Here is the hit single All I Really Want to Do, closer in tone to Bob Dylan’s sneery original than the Byrds’ sweeter reading:

Also on this album, I Go To Sleep: The Kinks frontman Ray Davies’ epic mid-60s giveaway has been covered by everyone from Peggy Lee to Sia. Cher’s powerful take on the song tucked away on her solo debut album, is the one that you suspect Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders had in mind when they recorded it: the vocals are oddly similar. Here it is:

Also from this album, here is Girl Don’t Come:

In early 1965, Caesar and Cleo began calling themselves Sonny & Cher. Following the recording of I Got You Babe, they traveled to England in July 1965 at the Rolling Stones' advice; Cher recalled, "[they] had told us ... that Americans just didn't get us and that if we were going to make it big, we were going to have to go to England." According to writer Cintra Wilson, "English newspaper photographers showed up when S&C were thrown out of the London Hilton [because of their outfits] the night they arrived - literally overnight, they were stars. London went gaga for the heretofore-unseen S&C look, which was neither mod nor rocker."

I Got You Babe reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as in the UK and many other countries - and became, according to AllMusic's Bruce Eder, "one of the biggest-selling and most beloved pop/rock hits of the mid-'60s"; Rolling Stone listed it among "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2003. As the song knocked the Beatles off the top of the British charts, English teenagers began to emulate Sonny and Cher's fashion style, such as bell-bottoms, striped pants, ruffled shirts, industrial zippers, and fur vests. Upon their return to the US, the duo made several appearances on the teen-pop showcases Hullabaloo and Shindig! and completed a tour of some of the largest arenas in the US Their shows attracted Cher look-alikes - "girls who were ironing their hair straight and dyeing it black, to go with their vests and bell-bottoms". Cher expanded her creative range by designing a clothing line. This is I Got You Babe, a song that remains irresistible, both in its sun-kissed depiction of youthful optimism and the sheer melodic force of its songwriting:

Many of you will recognize I Got You Babe from the film Groundhog Day, or from the reggae remake by UB40 and Chrissie Hynde.

Sonny and Cher's first album, Look at Us (1965), released for the Atco Records division of Atlantic Records, spent eight weeks at number two on the Billboard 200, behind the Beatles' Help!. It also included their #20 US single called Just You:

… As well as a minor hit called The Letter:

Sing C'est La Vie was a #1 hit in Belgium:

Baby Don't Go was first released in 1964 and was a minor regional hit. Then following the duo's big success with I Got You Babe in the summer of 1965, Baby Don't Go was re-released by Reprise later that year and became another huge hit for Sonny & Cher, reaching the top ten in the US and doing well in the UK and elsewhere, going as far as reaching number one in Canada:

Meanwhile, Cher released her next solo album: The Sonny Side of Chér (1966) features Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down), which reached number two in America and became her first million-seller solo single. It is fabulous. An early hint of where Cher’s talents as a solo singer really lay, Bang Bang’s saga of first love turned sour sees her holding her own as the arrangement piles on the melodrama: flamenco-ish guitars, weeping Gypsy violin and a vaguely Russian-sounding interlude. I prefer the original version to both Cher’s latter, more rock-oriented one, as well as to Nancy Sinatra’s version that Tarantino made famous:

From the same album, Where Do You Go was a #25 US hit:

Ol' Man River shows the huge vocal power Cher already had on this early album:

Meanwhile, Sonny & Cher were having more hits. But You're Mine made the top 10 in Canada, the top 20 in the US and the UK, and #23 in Germany:

Similarly, What Now My Love made the top 10 in Canada and Belgium, as well as being a top 20 hit in the US and the UK:

Back to Cher’s solo work, Alfie (the Bacharach/David theme from the Michael Caine movie, which was added to the credits of the American version of the 1966 film and became the first stateside version of the popular song) was her next single, peaking at #32 in the US:

Her next single was I Feel Something in the Air which had Cher as a girl-group-styled ballad singer, with a wall-of-sound arrangement and an adventurous, defiant Sonny Bono-penned song that won’t stay still, shifting and changing its time signature throughout. A lost epic. Here it is:

Cher’s version of Bobby Hebb’s classic, Sunny, was a top 5 hit in the Netherlands and Sweden:

You could perhaps tell that Sonny & Cher were bound not for rock stardom but for cabaret. Little Man is less like the boundary-breaking records at pop’s cutting edge in 1967 and more like the MOR that the people horrified by pop’s cutting edge turned to instead. Still, it’s a pretty charming song and it connected with the public, peaking at #1 in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Sweden, #2 in Germany, #4 in the UK, #6 in Canada, #7 in France, and #21 in the US.

Another big hit for them in 1967 was The Beat Goes On, a top 10 hit in the US and Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands. Sonny Bono was always a smarter, shrewder operator than the hippy garb and hapless public persona suggested. And there’s something impressively cynical about this hit, a view of the 60s in full swing, with one eyebrow knowingly raised.

Cher’s next solo album, With Love, Chér (1967), includes songs described by biographer Mark Bego as "little soap-opera stories set to rock music" such as the US top 10 single You Better Sit Down Kids:

Sonny and Cher’s movie debut, Good Times (1967), directed by a young William Friedkin, was a disastrous flop: the first sign that a career that had once led them to have five songs in the US chart at the same time was hitting the buffers. But the soundtrack yielded a gem: It’s The Little Things is booming pop sung with real affection by Cher. A #3 hit in Canada.

Sonny & Cher entered recording hiatus for the rest of the 60s, while Cher kept releasing solo albums to diminishing returns. Backstage (1968) was a mixed bag including a few good songs, like, Song Called Children:

Under the guidance of producer Jerry Wexler, who had famously kick-started Aretha Franklin's career when she signed with Atlantic in 1967, Cher recorded 1969's 3614 Jackson Highway in Alabama with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, the same band that backed Aretha, Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke, and many others on a string of classic soul hits. With ace guitarist and songwriter Eddie Hinton sitting in and Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin helping with the production, Cher cut what was arguably the finest album of her career. Unfortunately, it was a commercial disappointment. Displeased with the album, Sonny prevented Cher from releasing more recordings for Atco.

From this album: Cher rides the slinky funk of Lay Lady Lay beautifully:

… she knows just how to fill the quiet spaces of Please Don't Tell Me:

… and she belts out Cry Like a Baby with the same punch as the Memphis Horns:

Cher's serious solo effort as an actress, Chastity (1969) flickered out and died a quick death. It was the year when her daughter to Sonny Bono was born. She was named… Chastity. This is Chastity's Song (Band of Thieves):

By the end of the 1960s, Sonny & Cher's career had stumbled as they witnessed the American pop culture experience a drastic evolutionary change. The couple maintained their stage act and all the while Sonny continued to polish it up in a shrewd gamble for TV acceptance. While Sonny played the ineffectual object of Cher's stinging barbs on stage, he was actually the highly motivated mastermind off stage and, amazingly enough, his foresight and chutzpah really paid off. Although the couple had lost favor with the new 70s generation, Sonny encouraged TV talent scouts to catch their live act.

The network powers-that-be saw potential in the duo as they made a number of guest TV appearances in specials and on variety and talk shows and in what was essentially "auditioning" for their own TV vehicle. The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour (1971) was given the green light as a summer replacement series and was an instant sensation when it earned its own time spot that fall season. The show received numerous Emmy Award nominations during its run and the couple became stars all over again. Their lively, off-the-wall comedy sketch routines, her outré Bob Mackie fashions, and their harmless, edgy banter were the highlights of the hour-long program. Audiences took strongly to the couple who appeared to have a deep-down sturdy relationship.

Buoyed by the success of their TV show, in 1971 Sonny and Cher signed with the Kapp Records division of MCA Records, and Cher released the single Classified 1A, in which she sings from the point of view of a soldier who bleeds to death in Vietnam. Written by Sonny, who felt that her first solo single on the label had to be poignant and topical, and sung in tones of hoarse-voiced despair by Cher, it’s a ballad with more depth than their public image allowed; the song was rejected by radio station programmers as uncommercial. Here it is:

Since Sonny's first attempts at reviving their recording career as a duo had also been unsuccessful, Kapp Records recruited Snuff Garrett to work with them. He produced Cher's first US solo #1 single (also #1 in Canada – and top 5 in the UK, Australia, and Ireland), Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves, which "proved that… Garrett knew more about Cher's voice and her persona as a singer than Sonny did", writes Bego, her biographer. Billboard called it "one of the 20th century's greatest songs". Indeed, Cher’s voice was better suited to belting out showstoppers than grappling with Dylan’s Masters of War. Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves was the biggest showstopper of all, a gargantuan chorus tied to a fabulous example of the lost art of tale-telling songwriting – the pop song as a picaresque short story. Over its course, she is variously angry, seductive, terrified and resigned: a great actor, though no one knew it yet. The single was certified gold in the US. This is it:

The second single from this album, The Way of Love, reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and established Cher's more confident image as a recording artist. Here it is:

On the coat-tails of Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves, Bono released a new Sonny & Cher single in late 1971, All I Ever Need Is You, which was a top 10 hit in the US, Canada, and the UK:

… followed by another top 10 in the US and Canada, A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done (1972):

Also in 1972, Cher released the all-ballad set Foxy Lady, demonstrating the evolution of her vocal abilities. Living in a House Divided, the lead single, was a rare occasion when Cher’s music appeared to be offering a glimpse into her personal life – an emotive, soulfully sung depiction of a marriage on the rocks, released as her marriage to Sonny Bono faltered. It peaked at #17  in Canada and at #22 in the US:

From the same album, Don’t Hide Your Love was a minor hit:

Bittersweet White Light (1973) was the last solo Cher album to be produced by Sonny. While many fans consider the album to be her best vocal performance, Bittersweet White Light, composed mostly of covers of American pop standards, was Cher's first commercial failure of the 1970s. Here’s Am I Blue?:

Also in 1973, the soon-to-be the wealthiest and most high-profile (openly out) gay man, then “straight” David Geffen fell in love with Cher and almost married her. Geffen set out to help Cher free herself from Sonny Bono’s clever contract that made Cher his employee and keep most of their income. They lived together until their amicable break-up. Geffen sold her his townhouse in the Sierra Tower, LA’s most high-profile high-rise, home to current and former tenants such as Elton John, Matthew Perry, Joan Collins, Courtney Cox, Lily Collins, and Sidney Poitier.

Still, Sonny & Cher had a couple more hits. When You Say Love peaked at #16 in Canada and at #32 in the US in 1973:

Their last single, Mama Was A Rock And Roll Singer, was a minor hit (US, #77). Even if you hadn’t known that Sonny and Cher’s marriage was in trouble, you might have guessed something was wrong just on the basis of this bizarre but compelling single which opens with what sounds like its climax: a cacophonous minute of squealing guitars.

In 1973, Cher had another solo #1 hit and a gold record in the US. (Also #1 in Canada, #4 in Australia, #6 in Sweden, and #29 in Germany.) Written for Cher and obviously playing on her exotic looks – half-Armenian, part-Cherokee – Half-Breed’s angry rebuke of racial intolerance is an entirely fantastic slice of tough early-70s pop: part thumping glam drums, part theatrical proto-disco strings. This is Half-Breed:

For the first time in her career, Cher had back-to-back #1 US singles, (and gold records): Half-Breed was followed in early 1974 by Dark Lady: It is not meant as faint praise to say that Cher can sing the most ridiculous songs with total sincerity, particularly when the results are as enjoyable as this preposterous load of black magic/infidelity/murder-themed hokum.

This was followed-up by Train Of Thought (US: #27, Canada: #18), a much harder-sounding single than Cher was associated with at this stage in her career. Train of Thought’s blues-rock-soul-pop hybrid is an atypical gem from her early-70s oeuvre: proof her voice was more stylistically adaptable than her detractors believed.

Her last hit in 1974 (US: #42, Canada: #31) was I Saw a Man and He Danced With His Wife:

Also in 1974, a one-off single, its eerie production the work of Phil Spector, A Woman’s Story is an extraordinary, bleak song. Something about Cher’s weary vocal cuts against the optimism of the chorus: the protagonist sounds doomed. Covered to considerable effect by Marc Almond. This is Cher’s version:

For the next four years, Cher had no hit records at all. In 1975, she married into rock royalty with second husband, bonafide Rock Star and bad-boy, Greg Allman and had a son in 1976, Elijah Blue. Was she a has-been destined to become a rock’n’roll housewife? Never Cher! In 1979 she re-imagined herself as a disco diva, had one of the most successful disco hits ever, and spent the 80s as a bonafide pop and film star. But this is another chapter, so you have to wait for part 2 of this story. Soon…

Finally, these are our statistics; During all of last month, there were no new stories. There was, however, a 20% increase in visits from the month before. Which is… strange? Are you trying to tell me something?

As far as countries are concerned, the United States was the big winner, along with Russia, Germany, Brazil, Ukraine, Poland, and Australia. Meanwhile, France was the big loser, followed by Greece, Cyprus, and Italy. The United Kingdom and Canada keep their percentages stable.

Here are this week's Top 10 countries:

1. the United States

2. the United Kingdom

3. Canada

4. Brazil

5. France

6. Poland

7. Ukraine

8. Germany

9. Australia

10. Italy

Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence since our last statistics (alphabetically): Albania, Algeria, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Curaçao, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Dutch Caribbean (Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba), Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, French Guiana, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea, Guyana, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Réunion, Romania, Russia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Happy to have you all!

And here's the all-time Top 10:

1. the United States = 33.7%

2. France = 16.4%

3. the United Kingdom = 11.3%

4. Greece = 7.7%

5. Russia = 2.8%

6. Canada = 2.0%

7. Germany = 2.0%

8. Australia = 0.93%

9. Italy = 0.88%

10. Cyprus = 0.78%

That's all for today, folks. Till the next one!