Songoftheday 8/13/21 - No matter how hard I try you keep pushing me aside, and I can't break through there's no talking to you...

 

 

"Believe" - Cher

from the album Believe (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (four weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 25

 

Today's song comes from singer and culture icon Cher, who was lastly seen in this series with her two top-40 pop hits from her 1991 album Love Hurts, "Love and Understanding" and "Save Up All Your Tears".  However, the decade started out seeing her suffer from the Epstein-Barr Virus, and unable to consistently work, Cher found herself loaning herself out for infomercials, to the point where she notoriously overcame Dionne Warwick as the "queen" of. Pulling out of that in the mid-1990's Cher signed with WEA in the UK and Reprise in the U.S., and released the album It's A Man's World. Although it became a big hit overseas, landing in the top ten with the album and lead single "One By One", neither could rise above the top 50 in the States (they deserved better).

1998 didn't begin as well either, with ex-husband and longtime collaborator Sonny Bono's tragic accidental death. After mourning him, and releasing a book of memories, Cher regrouped to record her twenty-second studio album, moving from Reprise to Warner Brothers proper in the States. Produced by the British team of Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling, along with cuts from American dance club icons Todd Terry and Junior Vasquez, Believe came out as a thorough tribute to the (gay) clubs that had always stayed true to her. The lead single and title track "Believe", written by Paul Barry, Brian Higgins, Stuart McLennen, and Steve Torch, was instantly noticable for its use of the then-new Auto-Tune recording tool, that allows vocals to be manipulated in pitch and size. Used mostly to "correct" pitch imperfections of lesser "singers", Taylor and Rawling's use of it on "Believe" was more to have Cher's voice as an instrument itself, bending it like a horn player uses a mute, or a keyboardist shuffles nearby notes for emphasis. Nobody can deny Cher has a voice that stands well on its own, but this "trick" (which the producers somehow thought they could deny at first) gave the dance-pop gem a futuristic and robotic but still warm enough to sound human quality to it. And it worked. Of course, the gays on the dancefloor ate it instantly up, but slowly but surely pop radio caught on. I remember when "Believe" debuted on the pop Hot 100 in America at the totally modest position of #99, but eventually rose and rose until it made it all the way to the top, becoming Cher's all-time biggest hit. The theme of rising from the ashes stronger was universally felt. The music video had Cher appear as the motherly angel to a younger generation, which is more prescient than originally assumed....

"Believe" returned Cher to the #1 spot on the American pop chart after a recording-setting 33 years in March of 1999, going on to become Billboard magazine's Top Hot 100 hit of that year. The song spent four weeks at #3 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart, while going to #5 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format list. Its biggest success was on the dancefloor, where it topped Billboard's Dance Club Play chart for five weeks. Internationally, the single was just as massive, going to #1 in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK, with the latter country keeping "Believe" on top for seven weeks. The Believe album, released in October of 1998, went to #4 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and stayed on the list for well over a year (76 weeks), going on the move over four million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2000, "Believe" won for Best Dance Recording, her sole Grammy win so far. It also was nominated for Record Of The Year, losing out to Santana's even more massive "Smooth", while the Believe album was up for Best Pop Vocal Album, which was given to Sting for his Brand New Day record (harrumph). 

Despite the huge reception for "Believe", the follow-up single "Strong Enough", sort of like a sequel record to it, stalled down on the American pop chart at #57, although it did top the dance chart for a week, and made both the Adult Contemporary (#29), Adult Top-40 (#40), and Mainstream Top-40 (#31) radio charts. It was mostly because radio wouldn't let go of playing "Believe" on blast while ignoring the other song. Overseas that wasn't an issue, and "Strong Enough" was #1 in Hungary, and top ten in France (#3), Germany (#3), Iceland (#3), Spain (#4), Austria (#4), Belgium (#4W/#6F), the UK (#5), Switzerland (#5), Denmark (#5), New Zealand (#6), Greece (#6), Finland (#7), and Italy (#10). The third single from Believe, "All Or Nothing", gave Cher a "hat trick" of #1s on the American dance chart, although it missed the pop and radio lists altogether. Internationally, it made the top ten in Finland (#4) and Hungary (#5), and made it to #12 in the UK. Finally, "Dov'e L'Amore" went to #5 on the Billboard Dance Club Play chart, hit the top ten in Spain (#4), Finland (#5), Greece (#7), and Hungary (#10), and peaked at #21 in Britain. 

 

Cher returned in 2001 with Living Proof, a carbon-copy of Believe, reuniting with Mark Taylor as well as writers Paul Barry and Steve Torch and having the same dance-pop grooves and vocal drama. However while the record made it to #9 on the Billboard 200, the lead single for the set in America, "Song For The Lonely", stalled down at #85 on the pop Hot 100, although it got to #11 at Adult Contemporary radio, #31 on the Adult Top-40 format, and #38 on the Mainstream Top-40 station list. It also topped the Dance Club Play chart for a week. Internationally, as the second single from the album, it went to #18 in Canada; elsewhere in the world, the single "The Music's No Good Without You" was released, and made the top ten in Italy (#4), Spain (#8), and the UK (#8), and eventually rose to #19 on the American Dance Club Play list.  That was followed by a pair of #1 dance hits in the U.S. with "A Different Kind Of Love Song" (two weeks) and "When The Money's Gone", with the former also going to #30 on the Adult Contemporary radio chart. "Love One Another", the "B-side" of the latter and a remake of the club hit from Swedish dance-pop singer Amber, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Dance Recording in 2004, losing out to Kylie Minogue's "Come Into My World". The tour behind the record, Living Proof: The Farewell Tour, was massive, raking in hundreds of millions (and nefariously tainting the "farewell" tour concept for good). 

The rest of that decade was mostly Cher doing shows worldwide and in Vegas. In 2010, Cher returned to the cinema starring in the musical film Burlesque with Christina Aguilera. From the movie the song "You Haven't Seen The Last Of Me" went to #1 on the American dance chart. A dozen years after Living Proof, Cher re-emerged with her third in her dance-pop trilogy with Mark Taylor, Closer To The Truth, although this record was much more varied in styles. The lead single, "Woman's World", topped the Dance Club Play chart in 2013, while popping on to the Adult Contemporary radio list at #28 and "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #125. Two other cuts from the album, "Take It Like A Man" and "I Walk Alone", went to #2 on the dance chart, while the ballad "I Hope You Find It", a cover of a song recorded by Miley Cyrus a decade prior, climbed to #17 at Adult Contemporary and returned Cher to the British Top-40 at #25. The Closer Than The Truth album hit #3 on the Billboard 200 sales tally.

Cher's most recent reincarnation was a Swedish one, as she starred in the movie Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, the second in the series inspired by the songs of ABBA. That blossomed into an entire album of ABBA covers, Dancing Queen, which went to #3 in America, #2 in the UK, and pretty much top ten all over the world. Her version of "Fernando" with actor Andy Garcia went to #22 on the American Adult Contemporary radio format chart (and #92 in the UK), while "Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight)" rose to #4 on Billboard's Dance Club Play list. Also in 2018, the musical The Cher Show, based on her life, debuted on Broadway (I saw it, totally so much fun), and she's promised an upcoming second album of ABBA covers. She's on Twitter, she's on TikTok, she's been vocal but welcoming, and her stature as a member of music royalty has been cemented. But this was the Auto-Tune heard round the world the got the ball rolling again.

(10/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's Cher appearing on Letterman to promote the single...

Next up, on her Do You Believe tour behind the album in 1999...

Cher recreated her video for "Believe" at the American Music Awards in 1999...

She donned a red wig for her "Farewell" tour in 2002...

In 2018, Cher was an honoree at the Kennedy Center Honors celebration, and American Idol runner-up (robbed) Adam Lambert put an entirely new twist on "Believe" that was stunning...

Finally, back to Cher on her Here We Go Again tour in 2019...

Up tomorrow: Country vocal powerhouse admits errors.