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Cher - The Very Best of Cher Audio CD

A fair review of the Cher "The Very Best of Cher" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Cher reviews here, or go back to the Cher tabs.

Cher Band: Cher
Title: The Very Best of Cher
Rating:
Release Date: 2003-09-03
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Believe 2: Strong Enough 3: If I Could Turn Back Time 4: I Found Someone 5: Song for the Lonely 6: Walking in Memphis 7: Just Like Jesse James 8: One by One 9: Live and Understanding 10: Save Up All Your Tears 11: Piu Che Puoi - Cher, Eros Ramazzotti 12: Love Can Build a Bridge - Cher, Neneh Cherry, Chrissie Hynde 13: Take Me Home 14: Rudy 15: Bad Love [From Foxes] 16: When the Money's Gone 17: All or Nothing 18: Alive Again 19: Diffrent Kind of Love Song 20: Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss) 21: Heart of Stone 22: Dov'è l'Amore 23: Music's No Good Without You 24: Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves 25: Half-Breed 26: Dark Lady 27: I Got You Babe - Cher, Sonny & Cher 28: Beat Goes On - Cher, Sonny & Cher 29: Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) 30: Way of Love 31: All I Really Want to Do 32: Train of Thought 33: Cowboy's Work Is Never Done - Cher, Sonny & Cher 34: We All Sleep Alone 35: Love Hurts 36: Not Enough Love in the World 37: Born with the Hunger 38: After All - Peter Cetera, Cher 39: All I Ever Need Is You - Cher, Sonny & Cher 40: Baby Don't Go - Cher, Sonny & Cher 41: Dead Ringer for Love - Cher, Meat Loaf 42: Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)

A Lot Of Confusion Surrounding This Release
The one I have seems to be a match for this listing as it comes from Warner Special Marketing/MCA and has the same tracks. The reason I say that in the caption is, there are several separate listings for CDs with the exact same cover and the same tracks on two discs, then there's one with a single disc and just 20-odd tracks.

I do know that, when I purchased my copy, I did so with some misgivings. I mean, here was a lady who, after splitting with Sonny, went on to register 33 Billboard Pop Hot 100 hit singles from 1965 to 1999 plus two more that made only the Adult Contemporary (AC) charts. So, I was kind of hoping that, in a collection with 42 tracks, we'd be getting all 35 of those hits at least, along with perhaps some of the better B-sides.

But no, instead they throw in five of her duets with Sonny (tracks 8, 9, 14, 20 and 21 on disc 2), and you have to wonder why since those are readily available on several CDs dealing with the duo (e. g. , The Best Of Sonny & Cher: The Beat Goes On from Atco/Atlantic). Anyone who knows Cher's music will see at a glance that at least half a dozen of the cuts here were not among her "very best" - at least insofar as that term applies to her hit singles.

Where, for example, is Where Do You Go? which, at # 25 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in late 1965 on Imperial, was really her first true "solo" hit, even though All I Really Want To Do (which is here) came out a few months earlier and went to # 15, since Sonny provided "backing" vocals on that Imperial release. And what about Alfie, a # 32 in summer 1966 and You Better Sit Down Kids, a # 8 in late 1967 and her last Imperial hit.

In June 1972, now at Kapp Records, she had Living In A House Divided go to # 3 AC/# 22 Hot 100 and, in August 1974, had I Saw A Man And He Danced With His Wife make it to # 3 AC/# 42 Hot 100. Some might argue that the latter was not included since it failed to reach the Hot 100 Top 40, but then they do include the 1996 # 52 One By One and the 1999 # 57 Strong Enough (which also made # 8 and # 29 AC respectively). By that reckoning they could have included the Neil Sedaka-penned tune, Don't Hide Your Love, which finished at # 19 AC/# 46 Hot 100!

What is here has excellent sound reproduction, and while the four pages of liner notes by author, film critic, and TV personality Kurt Loder are interesting and informative, having it printed in light grey font on a purple background makes them very difficut to read, even if you have 20-20 vision. Also, the re-listing of the tracks, while showing composers/writers, year of recording, and the album in which each originally appeared, offers nothing in the way of chart results. Two more nice shots of the beautiful Cherilyn Sarkisian are included.

Not a bad collection - just that it could have been more definitive of her "very best" with just a bit more thought.


You can see a complete list of all Cher discography, or go back to the Cher tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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