Cher (51 page)

Having recorded three excellent Gold and Platinum rock and roll albums on Geffen Records (and her recent Number 1 British
Greatest Hits
album), and producing over a dozen hit singles on the charts from them, Cher left Geffen Records.

In 1995 she released her thirty-first album,
It’s a Man’s World
—in
Europe only. It was her first album for Reprise Records. Her last four singles never even made the charts in America, but she was currently bigger than ever in England. The
Love Hurts
and
Cher’s Greatest Hits 1965–1992
albums and the singles “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss)” and “Love Can Build a Bridge” were all huge Number 1 records in the United Kingdom in the early 1990s. Yet she had never had a Number 1 album in America and hadn’t scored a Number 1 U.S. hit single since “Dark Lady” laughed and danced its way up the charts in 1975.

Instead of even courting the American musical market, Cher blew off the notoriously fickle and jaded United States and aimed all of her attention at the British marketplace, where she was still considered a musical trendsetter and hit maker. Her decision proved right on target. In America, one lousy review in
Rolling Stone
magazine might sink an album before it was even given a listen.

Cher cultivated the British media by making television appearances aplenty to make sure that everyone in England knew that she had a new album. On December 24, 1995, she was the star of her own UK-only holiday television special,
Christmas with Cher
on the ITV network. On January 9, 1996, she was seen performing the song “One by One” on
National Lottery Live
on BBC1-TV.

The fourteen-cut
It’s a Man’s World
album was released in Europe in time for Christmas 1995, and reached Number 10 in England in February of 1996. It produced four hit singles on the British singles charts: “Walking in Memphis” (Number 11), “One by One” (Number 7), “Not Enough Love in the World,” (Number 31), and “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” (Number 26).

When the American version of
It’s a Man’s World
was released in June of 1996, so many alterations had been made to it that it is not the same album at all. First of all, it was resequenced, some of songs were drastically remixed, dramatic introductions were sheered off, and three of the songs—“I Wouldn’t Treat a Dog (The Way You Treated Me),” “Shape of Things to Come,” and “Don’t Come Around Here Tonight”—were dropped altogether.

For anyone who has only heard the American version of
It’s a Man’s World
, listening to the European one is a real revelation. It is more multi-textured, and has a lot more music on its tracks. “Not Enough Love in the World” has an entirely different feeling to it, featuring Cher singing to sparse and stripped-down tracks with an organ, which is reminiscent of Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” one of her favorite songs.
The original version of “One by One” has very dominant background chorus vocals repeating, among other things, “dear daddy, dear daddy.” There is also a saxophone solo in the middle of the British version that is entirely missing in the American version of the track. “Angels Running” starts off slower with Cher’s voice, and percussion embellishments. It also features stripped-down instrumentation in the beginning, and two musical bridges that are absent from the U.S. release. “What About the Moonlight” likewise has a completely different intro and new musical tracks throughout. The American version has heavier chorus vocals, and the European version has only Cher on the intro with very basic tracks. And the song “Gunman” has Cher reading several verses at the top of the song and at the ending, both of which were removed from its U.S. counterpart. To top it all off, those who purchased the American version of this album missed La Cher on the song “Shape of Things to Come” delivering the sage advice, “Come on baby, get your ass in gear.”

The European version is also very different physically from the subsequent American release entitled
It’s a Man’s World
. When the album was released in the States, Reprise Records bought a full-page full-color advertisement to announce the new Cher LP, presenting a blowup of the Cher-dressed-as-Eve photo. The headline read “It’s a man’s world. Yeah, right” and the name “Cher” spelled out in sleek, hot-pink letters.

According to Cher,
It’s a Man’s World
was a complete departure for her. “[It] was me experimenting with me. I didn’t want to sound like I’ve always sounded on records, because I’m kind of bored with it. Some songs like ‘If I Could Turn Back Time,’ I like, but on a lot of albums, I think I’m kind of pukey! The problem with having a really distinctive voice is that if you like it, great, but if not, people can’t stand [your album,] and you’re blown out of the water the first three songs” (196).

She explained to
Billboard
magazine’s Jim Bessman how she tried to sound like something different than the highly identifiable power-ballad vibrato voice she had promoted on her Geffen Records recordings. “I worked really hard to have more control and not use my vibrato and other things. I didn’t like my voice. It’s still me—you know it’s me, and there’s no getting around it. But on some songs, like ‘One by One’ and ‘The Gunman,’ you don’t know it’s me right away” (196).

It’s a Man’s World
featured songs in an exotic, but generally somber vein. “It’s kind of a sad record,” she admitted. “I have two speeds—really sad and kick ass—but this is a bittersweet kind of album” (196). One of the most effective songs on the album is Cher’s new version of the
Walker Brothers’ 1966 hit, “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore).” She was the first to admit that she was around for the first version of this song. “I’ve been doing this for 32 years now,” she said. “I was there when it hit the first time Sonny and I played with them on TV” (196). Her interpretation of the song had that old Phil Spector feeling to it, creating a distinctive beat and a very “Wall of Sound”–sounding backing track.

To come up with the kind of album that she wanted to record, Cher worked with some of London’s hottest contemporary record producers, including Christopher Neil, Greg Penny, Stephen Lipson, and Trevor Horn. With regard to using four different producers, Cher explained, “I don’t like working with one producer. I like the idea of producers picking songs they like, because that way they do their best job in the songs they pick, whereas if they do the whole album, it seems that they only love their songs, and the rest they just do” (196).

Even in its altered state, it was a shame that this album never caught on in the States since it is undeniably one of the best albums of her career. Unlike her trio of hard-rocking studio albums for Geffen Records,
It’s a Man’s World
is pure pop music, 1990s style. Her singing on it is more controlled and more effectively moody than she had sounded since her
Foxy Lady
album in 1972.

When it was initially released in America, the first pressing of the
It’s a Man’s World
CD was engraved with a “limited edition” hologram of the cover image of Cher as Eve in the Garden of Eden with a ripe red apple and huge live snake draped across her chest and wrapped around her arm. The week of July 13, 1996, the album made its debut on the
Billboard
charts at a promising Number 64, but never made it any higher. That same week, the single “One by One” made it up to its peak, Number 52. The one bright aspect of the release was that the disco remix single version of “One by One” became a Top 10 dance hit for Cher.

It’s a Man’s World
was a hit with Cher’s critics. Stephen Holden wrote in the
New York Times
,

From an artistic standpoint, this soulful collection of grown-up pop songs, a version of which was released in England last November, is the high point of her recording career. Capped by an iconoclastic rendition of “ ‘It’s a Man’s, Man’s, World,” James Brown’s ode to male supremacy, the album evokes the hard emotional lessons learned by a woman who has loved too well, but not wisely. . . . the album suggests that Cher, who has been saddled with the tabloid image of a boy crazy perpetual adolescent, has achieved a kind of emotional maturity (24).

Even fickle
Rolling Stone
magazine described it as “
It’s a Man’s World
, her first in five years, on which her voice sounds better than ever” (61). To promote the album, Cher starred in a stylish video for the song “Walking in Memphis.” However, it went unnoticed in the United States. In Britain, she scored four Top 40 hits; in America she couldn’t even muster one. Not even her crackeijack hot video—of Cher dressed like Elvis Presley himself and singing the song “Walking in Memphis”—sparked any interest in America.

Only her five-cut CD single of “One by One” gave her any visibility in America. In one of the “Americanized” remixes of the song, the American branch of her new record company felt compelled to add a guest solo by rapper Melle Mel in the middle of the song to try to appeal to the stateside audiences. It did little or nothing to help her American record sales on the pop charts.

One of the songs that she was the proudest of was her touching interpretation of the 1991 hit “Walking in Memphis.” In 1999, amid her victorious “Believe” concert tour, Cher was to intro it by saying,

This next song that I’m gonna do has a very sad beginning, but a really cool ending. So, there’s a man—a singer, a really good singer named Marc Cohn, and he did this song called “Walking in Memphis,” and he had a huge hit. And then later—years later, I thought, “I’ll do it.” ’ And I had a huge “bomb.” It was like a major “bomb.” Not exactly like in the infomercial category, but very close to it. I just want to get the reference straight, so everyone knows what I’m talking about (197).

Cher had her own lifelong Elvis Presley fixation, and performing in Memphis at the 1994 Presley tribute made her recording of this song all the more important to her. It was a personal tribute to her initial rock idol. Cher recalled seeing him in concert when she was eleven years old and explained,

Elvis is the definitive rock & roll attitude. He was the real deal, and people have expanded on it, but the baseline was a rebellious guy who looked different. There’s been the Sonny & Cher version of Elvis, the David Bowie version of Elvis, the Marilyn Manson version of Elvis, but basically you’re getting back to a guy who didn’t look the same and had an attitude, and everyone’s just copped on that and done their own version (23).

To complete her Elvis homage, Cher starred in her own video of “Walking in Memphis.” She is seen in the video singing the song as
though she is narrating it. Dressed as a girl singer in fishnets, Cher was filmed sitting on the first step of a Greyhound bus in high heels, looking like a brunette Marilyn Monroe in the publicity stills for the 1956 movie
Bus Stop
. In the rest of the action, Cher is seen as an Elvis impersonator. As a “drag king,” Cher makes a striking man in two-toned shoes, and ultimately in blue suede shoes.

When Chastity Bono interviewed her mother in 1996 for
Advocate
magazine, she asked Cher to describe her
It’s a Man’s World
album. “Oh, I don’t know—who knows what it’s like?” said the modest pop diva. “It’s music. I sing it, you know. It’s too hard for me to say, ‘Oh, it’s a fabulous album!’ Who knows? It’s kind of good though. It doesn’t suck” (26).

Although Cher had asked to be released from Geffen Records, her long-time ally, David Geffen, was quoted in the
New York Times
as having said, “Cher is the proverbial cat with nine lives. She’s really a very delicate piece of machinery. People think she’s tough, but the truth is she’s a pussycat who has had to feign toughness in order to keep from being killed” (24).

Speaking of her recording career up until that point, she was to explain, “As a wife, mother and recording artist who was gigging constantly, I had to juggle so many balls at once that I didn’t have time to think. It’s not been a deep musical career, and I’ve always dressed kind of bizarre. But I think my voice has gotten better, and so has my choice of music” (24).

In between the fall 1995 release of the European version of
It’s a Man’s World
and the June 1996 release of its shorter American version, two very important things happened in Cher’s life: her return to the movies and her fiftieth birthday. First up on her agenda was the film
Faithful
, which opened in New York City on April 3, 1996.

While battling the Epstein-Barr virus, launching an infomercial career, and watching Chastity be bedeviled by the tabloid newspapers, Cher had reportedly turned down two very important films in the late 1980s and early 1990s:
War of the Roses
and
Thelma & Louise
. It is interesting to imagine Cher in both of these films. It was ultimately Kathleen Turner who played the lead in 1989’s
War of the Roses
, a movie about a bitter divorce. And what would have been more interesting than to see Cher play the role played by Susan Sarandon in 1991’s
Thelma & Louise
, or the role played by Geena Davis?

After two cameo roles as herself in
The Player
and
Ready to Wear
, Cher chose as her return to cinema 1996’s
Faithful
. Six years had passed
between
Mermaids
and
Faithful
. What was the big creative gap about? “Well, first of all,” she explained, “I was sick [with Epstein-Barr virus]. Also, it is so hard sometimes having no private life and being in the public eye so much. Being under scrutiny and having every move you make not only talked about but lied about. When you get too hot sometimes, it’s not comfortable” (26). She also felt that she had been juggling too many activities at once. “It seems like I should have enough time for both music and films,” she surmised, “but one usually ends up taking the back seat” (196).