1969 Wasn't A Good Year For Cher

Guess the address and win a prize!

In 1969 (scribes Steve Shark), Cher's relationship with Sonny Bono was becoming strained, the counter culture demographic rejected them as being too unhip with their anti-drug and pro-monogamy position, their record label dropped the duo, Cher's label dropped her, and they ended up owing the taxman the equivalent of $1.5 million today after a failed movie venture.

Fortunately, in the middle of all this, Cher managed to snag a record deal with the label that dropped her and Sonny - ATCO. The couple's management saw this as a way of rekindling interest in the duo. However, the album was poorly received by the public, although the critics liked it, and she never cut another album for ATCO. Sonny didn't like it either - probably because Sonny wasn't involved...

In the end, it was variety television and cabaret that kept their careers going, with Cher as the smart and feisty wisecracking singer and Sonny as the butt of her jokes. Some renewed recording success eventually followed, but by 1977, the duo had broken up - professionally and personally.

The point of all this? That 1969 ATCO Cher solo album - 3614 Jackson Highway. Named after the first Muscle Shoals Sound studio and featuring its founders and house band, Barry Beckett, Roger Hawkins, Jimmy Johnson and David Hood, amongst others, it was the first album recorded there, although the band had been on many hits already. Later in 1969, the Stones would visit and record some of the "Sticky Fingers" album, achieving rather more success than Cher. The Muscle Shoals story is a fascinating one in its own right.

I'm not going to say much about the album - if you like early Cher and/or Atlantic type soul, then there's a fair chance you'll enjoy it as much as I do.

To hear the album the way it was originally intended, play the first 6 tracks, wait 5 seconds and then play the next 5 tracks. This will give you the "vinyl experience". It's a short album - 33 minutes, 11 tracks and it's job done. You may want to repeat the process.

There's a great choice of material, including the best ever cover by anyone of Dylan's I Threw It All Away, a radical revamp of For What It's Worth with a lovely dobro part and a smouldering version of Do Right Woman, Do Right Man with some great piano from Barry Beckett.

I think it's the best thing she ever did - 11 well-chosen songs, her voice was strong and confident, the session players were top notch and it was produced by Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin.

It reached the dizzy heights of #160 in the US charts...