The Very Best of Cher is a 2003 compilation album by Cher. The album includes many of Cher's most popular songs, such as "If I Could Turn Back Time", "Believe", "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves", and "Take Me Home". It debuted at #4 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart (like her 1998 album, Believe) with sales of 219,000 copies its first week.

Album information

The Very Best of Cher was released by Warner Bros. Records, MCA, and Geffen Records. The original U.S. Edition features 21 tracks, while the various later-on released editions typically feature more songs or different selections.

The album originally coincided with the Living Proof: The Farewell Tour, and went on to sell over 3 million copies. The album cover picture is also seen on the DVD Cher: The Farewell Tour Live in Miami and was originally planned to be the DVD cover of The Very Best of Cher: The Video Hits Collection as well (but was changed last minute).

Production and credits

*Producers: Sonny Bono , Peter Asher, Michael Bolton, Desmond Child, Bob Esty, Snuff Garrett, Steve Lipson, Giorgio Moroder, Brian Rawling, Guy Roche, Bob Rock, Mark Taylor, Diane Warren, Richie Zito

*Executive producer: Cher

*Compilation producer: David MacLees

*Remastering: Bill Inglot, Dan Hersch

*Remixing: Junior Vasquez

*Editorial supervision: Sheryl Farber

*Annotation: Steve Woolard

*Art direction: Jeri Heiden

*Art direction: Hugh Brown

*Design: Barrie Goshko

*Photography: Sonny Bono

*Photography: Norman Seeff

*Photography: Harry Langdon

*Photography: Kevyn Aucoin

*Project assistant: Leigh Hall

*Project assistant: April Milek

*Project assistant: Randy Perry

*Project assistant: Tim Scanlin

*Liner notes: Kurt Loder

Charts

Weekly charts

* The album debuted on the Billboard 200 on April 19, 2003 at number 7, with sales of approximately 122,000 copies. It spent 51 weeks on the chart.

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

Category:2003 compilation albums

Category:Greatest hits albums

Category:Cher compilation albums

Category:Double compilation albums

Category:Warner Bros. Records compilation albums

es:The Very Best of Cher

it:The Very Best of Cher

lt:The Very Best of Cher

no:The Very Best of Cher

pt:The Very Best of Cher

Artist/Band Information

Cher (; born Cherilyn Sarkisian, May 20, 1946) is a long-time American #1 Billboard Hot 100 and Grammy Award winning recording artist, Emmy Award winning television personality, multiple Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Cannes Film Festival award winning actress, director, record producer and dedicated philanthropist. With a career spanning over six decades and referred to as the Goddess of Pop,

she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in film, music and television. She is the only person in history to have received all of these awards. Cher began her career as a backup singer and later came to prominence as one half of the pop rock duo Sonny & Cher with the success of their song "I Got You Babe" in 1965. She subsequently established herself as a solo recording artist, and became a television star in 1971 with The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, a variety show for which she won a Golden Globe. A well received performance in the film Silkwood earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1984. In the following years, Cher starred in a string of hit films including Mask, The Witches of Eastwick, and Moonstruck, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1988.

Cher, throughout her long career, has broken many records. She is the only artist to reach the number one on the Billboard charts in each of the previous six decades, and also holds this record for four and five decades.http Her hit dance single "Believe" is her biggest-selling recording and was the best-selling single of 1999, Billboard. Retrieved March 23, 2009. having sold over 10 million copies worldwide. Undercover.com.au. September 9, 2003. Archived from the original November 12, 2005. She holds the Hot 100 record for the longest hit-making career span, with 33 years between the release of her first and most recent Billboard Hot 100 #1 singles, in 1965 and 1999 and 45 years between her first and most recent #1 ranking on any Billboard chart Cher ended her 3-year-long "Farewell Tour" in 2005 as the most successful tour by a female solo artist of all time. Biography Channel. Retrieved March 23, 2009. With a career lasting over 45 years, Cher has sold over 100 million records worldwide. After a three-year hiatus and retirement from touring, Cher returned to the stage in February 2008 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas where she performed her show Cher at the Colosseum until February 2011. Cher has a deep contralto vocal range.

Early life

Cher was born Cherilyn Sarkisian

in El Centro, California, on May 20, 1946, at 7:25 a.m. Her father, John Paul Sarkisian, was Armenian American and worked as a truck driver. Her mother, Georgia Holt (born Jackie Jean Crouch. in Sharp County, Arkansas on June 9, 1927), an aspiring actress and occasional model, is of Melungeon, Cherokee, English, and French descent. Cher's half sister is actress Georganne LaPiere. Cher's parents divorced and she was raised primarily by her mother, who at one time was married to Gilbert LaPiere, a banker who adopted Cher. Due to financial problems, Cher's mother temporarily placed her in foster care. Later, her mother provided money for acting lessons to help further her career. Due to severe, undiagnosed dyslexia, she left Fresno High School at age 16. In those years, Cher had a brief relationship with actor Warren Beatty.

Career

1962–1964: Early career

Sonny Bono, 11 years her senior, was working for record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood. Sonny and Cher became inseparable friends, eventual lovers, and later married. Through Sonny, Cher started as a session singer in 1963, and sang backup on several of Spector’s classic recordings, including The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Loving Feeling", Darlene Love's "A Fine, Fine Boy," The Crystals' "Da Doo Ron Ron" and The Ronettes’ "Be My Baby". In the composition by Darlene Love, the listener can clearly hear Cher and Sonny close to the microphone (along with Love, who recorded her own backing vocals). Her first solo recording was the unsuccessful single "Ringo, I Love You", released under the pseudonym of Bonnie Jo Mason and produced by Phil Spector. Her second attempt was "Dream Baby," released under the name "Cherilyn" and written and produced by Sonny Bono. Both were released in 1964. With Sonny continuing to write, arrange and produce the songs, Sonny and Cher’s first incarnation was as the duo "Caesar and Cleo." They received little attention, despite releasing the single "The Letter" in late 1964 which featured the B-side "Baby Don't Go".

1965–1969: Career development

Sonny-and-Cher.jpgthumb221pxleftCher with Sonny in 1966.

Before being known as Sonny and Cher, the duo released an album under the name of "Caesar and Cleo." The first "Sonny and Cher" album, Look At Us, was released in the summer of 1965. This album contained the overnight smash single "I Got You Babe" which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1965.. Billboard.com. Cher was 19 years old, Sonny 30. A re-released "Baby Don't Go" peaked at #8.. Billboard.com. Several more mid-level hits followed, notably "Just You," "But You're Mine", "What Now My Love" and "Little Man", before "The Beat Goes On" returned the duo to the Top 10. Sonny and Cher charted eleven Billboard Top 40 hits between 1965 and 1972, including six Top 10 hits.

The duo became a sensation, traveling and performing around the world. Following an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in the fall of 1965 in which Sullivan had infamously mispronounced her name 'Chur' during their introduction, the singer began spelling her name with an acute accent mark: Chér—a typographical feature she maintained through 1974. The couple soon appeared on other hit television shows of the era including American Bandstand, Top of the Pops, Hollywood A Go-Go, Podunk, Hollywood Palace, Hullabaloo, Beat Club, Ready Steady Go! and Shindig