Heart of Stone is the twentieth studio album by American singer-actress Cher, released on June 19, 1989 by Geffen Records. The RIAA certified it Double Platinum in 1990 and later Triple Platinum in 1998. The album was supported by her 1989 sold-out Heart of Stone Tour.

Album information

Heart of Stone was released in 1989 and was her second studio album for Geffen Records. As with her previous album Cher, Peter Asher, Jon Bon Jovi, Diane Warren, Guy Roche and Desmond Child performed songwriting and/or producing duties. Bonnie Tyler and Michael Bolton performed background vocals on the song Emotional Fire, which was an outtake from Bolton's 1987 album The Hunger, as was "Starting Over" (Demo versions of the song exist in bootleg form). The album was recorded in late 1988/early 1989, during the third year of Cher's relationship to Rob Camilletti, to whom she dedicated the album.

Heart of Stone reached number 10 in the U.S., number 7 in the UK, and by topping the charts in Australia, Heart of Stone became Geffen's first international number 1 album. Her 20th studio album, it was the first in her career to go top 10 in the U.S. (though she would go on to have two more, Believe and Living Proof). It peaked at #10 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart for sales of 209,000.

The album was first released with artwork, and later re-released with more conventional studio photos. The original was a painting by Octavio Ocampo, featuring Cher sitting beside a stone heart, creating the illusion of a skull (see infobox picture). The artwork was changed shortly after its release, making copies with the original artwork collector's items.

She recorded two other songs for the album, "Don't Come Cryin' to Me" and "Some Guys", but neither made the final cut. A remixed version of "Don't Come Cryin' to Me" was included on the Geffen compilation album If I Could Turn Back Time: Cher's Greatest Hits. The reissue of that album, per Cher's request, does not include the song. A demo version of "Some Guys" was included on the "If I Could Turn Back Time" 7- and 12-inch singles.

"Heart of Stone" and "If I Could Turn Back Time" were both slightly remixed for the single. The "Heart of Stone" remix is available on CD on the compilation If I Could Turn Back Time: Cher's Greatest Hits issued by Geffen Records.

The album produced three top ten hits as well as a top twenty hit with the title track.

Credits

Personnel

*Cher - lead vocals

*Louis Merlino - vocals

*Peter Cetera - vocals

*Michael Bolton - background vocals

*Desmond Child - background vocals

*Patty Darcy Jones - background vocals

*Bonnie Tyler - background vocals

*Diane Warren - background vocals

*Waddy Wachtel guitar on "Heart of Stone", "Love on a Rooftop" and "After All".

Production

*Michael Bolton - record producer

*Desmond Child - record producer

*Jon Lind - record producer

*Sir Arthur Payson - record producer

*Frank Wolf - record producer

Certifications, peaks and sales

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

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