Chér is the seventh studio album by American singer-actress Cher, released in September 1971 by Kapp Records. For this album, Cher left her husband Sonny Bono to produce the album, and for the first time she collaborated with Snuff Garrett and with Al Capps for the arrangements. The album was retitled after the success of the single of the same name. It received positive reviews from critics, and RIAA certified it Gold on July 2, 1972. The album was her first and most successful album of the seventies. Two singles were released from the album, "The Way of Love" and "Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves", both reaching the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Background
After the failures of the previous albums, Cher signed a contract with Kapp-MCA Records in 1971. Kapp and MCA were the labels with which Cher had more success in the seventies and she remained with them until 1974. Johnny Musso of Kapp Records thought that Garrett and Cher would work well together and decided to team them up. This time Garrett was introduced to redesign the Cher sound for her first comeback. The album was initially released under the name of Chér in September, and later re-released and retitled as Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves due to the success of the first single. Its success followed the debut of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, which premiered on CBS in August 1971 as a summer series. This was also due to Cher's new image, as she dropped her hippie attire and began being dressed by fashion designerBob Mackie, who emphasized her exotic looks and made her one of the most fashionable and glamorous women of the 70s.
Composition and recording
The opening track of the album is "The Way of Love", a cover song originally by Kathy Kirby. Other covers are "Fire and Rain" and "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother". The rest of the album includes narrative ballads. During the recording session, three other songs were recorded, "Classified 1-A", "Don't Put It On Me" and "Gentle Foe". The first two were added in the UK version of the album, and later released as a single in the US. "Don't Put It On Me" was added as a bonus track on the official 8-track tape of this album that closed program four. In 2000, "Classified 1-A" appeared as a bonus track on the album not.com.mercial. "Gentle Foe" was used in 1971 as a soundtrack for the documentary Once Upon a Wheel, but remains unreleased.
Release
The album was originally released in 1971. In 1992 it was released on CD for the first time. In August 1999, the US version of the album was re-issued on Universal Records and in the UK in 1993 the original album and Cher's next studio album Foxy Lady were re-issued together on one CD called Cher/Foxy Lady, which features all of the tracks from both albums. "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves", the album's first single release, reached #1 in the Billboard Hot 100 and #4 on the UK Singles Chart. "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" was her first number one in the US as a solo artist on both the Billboard Hot 100 chart and the Adult Contemporary chart; it also reached #1 in Canada and Japan. The song was performed live on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, featuring Cher dressed as a gypsy wearing a huge wig singing in front of a wagon. The second and last single was the opening track "The Way of Love". It peaked at #7 in the US, #2 in the Adult Contemporary chart and #5 in Canada. The song's melody sounds very similar to the melody of the 1970 hit "It's Impossible" by Perry Como. Both tracks were performed on numerous Cher tours.
Critical reception
Chér received mostly positive reviews from music critics. Joe Viglione of AllMusic described the album's songs as "middle-of-the road pop", and called Chér a "good album with some great moments". He also wrote that "Cher never minded androgynous or neutral gender identity in her songs" and musically "her solo material could soar to heights not possible in a partnership — "The Way of Love" being one example". Rolling Stone said that "Cher does possess one of the distinctive voices in popular music today" and about the album, "Here she gets some lush orchestral frameworks within which to tell her story".
Commercial success
Chér debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 194 in late September 1971. During 1972 sales reached 500,000 copies in North America, and it was certified gold by the RIAA. The album became one of Cher's biggest hits at the time and the lead single was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Pop Female Vocalist". The album also charted in the Canadian album chart and reached number 14. In Europe it charted only in the Norway album chart, failing to enter the UK Albums Chart. It also peaked on the Australian albums chart at number 43.
