Tomorrow, May 20th, marks the birthday of a pop music icon. Cher. One four-letter name, seven decades of classic hits. It’s unbelieveable to think that she turns eighty today. (Though if you don’t think she looks a day over fifty, that’s because most of her isn’t…)
Cher has enjoyed four British number one singles – ‘I’ve Got You Babe’, ‘The Shoop Shoop Song’, ‘Love Can Build a Bridge’, and ‘Believe’ – and has held records for being the oldest chart-topping female, and for having the longest time-span between her chart-toppers. But what of her other UK chart hits?
To celebrate her big day, here are her five next biggest – five Top 5 hits – covering a whopping thirty-three years…
Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) – #3 in 1966
It’s not really the case that Cher made her name with Sonny Bono and then went solo. Her own chart-career ran concurrently with their partnership, and this record made #3 shortly after ‘I Got You Babe’. Amazingly, this would be Cher’s final Top 3 hit until ‘The Shoop Shoop Song’ in 1991.
While still a solo track, ‘Bang Bang’ was written by Sonny. It is possibly more famous in Nancy Sinatra’s hands, although her version was never released as a single. Cher’s original is a little livelier, with a sort of gypsy troupe backing, but I do think Nancy’s vocals lend the song a more atmospheric edge. Not that it’s a competition!
Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves – #4 in 1971
Through choice or typecasting, Cher traded on her exotic name and heritage (her father was Armenian, her mother was of Cherokee descent) through songs like ‘Half Breed’, ‘Dark Lady’, and most famously ‘Gypsys Tramps and Thieves’.
One of many comebacks for Cher, it was her first hit for five years and gave her a first solo Billboard #1. It tells the story of a girl born in a travelling show, with an appropriately carnivalesque backing band. I was going to call it Cher’s signature song, but a woman with such a long and varied career has several signature hits, one from each decade at least. Let’s call this her signature seventies song.
Dead Ringer for Love (with Meat Loaf) – #5 in 1981
Another comeback single, after a late-seventies slump in her chart fortunes. I am bending the rules a bit, because Cher is not credited by the OCC (meaning she technically went over sixteen years without a British hit), but really. This is Cher’s song every bit as much as it is Meat Loaf’s.
Because ‘Dead Ringer’ wouldn’t be half as good without Cher playing the vampy foil to Meat’s sex-obsessed jock in this Grease-meets-Rocky Horror throwback classic. In truth, she deserves lead-billing alone for delivering the lines I’m lookin’ for anonymous and fleeting satisfaction, I wanna tell my daddy I’ll be missing in action… with such gusto.
I Found Someone – #5 in 1988
Although her 1970s ‘Bob Mackie dress and waist length hair’ look is iconic, Cher really achieved what we now think of as her classic look in the late 1980s. Plus her voice was perfectly suited to an eighties rock-ballad such as this. I think her cannon-straddling turn in ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’ is much better remembered than ‘I Found Someone’, but that charted one place lower in 1989. And I can understand why, as this record is a bit power-ballad-by-numbers. Okay, but not a classic.
‘I Found Someone’ was technically yet another comeback for Cher, giving her a first UK Top 10 (if we discount ‘Dead Ringer’) since ‘Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves’.
Strong Enough – #5 in 1999
In 1998, aged a sprightly fifty-two, Cher enjoyed her biggest ever hit with the lead-single from her twenty-second studio album. That was, of course, ‘Believe’, which I’ve named as one of my Very Best #1s. (In fact, the 1990s are by far her most succesful chart decade.)
‘Believe’s follow-up was even more disco-leaning, and even more of a gay anthem. In ‘Strong Enough’ she calls out a cheating ex: I’ve been losing sleep, And you’ve been going cheap… It certainly owes a debt to ‘I Will Survive’, especially in the string break, but it also holds its own as a great tune. Better than ‘Believe’? Probably not, but it certainly feels a lot less tired from over-exposure. And having mentioned Cher’s iconic ’70s and ’80s looks, can we take a minute to acknowledge how fantastically late-90s the video is!
Happy birthday Cher, then. Who knows, maybe she still has it in her to add to her Top 5 singles list? In 2023, her festive banger ‘DJ Play a Christmas Song’ made #18, making her the oldest female artist to have a UK Top 40 hit (with a new song), and the only solo artist – of any gender – to make the Top 40 in seven consecutive decades. Her chart history has been one of quality over quantity, and it seems there’s plenty of life in the old gal yet!
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Icon. Loved her from I Got You Babe, Bang Bang, Little Man in my pre-charting years. Bang Bang was a banger, so to speak, much as I love Nancy’s version too. Gypsies Tramps & Thieves was a wonderful classic comeback, big fan of that and Dark Lady topped my charts, as did All I Ever Need Is You. Whipping past disco-era Cher’s Take Me Home to Meat Loaf – Deadringer wouldnt have been as big without Cher and she easily should be credited.
My fave Rock-Cher track was Just Like Jesse James, that topped my chart, but If I Could Turn back Time is nearly as good. 90’s cher she topped again for me with One By One, a very untypical Cher song, she went all breathy and it suited her not belting ’em out. Dance-Cher post Believe I’d opt for I Walk Alone a 2013 track that should been a big single hit, not even a video to plug it, and untypical, a new sound that should have clicked, as good as anything she’s done…still an icon, and the Abba and Xmas song phases have kept her going since, ever-morphing!
She seems savvy, and open to following a trend, and therefore stays more relevant, compared to other singers of her generation. Much like Elton John, in a way.
Cher is an icon and a legend. I used to hate Cher’s music due to her voice, but I’ve seen the error of my ways now. I’m not gonna say she has a great voice, but it is a very memorable and unique voice. It’s one that has beaten me into submission. Very few artists sound like her. You’re not mistaking her for anyone else. Autotune was made specifically for her bizarre and quirky voice. And her voice is like a blunt instrument really well suited towards theatrical, Vegasey, campy, glitzy and sparkly and over the top songs that require blunt force trauma and not depth or subtlety.
All of these songs are great. “Dead Ringer for Love” is a total banger. Awesome song. “Am I Strong Enough” and “Believe” were the first songs I ever heard from her as a little kid. “Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves” is so gosh darn catchy. Nancy Sinatra’s version of “Bang Bang” is better but Cher does a very good job on her version too. My personal favourite period for Cher’s music is her AOR/pop rock period in the 80s and that song “I Found Someone” is a good representation of that.
I’ve heard people say Miley Cyrus is the Cher of this generation and I kinda see it, especially in the fact they’ll both go for years without having a hit and then randomly end up having a massive No. 1 smash every once and a while and neither have a really distinct sound of their own and meld their sound well with the times.
Cher sounds like Cher. Give me that over some technically perfect contest winner and day… I see what you’re saying about Miley, but I’d say she needs at least three more comebacks to even be considered with Cher. Going through her discography, I was amazed by how many empty spaces there were, especially in the UK. Between 1971 and 1987 she didn’t chart! Not once! (With the Dead Ringer ft. not technically counting).
Oddly it didnt seem that big a gap at the time! She had a top 10 with Sonny in 1972 while their US TV show was topping ratings there, it was shown in the UK too but didnt really click or stick around, though Dark Lady was a 1974 minor hit and bigger radio hit than it appears from this distance. Her 1979 flirt with disco was covered by Sophie Elllis Bextor in the 2000’s (number 2), and did get radio attention but 1979 was jam packed with one of the most competitive eras of all time and tons of records under-performed including Take Me Home, Elton’s Are You Ready For Love, and European smashes like Ritchie Family’s American Generation – from the Village People YMCA stable! So that huge chart gap didnt seem that big at the time, Cher was always out and about, Meat Loaf and otherwise, along with her gossip mag fodder times with marrying and recording with Greg Allman. I reckon that diversion is what threw her off course, she didnt seem in control of her output!
Dead Ringer For Love is an absolute stone cold classic. It’s a crime Cher wasn’t credited for it.
Agreed 100%!
(Though if you don’t think she looks a day over fifty, that’s because most of her isn’t…) Stewart…this is the reason I read you LOL…
She is a survivor no doubt. Every single time she was written off…she would come back with a timely hit. I still can’t believe her and Gregg Allman were married…odd couple if their ever was one. I’ve told people…when we are all gone from this mortal coil…Keith Richards and Cher will remain.