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!