Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Trivia Corner: Mr. Mister Cher


In the mid to late 80s, Cher was cranking out a healthy dose of pop rock and AOR with the help of some big league players in game at the time. Her 1991 effort "Love Hurts", for example, features songs by Diane Warren and Desmond Child and production by Richie Zito and Bob Rock, staples of many a hairband.

Other familiar guests to melodic rockers will recognize the work and backing vocals of Richard Page (Mr. Mister) on the hit track "Save Up All Your Tears" and her duet, "One Small Step". "World Without Heroes" has songwriters as diverse as Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons (Kiss) and Lou Reed, with Steve Lukather on guitar (Toto) and Richard Marx on backing vocals - can you imagine all those folks in the same studio at the same time? Steve actually lends his guitar talents to many tracks on this CD. AOR master Kevin Chalfant is also credited for the track "Who You Gonna Believe".

Finally, we have a cover of the Nazareth classic, "Love Hurts" featuring Gunnar Nelson on backing vocals and Jeff Porcaro on drums. If you were a fan of Heart or any other artist/songwriter here, this CD might be worth a second listen.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've heard the Chalfant version....which came out a few years back on the reissue of his The V.U. project that also had Ross Valory and a couple of other folks pre-The Storm....I REALLY like that one...probably one of my favorite Chalfant tunes.

Always have wanted to hear the Cher version. Will hunt that one down!

Anonymous said...

Grew up with this album. It's corny, never subtle, and brilliant.