Which Cher song held the number one spot for the longest?
There’s no question that Cher stands as rock and pop’s ultimate survivor.
Kylie Minogue and Madonna come close, but for sheer longevity and dogged connection to music’s ever-evolving trends, Cher towers above them as the perennial success story. Now a veritable icon of the LGBTQ+ world and forever raking in millions with her opulent and flamboyant live spectacles, Cher seems gifted with a mystical permanence, helped in no small part by copious amounts of surgery, but bolstered largely by a songbook that continues to enjoy respectable chart success.
Indeed, with over 100million claimed records sold behind her, Cher holds the remarkable distinction of standing as the only solo star to enjoy Billboard number ones across seven consecutive decades.
It was all so different in the mid-1960s. Long before gaudy costumes and peacock headdresses that would make Liberace look dressed down, Cher’s duetting with singing husband and future republican congressman Sonny Bono would mark a shifting of the pop winds that anticipated the broader countercultural bloom. Albeit planted in the novelty realm, ‘I Got You Babe’ and ‘The Beat Goes On’ would help score the sign o’ the times, Cher’s stylistic but earthy hippy flair cutting a unique look amid a popshere still sporting beehives.
Across the 1970s, unfortunate Cherokee fashion plundering would accompany numbers like ‘Half-Breed’, but she soldiered through the decade with CBS comedy hours, high-profile TV duets with David Bowie, and a second marriage to Gregg Allman would push her deeper into the rock world. Yet, while boasting hits, Cher was eager for more commercial attention.
Wading through punk and new wave misfires, forging a second career in Hollywood across the 1980s brought Cher to a new generation and set the stage for her major comeback. Soaking up the day’s hair metal and power balladry, ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’ saw Cher standing shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Bon Jovi, the navy cavorting video doing the rounds on MTV.
It was here that Cher’s indomitable presence would be cemented. She entered the 1990s strongly, with the theme to her starring romantic-comedy Mermaids and Merry Clayton cover ‘The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss)’, enjoying a healthy five weeks at the UK charts in 1991. It would be another seven years, however, before Cher would strike gold and arguably unleash her defining hit.
So, which song held the number one spot the longest?
Not content with the other UK number one with ‘Love Can Build a Bridge’, Cher jumped into the world of electronic dance in 1998 to cut the shimmering, Auto-Tuned euphoria of ‘Believe’, a creative U-turn for Cher after a long career of stylistic detours.
And it was a monster. Topping the charts in 23 countries, ‘Believe’ would enjoy four weeks at the premier spot of the US Billboard Hot 100, and stay put for a staggering seven weeks in the ever-faithful UK charts. At 52 years old, Cher had dropped a number that stood equal to ‘I Got You Babe’ as an essential number of her esteemed songbook and an enduring live finale or encore number ever since.
