The one song Cher couldn’t live without: “One of my all-time favourite songs”
You can’t imagine Cher not living in a world of complete overindulgent excess – but in many ways, it’s the only correct status befitting of such a cultural icon as grand as she. It doesn’t seem, at least in a public lens, that the century-defining diva has much of the ‘make, do, and mend’ spirit in her soul, yet stripped back to her bare bones, maybe there’s more to Cher than meets the eye.
Of course, over the past unbelievable seven decades, the singer has racked up more than enough hits to go around, and equally in this sense, she has been the goddess that has seen every type of wannabe musician come and go, from the bonafide megastars to the twinkling trinkets. When you’ve witnessed so much, you must develop one hell of an acerbic eye over what songs actually stay with you and continue to move you in some way – but in Cher’s case, there’s one undeniable definitive answer.
As she recently told Desert Island Discs, armed with just the Bible, an eyelash curler, and one special tune, she feels she would be able to get by. With only that to defend her against the elements, she may think this island escape is more along the lines of her turn in Mamma Mia 2, but we’ll let it slide as her choice of song is still an absolute classic. That was the one and only ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ by Sam Cooke.
Cher reflected: “Sonny [Bono, former husband] and Sam Cooke were really good friends. I would say ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ is like, one of my all-time favourite songs. Like, there are some people you know that their voice comes from some other place.”
There’s not much you can argue with that. Indeed, that voice of Cooke’s on the track came from 1964, now over 60 years old, but is still every bit as resonant and stirring as it ever was then. Charting a beacon to the American civil rights movement, ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ depicts Cooke’s experiences of racism in being turned away from a white-only motel and hoping for better days ahead. It struck one of the most significant chords in terms of both the musical and cultural landscapes of all time, and left many, Cher a personal acquaintance among them, revelling in its wake.
Speaking to its irreplicable transcendency, she said: “It will be a song that I will never get tired of listening to,” setting her up perfectly for her intrepid voyage. Well, maybe more in her imagination, but nonetheless her choice is clear. It may not be the instant sonic companion to the likes of ‘Believe’, but ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ is evidently a song that tracks the beats of Cher’s life and career in a way that no other could.
Cooke’s posthumous legacy in the song was one that spoke to shifts in society – Cher, as a cultural icon and activist herself, can attest to that. But in many ways this also possibly reflects just exactly what the song means to her: stardom means very little if it doesn’t have soul.
