Review: Sonny & Cher, Collector’s Edition

We, Gentle Reader, were a family that listened to music together as well as watching TV together, and even tho we didn’t agree on everything we took in as a family, there were a few shows and artists we all loved for whatever reasons we each loved them individually.

The Sonny and Cher Show was one of those few shows we all enjoyed, and those evenings Mom, Dad and I sat giggling at their antics are some of my fonder memories.

Dad would leer at Cher through the bottom of his martini glass, and make quiet remarks about Sonny’s sexuality - but from time to time, items similar to what Sonny wore onstage would find their way into Dad’s wardrobe.

 

Mom was a buxom woman who occassionally mentioned fatigue caused by lugging around her 38-D’s when we went hiking. She would also leer at Cher - for a different reason - and more than once, I heard her mutter under her breath “I wish I had her figure, and she had warts on her nose.”

And on one evening, after a couple glasses of wine, she even added “and I wish I had him, too,” which got Dad to cock an eyebrow to a dangerous angle but not much more. If I recall, that was slightly before Sonny’s clothes started showing up in Dad’s closet.

As I said, we each had our own motive - but often as not, we’d end up singing along when that pair of songbirds rolled out something we knew the words to. It made for some very Leave It To Beaver-ish evenings that remembering still brings a smile to my face, and perhaps a slight glow of embarrassment when I think of all the spring and fall windows-open evenings which must have been very entertaining for the neighbors. We were not even karaoke grade.

Cher was my favorite of the duo, in no small part due to her good natured “kiss my skinny ass” attitude; even early in her career, she was a considerable diva of the first water.

She’s also a skilled vocalist with a unique, powerful yet seductive voice and a style that has been imitated by many but never quite duplicated.

The Sonny and Cher Show was a fine vehicle indeed to bring some light hearted mirth into a landscape filled with world strife - and I’ve always felt a sense of gratitude to both of these interesting personalities for doing so.

Cher has some good marks in the film world as well - Silkwood and Mask come immediately to mind - her seamless renditions of a biker chick and a lesbian are both just fine.

I suppose it’s time to get back to the matter at hand - the tin box bearing the label Collector’s Edition.

I’ll mention the things I dislike most about it first, since that will let me close on a postive note.

The packaging is an odd combination of environmentally friendly and don’t-give-a-shit; C-E comes in a large tin box, inside which the slim mostly-cardboard CD package rattles around. In fact, it can rattle around hard enough to shake loose the discs and scratch them - I had to exchange my first copy, and inspected the 2nd before leaving the store. You should, too, to avoid an exchange.

And inside the real package itself is a dog’s breakfast: Two of the discs are Atlantic’s FlashBack label, one of which isn’t labeled with tracks. The 3rd is an MCA product which also bears the “Universal” logo near the hub - and was probably job-shopped out to a low bidder, a bad habit MCA and Universal both share.

On the happier side of things, all the tracks sound great - which is often not the case with 1960s and 1970s artists who weren’t too careful about where master tapes went.

None of the tracks have been “over re-engineered,” which means they don’t sound as artificially bright as some oldies re-released on compact disc do. They’ve been cleaned up just the right amount, and thus sound reasonably close to what they should sound like.

But the real beauty here is the selection of the versions of the tunes. Hectic physical attributes aside, C-E holds a nice mix of the very best - some are the album versions, others are the television versions, others are the Top-40 mixes. And they’re all wonderful.

There are a couple true gems here.

When You Say Love - which most are probably more familiar with lyrics touting Bud beer, as in “when you say Bud,” is the creamy yet folksy album version, and showcases just how well Sonny’s and Cher’s voices gelled, at the height of their career as a duet.

Amusingly, there aren’t many digital copies of this floating around, because during the infancy of the compact disc, And-How’s-Yer-Busch owned the rights.

Equally delightful is I Got You Babe, which is presented in it’s “medium” length - a nice studio cut which was, I believe, originally the one Sonny and Cher lip-synched to during their television debut.

Another treat-track is an odd one, A Cowboy’s Work Is Never Done, which is a superb little ditty with a faux country feel mixed with Cher’s gypsy-funk style.

It’s rumply tune with steel drums, some odd keyboard work, and with lyrics pertinent to absolutely nothing in the Sonny and Cher ’scape except Sonny’s short-term infatuation with cowboy hats and snappy belts. One of the best ways to describe Sonny’s general approach to life are those 3 words: short-term infatuation.

But perhaps the best is the live version of The Beat Goes On, on the MCA (3rd) disc - it’s a very, very clean recording that makes it easy to imagine a decent nightclub around you when you close your eyes, and the bantering back and forth between Sonny and Cher is both heartwarming and humorous. And it explains them perfectly - a pair of headstrong, very talented people.

Because of its packaging, it’s a hard disc set to recommend unless you can physically inspect the copy you plan to take home with you - don’t order it online, it’s too susceptible to shipping damage. But speaking musically, if you’re a Sonny and Cher fan, it’s a hard compilation to beat.

Call your local music bottler - the UPC is 6 28261 32112 4 and the whole thing comes in a 6″ x 6″ x 1.5″ gold colored tin box.

~ pagemonkey